Garga (sage)
Garga is a male Indian name. It is a sage name who did "nam karan" to lord Sri Krishna. It is found in Vedic and Puranic literature.[1] In Vedic literature, Garga is either related to Bharadvaja or Angiras. Some ancient Jyotisha (time keeping, astronomy) texts are attributed to Garga. He is presented as belonging to the Yadavas and a part of King Prithu mythology. His passages have been quoted by Max Muller as a part of his evidence that time keeping using constellations was a part of the Vedic era knowledge.[2] A Sanskrit text on astronomy dated to about 1st-century CE is called Garga samhita.[3]
Garga also appears in medieval era literature. For example, one sage Garga is the student of Lakulisha and is credited with founding one of the subsects of Pashupata Shaivism.[4]
References
- ^ Thaneswar Sarmah (1991). The Bharadvājas in Ancient India. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 123–124. ISBN 978-81-208-0639-9.
- ^ Friedrich Max Müller (1862). On Ancient Hindu Astronomy and Chronology. Oxford University Press. pp. 37–60.
- ^ Gargasaṃhitā, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- ^ Roshen Dalal (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6.