Rishi Narada

Narada is the wandering sage who carries news and advice between gods, kings and sages. He appears in the Rigveda, an Upanishad, both epics and many Puranas. The name covers figures that the texts describe in different ways.

In the Rigveda he is a seer, a descendant of Kanva, and the hymns 8.13 and 9.104 to 9.105 are attributed to him [Monier-Williams, s.v. Narada]. In the Chandogya Upanishad he is a student who has learned the four Vedas and many other branches of knowledge but says he knows only the words and not the Self. He asks Sanatkumara to teach him [Chandogya Upanishad 7.1]. The Mahabharata lists him among the sons of Muni, a daughter of Daksha, with the other Devas and Gandharvas [Adi Parva, section 65 in Ganguli]. The Bhagavata Purana says he was born from Brahma [3.12.23]. It also gives him an earlier life as the son of a maidservant who served wandering sages [1.6].

These accounts do not agree and no text joins them. Whether the Vedic seer, the Upanishad student and the epic and Puranic sage are one person is not settled by the texts.

Three works carry his name by attribution: the Naradasmriti, a law text; the Narada Bhakti Sutra; and the Narada Purana. These are attributions. Jolly argued in 1889 that the Naradasmriti belongs to no earlier than the fourth or fifth century CE, and the Bhakti Sutra is generally dated much later still.

1. Telling Rama's story to Valmiki: Valmiki asks Narada, "best of speakers", to name a man with every great virtue, and Narada answers with a short account of Rama [Ramayana, Bala Kanda 1].
2. Teaching Sanatkumara's student: The Chandogya Upanishad shows Narada coming to Sanatkumara with a list of everything he has studied and asking to be taken beyond sorrow [Chandogya Upanishad 7.1].
3. Guiding Dhruva: When the boy Dhruva leaves home after a slight from his stepmother, Narada tries to turn him back, then sends him to Madhuvana on the Yamuna and gives him a mantra to Vasudeva [Bhagavata Purana 4.8].
4. Visiting Yudhishthira: Narada visits Yudhishthira in his new assembly hall, questions him on his conduct, and then describes the assembly halls of the gods [Mahabharata, Sabha Parva, section 6].
5. Advising Vyasa: In the Bhagavata Purana, Narada tells Vyasa that the Mahabharata leaves out the glories of the Lord and that he should write them down [Bhagavata Purana 1.5].

• The roads between the worlds, where he travels as a messenger
• The hermitages of Valmiki and Vyasa, who receive his advice
• Sanatkumara's teaching seat, in the Chandogya Upanishad