Text 37
taṁ tyaktu-kāmāṁ mamatāṁ
bhartus tyāga-viśaṅkitām
nāma-nirvācanaṁ tasya
ślokam enaṁ surā jaguḥ
tam — that newly born baby; tyaktu-kāmām — who was trying to avoid; mamatām — unto Mamatā; bhartuḥ tyāga-viśaṅkitām — very much afraid of being forsaken by her husband because of giving birth to an illegitimate son; nāma-nirvācanam — a name-giving ceremony, or nāma-karaṇa; tasya — to the child; ślokam — verse; enam — this; surāḥ — the demigods; jaguḥ — enunciated.
Mamatā very much feared being forsaken by her husband for giving birth to an illegitimate son, and therefore she considered giving up the child. But then the demigods solved the problem by enunciating a name for the child.
According to Vedic scripture, whenever a child is born there are some ceremonies known as jāta-karma and nāma-karaṇa, in which learned brāhmaṇas, immediately after the birth of the child, make a horoscope according to astrological calculations. But the child to which Mamatā gave birth was begotten by Bṛhaspati irreligiously, for although Mamatā was the wife of Utathya, Bṛhaspati made her pregnant by force. Therefore Bṛhaspati became bhartā. According to Vedic culture, a wife is considered the property of her husband, and a son born by illicit sex is called dvāja. The common word still current in Hindu society for such a son is doglā, which refers to a son not begotten by the husband of his mother. In such a situation, it is difficult to give the child a name according to proper regulative principles. Mamatā, therefore, was perplexed, but the demigods gave the child the appropriate name Bharadvāja, which indicated that the child born illegitimately should be maintained by both Mamatā and Bṛhaspati.