Who was Maharishi Bhrigu??

A lot has been written about Maharishi Bhrigu in the Puranas. He is one of the most influential, proven and famous sages of India. He was the younger brother of Supreme Father Brahma and Maharishi Angira and was born in present-day Ballia (Uttar Pradesh).

He is also a Prajapati and at many places in the later Manvantaras of Swayambhu Manu, he is also counted among the Saptarishis. Their descendants later came to be known as Bhargavas and from them also came the Bhriguvanshis. Shri Parshuram, the sixth incarnation of Narayan, was also born in his lineage and was called Bhriguvanshi.

He is considered a great expert in astrology and is the father of modern astrology. He composed the famous “Bhrigu Samhita” which is considered to be the best work of astrology. It is described in Manu Smriti that Maharishi Bhrigu was the friend and advisor of Swayambhu Manu. It is also said that he had helped Manudev a lot while composing Manusmriti.

He first established his ashram on the border of present-day Haryana and Rajasthan. According to Skandapuran, he later built his new ashram on the banks of river Narmada in present-day Bharuch (Gujarat).

Maharishi Bhrigu’s first marriage was with “Divya” (also known as Kavyamata), daughter of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, from whom he had two sons – “Kavya Shukra” and “Tvashta Vishwakarma”. His first son became a great scholar and like his father, he became a great scholar of astrology and astronomy.

He received the title of Acharya in his maternal family and became famous by the name of Shukracharya. On the request of Daityaraj, he assumed the title of Daityaguru. He had a long-standing rivalry with Brihaspati, the guru of the gods. He was an ardent devotee of Lord Shankar and by doing severe penance, he acquired the knowledge of Mrityanjeevani from him, with the help of which he could revive the soldiers who died in the war.

It was because of them that the demon kingdom was saved from destruction. His daughter Devayani was later married to Yayati and from him came the entire royal family.

The second son of Maharishi Bhrigu was the best craftsman. Like his name, his skill was also similar to that of Dev Vishwakarma. Just as Vishwakarma was the chief architect of the gods, similarly Tvashta Vishwakarma also became the chief architect of the demons and became famous in the world by the name of May. Later, his daughter Mandodari was married to the demon king Ravana. He also built Indraprastha city of Yudhishthir in Mahabharata.

Maharishi Bhrigu’s second marriage was with “Poulami”, daughter of the demon lord Pulom. From them he got two sons who later became great sages. The name of his first son was “Chyavan” who was a great expert in medicine. He had received this knowledge from Ashwini Kumar who was his guru.

In order to humiliate the Ashwinikumars during the Yagya, he had insulted Indra by committing a terrible act.

His second son became Richika, the best among the sages. Like his father, he was as bright and knowledgeable in all the scriptures. The son of this Richika was Maharishi Jamdagni who took over the position of Vice Chancellor of Haihaya dynasty kings. Lord Vishnu incarnated as Ram, the youngest son of Maharishi Jamdagni, who later became known as Parashuram. In this way, Shri Hari himself was born in the family of Maharishi Bhrigu in the form of Parashuram.

Maharishi Bhrigu’s third marriage was with “Khyati”, daughter of Prajapati Daksh and Manukanya Prasuti. From fame he got two sons named “Dhaata” and “Vidhaata” and a daughter named “Lakshmi”. Another name of Lakshmi was Sri and she chose Narayana as her husband. In this way Maharishi Bhrigu also became the father-in-law of Lord Vishnu. Later, in an attempt to test the Trinity, he hit the chest of Shri Hari Vishnu with his feet.

There is a description in Shiva Purana and Vayu Purana that when Daksh Prajapati organized a Mahayagya to insult Lord Shiva, Maharishi Bhrigu was present in that yagya. When everyone saw that Daksh had not invited Mahadev, Bhrigu along with Maharishi Kashyap warned Daksh that this yagya could not be successful without Mahadev. But due to pride, Daksh ignored his words. The result was that Sati, seeing her husband’s insult, committed suicide in the same Yankund.

When Maharudra came to know about this, he created Veerbhadra and sent him to eliminate Daksha. When Daksh came to know about this, he sought help from Maharishi Bhrigu. Then Bhrigu said – “O Prajapati! Now no one else in the three worlds can protect you.

But if you are satisfied with the army itself, then I will give you an army of 1 crore warriors.” Saying this, Bhrigu created 10000000 fierce warriors with the power of his mantra and departed from that Yagya. However, his help was of no use because Veerbhadra destroyed all those warriors.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna tells Arjuna that Maharishi Bhrigu represents the good fortune and progress of the gods. “Bhrigu Samhita” written by Maharishi Bhrigu is one of the most famous and important texts of Hindu religion. In this book, he has written a way to know someone’s future by calculating the movement of planets and constellations. He also took the help of Shri Ganesh in writing this book. After him, his son Shukracharya received this knowledge from him.

It is said that in this book Maharishi Bhrigu himself had included the predictions of 500000 contemporary people. Not only this, if calculations are done with the art of Maharishi Bhrigu, then he can tell about 45000000 (four crore fifty lakh) calculations. Unfortunately, most of this text was destroyed and the Bhrigu Samhita available to us today is only a small part of that great text.

The most important event in the life of Maharishi Bhrigu was taking the test of the Trinity. Once there was a disagreement among the scholars as to who was the best among the Trinity. For this, the difficult task of testing the Trinity was assigned to Maharishi Bhrigu. A detailed article about this has already been presented on Manas Amrit which you can read. Apart from this, Maharishi Bhrigu has also been described as a part of the Saptarishis.