Garga (sage)

Garga (Gargasya) is a male Indian name and one of the Gotras of Brahmin Class. Garga Muni was born to Bhardvaja and Susheela, Dronacharya and Devavarnini (Kubera's mother) are his half brother and half sister. Descendants of Garga Sage are also called Warrior-Brahmins as their mother Susheela was a Kshatriya, so they said to inherit traits of Kshatriya class. It is a sage name who did "naam karan" (Hindi word to naming ceremony)to lord Shri Krishna as he was their Kul-Guru. It is found in Vedic and Puranic literature. 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. Garga Muni is the author of Garga Samhita.

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.