Bhriguभृगु

Bhrigu walked up to the sleeping Vishnu and kicked him in the chest.

The sages at Naimisharanya had a question — which of the Trimurti was greatest — and, being sages, they resolved to settle it empirically. Bhrigu was sent to find out.

He went to Brahma and did not bow; Brahma was offended. He went to Shiva at Kailasa and was refused entry because Shiva was with Parvati; Shiva was angry. Then he went to Vaikuntha, where Vishnu lay asleep with Lakshmi at his feet, and Bhrigu — to see what would happen — put his foot on the god's chest.

Vishnu woke, sat up, and took the sage's foot in his hands and began to massage it, apologising that his chest was hard and might have hurt him.

Bhrigu declared Vishnu the greatest and went home. And Vishnu kept the mark of the foot on his chest — the Bhrigu Lanchhan, which is one of the readings of the Shrivatsa, the curl on Vishnu's breast in every image of him.

It is one of the strangest tests in religious literature: a man assaults God to see how he reacts, and the answer is that God asks whether he hurt his foot.

But the story does not end there, and the part that usually gets left off is the better part. Lakshmi, watching her husband's chest struck and her husband apologise for it, was furious — and she left. The Venkateshwara page carries where she went and what Vishnu did to get her back, which is why there is a temple at Tirumala that receives more pilgrims than almost anywhere on earth.

Bhrigu is also very old, and much larger than this one story. He is a Rigvedic sage and the ancestor of the Bhargavas — Shukra, who taught the asuras; Chyavana; Jamadagni; and so Parashurama. He is credited with the Bhrigu Samhita, a foundational text of Indian astrology. And he is the sage whose beard Virabhadra tore out at Daksha's sacrifice.

In the Rig Veda, the Bhrigus are a clan rather than a man — a family of priests closely associated with fire. It is the Bhrigus who are said to have found Agni and brought him to humankind, and the name is bracketed with the Angirases and the Atharvans in the oldest hymns. Comparisons with the Greek Phlegyas and with other Indo-European fire-bringers have been made and remain speculative.

As a Prajapati. In the Brahmanas and Puranas Bhrigu becomes an individual, mind-born of Brahma, one of the Saptarishi in several reckonings and one of the Prajapatis in most. The Daksha page lists the company.

The Bhargavas. His descendants are one of the two or three most consequential lineages in Sanskrit literature. Shukra (Ushanas Kavya) becomes preceptor of the asuras and holder of the sanjivani; Chyavana is the sage rejuvenated by the Ashvini Kumaras; Richika and then Jamadagni; and Jamadagni's son is Parashurama, who clears the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times. A substantial thread of the Mahabharata concerns Bhargava–kshatriya conflict, and some scholars have argued that the epic itself passed through Bhargava hands in its redaction.

The test of the Trimurti appears in the Padma Purana and in the Bhagavata's tenth canto, and is a sectarian composition — it is a Vaishnava story, and it exists to reach a Vaishnava conclusion. Shaiva and Shakta traditions have their own arrangements of the same question, and the Lingodbhava and Sharabha pages carry two of them. This encyclopedia records the story and its purpose together, as it does for the others.

The Bhrigu Samhita is attributed to him: a corpus of nadi astrology said to contain readings prepared in advance for individual lives. Its manuscripts are held by families of practitioners, chiefly at Hoshiarpur in Punjab, and the attribution to a Vedic sage is traditional rather than historical — the surviving material is far later. The encyclopedia says so plainly and discusses the practice below.

Bhrigukaccha. The port city at the mouth of the Narmada — Greek Barygaza, modern Bharuch in Gujarat — is named for him, and was one of the great trading ports of the ancient world. That is a real piece of history attached to his name, and unlike most of the geography in this encyclopedia it is documented from the Roman side as well.

He is rarely carved alone, and constantly present in one detail.

The Shrivatsa. The mark on Vishnu's chest — usually a curl, a whorl or a small triangular emblem — appears in nearly every Vishnu image in India, and one of its standard explanations is that it is Bhrigu's footprint. Most people who see it daily do not know it is supposed to be the place a sage kicked God. It is the widest-distributed iconographic detail on this page by an enormous margin.

The kick itself. Shown in narrative painting and in some temple panels: Vishnu reclining on Shesha, Lakshmi at his feet, and an old sage with his foot raised or planted. Vishnu is usually already sitting up and reaching for the foot.

As a sage. White-bearded, matted hair, deerskin, rosary, water pot — the standard rishi type, indistinguishable from Vasishtha or Atri without a label or a context.

At Daksha's sacrifice. In the great destruction panels at Ellora and elsewhere, Bhrigu is among the maimed — the specific injury the texts assign him is that Virabhadra tore out his beard, and some reliefs show it.

In Tirumala's iconography. The Bhrigu episode is part of the sthala purana cycle depicted at Venkateshwara's temple and in its popular prints.

Distinguishing him. Almost impossible in isolation; identify him by the scene — a foot on Vishnu's chest, or a beardless sage at Daksha's fire.

Bhrigu. From a root meaning to burn or to shine — the fire connection is in the name.

Bhrigu the clan. The Rigvedic Bhrigus, fire-priests, who found Agni.

Maharishi Bhrigu. The individual; Prajapati, Saptarishi in several lists.

The Bhargavas. His line: Shukra, Chyavana, Richika, Jamadagni, Parashurama. Each has a page here except Chyavana and Richika.

Bhrigu Lanchhan. The footprint, as a name for the Shrivatsa.

Bhrigu Samhita. The astrological corpus; not the man, and later than him by a great margin.

Bhrigu Valli. The third chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad, in which Bhrigu asks his father Varuna what Brahman is and is told to find out by austerity — and works through food, breath, mind, understanding and at last bliss. This is a different Bhrigu tradition from the kicking story, it is philosophically serious, and it is the reason the name appears in Vedanta at all.

Not Bhrigu the nakshatra or the month — no such usage; the confusion is with Bhadra.

Not Bhargava as a surname in modern India, which is very widespread and does not imply descent.

The kick, and what it cost. Set out above. The detail worth adding is the theology underneath: the test was not of power but of forbearance, and Vishnu passes by declining to be offended. Each of the three gods behaves as his own tradition would predict — Brahma stands on ceremony, Shiva is interrupted at the worst moment and reacts, Vishnu absorbs it — and a Vaishnava text scores it accordingly.

Lakshmi leaves. The consequence, and the reason the story matters far beyond itself. Lakshmi takes the insult as her own — her seat is his chest — and that her husband apologised to the man who struck him is worse, not better. She departs. In the Tirumala sthala purana, Vishnu comes down to the Seven Hills to look for her, takes a loan from Kubera to pay for his marriage to Padmavati, and is still repaying it — which is why the hundi at Tirumala receives what it receives. The Venkateshwara page carries this properly, and it is the largest financial consequence of any myth in this encyclopedia.

Bhrigu's curse on Vishnu. A separate and darker episode. When Vishnu beheads Bhrigu's wife — she had sheltered the asuras — Bhrigu curses him to be born on earth repeatedly and to suffer the pain of separation from his wife. The Ramayana is, on this account, a sentence being served, and Rama's separation from Sita is the curse working itself out. A sage cursing God, and God accepting it, is not a small thing, and Hinduism prints it without apology.

The beard. At Daksha's sacrifice Bhrigu had mocked Shiva or had been party to the exclusion, and when Virabhadra arrived he tore out Bhrigu's beard. The Daksha and Virabhadra pages carry the rest of the maimings.

Puloma and Chyavana. A rakshasa named Puloman carries off Bhrigu's pregnant wife, and the unborn child falls from the womb in his anger and burns the abductor to ash — hence Chyavana, the fallen. Bhrigu then curses Agni, who had truthfully identified the wife when asked, to become all-devouring. The Agni page carries the complaint that follows, and it is one of the tradition's better arguments about whether a witness who tells the truth is culpable for what is done with it.

Teaching his father. The Bhrigu Valli of the Taittiriya Upanishad: he asks Varuna for Brahman and is told only tapasā brahma vijijñāsasva — seek to know Brahman by austerity. He returns five times with five answers, each time sent back, until he arrives at ānanda, bliss. It is one of the cleanest teaching sequences in the Upanishads and it is the opposite of a man who kicks people.

He has very little cult and one large, strange practice attached to his name.

Bhrigu Rishi Temple, Bharuch (Gujarat) — on the Narmada at the city named for him, the principal shrine.

Bhrigu tarpana. He is named among the sages in the daily rishi tarpana, and in the Saptarishi invocations.

In the Bhargava gotras. A very large number of Indian families trace descent to him through gotra, which is a lineage marker used in marriage arrangements and in ritual identification.

Bhrigu Lake and Bhrigu Temple, Kullu (Himachal Pradesh) — the high lake above Manali, at about 4,200 m, held to be where he meditated; a popular trek. As with Agastyarkoodam on his page, the practical note matters: it is a high-altitude route where altitude sickness is a real and occasionally fatal risk, weather changes fast, and it should be done with acclimatisation, a guide and attention to the forecast.

Bhrigu Samhita readings. This is the practice people search for. Practitioners, principally around Hoshiarpur (Punjab) and in a few other centres, hold manuscript collections and will locate and read a leaf said to have been prepared for the enquirer's own life.

The encyclopedia records this as a living practice and makes no claim whatever about it. Three things a reader is entitled to know: the attribution of the corpus to the Vedic sage is traditional, not historical, and the surviving manuscripts are far later; the readings are paid consultations, and fees vary widely; and where a consultation moves from description to prescribing expensive remedial rites, gemstones or repeat visits at escalating cost, that is the standard shape of a commercial operation, whatever else it may also be. Decisions about health, money, marriage and litigation should be taken with doctors, accountants and lawyers.

In the Upanishadic recitation. The Bhrigu Valli is chanted as part of the Taittiriya Upanishad, which is among the most widely learnt Vedic texts in South India.

Bhrigu Rishi Temple, Bharuch (Gujarat) — on the Narmada, in the city that carries his name; ancient Bhrigukaccha, the Greeks' Barygaza, one of the great ports of the Indian Ocean trade.

Bhrigu Lake and the Bhrigu shrine, above Vashisht and Manali (Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh) — the high lake and the trek; see the caution above. Vashisht village below it has hot springs and a Vasishtha temple, whose page is also in this tranche.

Ballia (Uttar Pradesh) — the Bhrigu Mandir, and a district whose name is locally derived from his; a large Bhrigu fair at Kartik Purnima.

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple (Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh) — not his, and the place his kick sent Vishnu to. The single most-visited temple in India, and the Venkateshwara page has it.

Kankhal, Haridwar (Uttarakhand) — Daksha's sacrifice, where he lost the beard.

Naimisharanya (Sitapur district, Uttar Pradesh) — where the sages posed the question that started it.

Hoshiarpur (Punjab) — the Bhrigu Samhita practitioners; not a temple, and listed because it is where people actually go looking for him.

Mahur / Mahurgad (Nanded district, Maharashtra) — Renuka's seat, and Jamadagni's; his line's country. Her page carries it, including the devadasi system there.

A man kicked God and God asked if his foot was all right. Whatever else is on this page, that is the image that stays. Hinduism has other stories about divine forbearance; none of them is this physical. The test is not of strength, knowledge or even patience in the abstract — it is of what happens when you are gratuitously insulted by someone you could destroy, and the answer given is: nothing happens, and you enquire after their comfort.

And the wife did not accept it. The half of the story that is usually dropped is the half with consequences. Lakshmi would not treat the blow as nothing, left, and had to be followed — and the following produced Tirumala, whose hundi collections are among the largest religious revenues in the world. A god's forbearance cost him his marriage and a debt he is said to be still repaying. The tradition did not let the moral be free.

A sage who curses God, and is not struck down. Bhrigu curses Vishnu to be born on earth again and again and to lose his wife each time, and the curse holds — the Ramayana is read as the sentence. Few religions let a human being sentence their supreme deity and have it stick. This one wrote it down and built two epics on the consequences.

The line that would not stop fighting. From Bhrigu come Shukra, who armed the asuras with the science of raising the dead, and Parashurama, who cleared the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times. The Bhargavas are Sanskrit literature's most quarrelsome family, and the Mahabharata carries so much of their material that scholars have argued the epic passed through their hands. A Vedic fire-priest's descendants end up as the tradition's professional antagonists.

Two Bhrigus, and the quieter one is better. The sage of the kick and the curse is the famous one. The Bhrigu Valli of the Taittiriya Upanishad is a young man asking his father what reality is, being told to go and find out, and coming back five times with a better answer — food, breath, mind, understanding, bliss. It is patient, methodical and entirely without violence. Both are him, the tradition never reconciles them, and a reader who meets only the footprint has met the smaller half.

And the mark is still there. On every Vishnu image in India — Tirumala, Srirangam, Badrinath, Puri, a print on a shop wall — there is a curl on the chest. It is an ornament now. It started as a bruise.