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Bhargavi (Lakshmi) — Daughter of Bhrigu and Khyati, First Birth of the Goddess of Fortune, Eternal Consort of Vishnu
Bhargavi · Bhārgavī · Padmavati · Bhrigu-nandini · Khyati-putri · Vishnu-patni · Lakshmi-purvajanma · Sri · Bhrigu-daughter
Bhargavi — meaning daughter of Bhrigu — is the name given to Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, beauty, and prosperity, in her first birth as the daughter of the Saptarishi Bhrigu and his wife Khyati. The Vishnu Purana (Book 1, Chapter 10) records plainly that two sons Dhata and Vidhata and a daughter Lakshmi were born to Bhrigu through Khyati, and that Lakshmi was given in marriage to Vishnu. This birth as Bhrigu's daughter is the genealogical foundation of one of Lakshmi's most standard epithets in Sanskrit devotional literature — Bhargavi (daughter of Bhrigu) and Bhrigu-nandini (the delight of Bhrigu) — both of which record this first birth permanently in the name-tradition. She is the full sister of Dhata and Vidhata (profiled separately below) and through those brothers the aunt of Prana, Mrikandu, and through Mrikandu the grandaunt of the immortal sage Markandeya. Her second and more universally celebrated birth — from the churning of the cosmic ocean (Samudra Manthana), emerging on a lotus holding another lotus — is her primary canonical appearance across most primary texts; but the Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, and Padma Purana all confirm this prior birth as Bhrigu and Khyati's daughter as an earlier incarnation. An additional tradition preserved in the Padma Purana and the Tirupati pilgrimage narrative holds that Lakshmi — furious with Vishnu after Bhrigu kicked him on the chest — left Vaikuntha, was born on earth as Padmavati, was found on a lotus and raised by Bhrigu and Khyati, and later reunited with Vishnu in the form of Venkateswara at Tirupati. In this tradition Bhrigu and Khyati are her foster-parents rather than biological parents — but the result is the same: she bears the name Bhargavi and Padmavati connecting her to the Bhrigu lineage.
✦ The Name Bhargavi
The Sanskrit name Bhargavi is the feminine form of the adjectival Bhargava — pertaining to Bhrigu, descended from Bhrigu, of the Bhrigu lineage. It means she who belongs to Bhrigu, Bhrigu's daughter, the Bhrigu-woman. As an epithet of Lakshmi it records the prior human genealogy of the goddess — the birth in which she was a mortal sage's daughter before she became the eternal consort of the Preserver. The paradox of Lakshmi as Bhrigu's daughter is theologically significant: Bhrigu tested all three members of the Trimurti for their suitability as the greatest god and declared Vishnu the greatest — the man who tested Vishnu was also the man who gave Vishnu his eternal wife. The father-daughter gift of Lakshmi to Vishnu through Bhrigu's lineage is the tradition's most intimate statement about the relationship between the sage-testing tradition and the devotional tradition.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Bhrigu — one of the seven Saptarishis; one of Brahma's ten mind-born sons; the first compiler of predictive astrology; the tester of the Trimurti; who declared Vishnu the greatest of the three and gave Lakshmi in marriage to him
- Mother: Khyati — wife of Bhrigu; daughter of Daksha and Prasuti per the Vishnu Purana, or daughter of Kardama and Devahuti per the Bhagavata Purana
- Brothers: Dhata and Vidhata — the two cosmic administrators who married the daughters of Mount Meru; through whose descendants the Bhrigu lineage continued
- Half-brothers: Shukracharya — son of Bhrigu and Kavyamata; the Asura preceptor; whose relationship to Lakshmi as her half-brother through their common father Bhrigu makes him Vishnu's brother-in-law; and Chyavana — son of Bhrigu and Puloma; the sage whose youth was restored by the Ashvins
- Husband: Vishnu — the Preserver in the Trimurti; who received Lakshmi from Bhrigu; whose connection to the Bhrigu lineage through this marriage is permanent and deep
✦ References
- Vishnu Purana (Book 1, Chapter 10) — the primary source: Dhata and Vidhata and daughter Lakshmi born to Bhrigu through Khyati; Lakshmi given in marriage to Vishnu
- Bhagavata Purana (Canto 3–4) — Khyati as Kardama's daughter; Lakshmi as Bhargavi born to Bhrigu and Khyati
- Padma Purana — the Padmavati tradition; Lakshmi leaving Vaikuntha; born on a lotus; raised by Bhrigu and Khyati; reuniting with Vishnu as Venkateswara at Tirupati
- Wikipedia — Bhrigu; Glorious Hinduism — Bhrigu; Isvara.org — Bhrigu Muni; JKYog — Lineage of Manu's Daughters: modern summaries confirming Bhargavi as Bhrigu and Khyati's daughter