Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 9.20.37

tam tyaktu-kamam mamatam

bhartus tyaga-visankitam

nama-nirvacanam tasya

slokam enam sura jaguh

SYNONYMS

tam -- that newly born baby; tyaktu-kamam -- who was trying to avoid; mamatam -- unto Mamata; bhartuh tyaga-visankitam -- very much afraid of being forsaken by her husband because of giving birth to an illegitimate son; nama-nirvacanam -- a name-giving ceremony, or nama-karana; tasya -- to the child; slokam -- verse; enam -- this; surah -- the demigods; jaguh -- enunciated.

TRANSLATION

Mamata 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.

PURPORT

According to Vedic scripture, whenever a child is born there are some ceremonies known as jata-karma and nama-karana, in which learned brahmanas, immediately after the birth of the child, make a horoscope according to astrological calculations. But the child to which Mamata gave birth was begotten by Brihaspati irreligiously, for although Mamata was the wife of Utathya, Brihaspati made her pregnant by force. Therefore Brihaspati became bharta. According to Vedic culture, a wife is considered the property of her husband, and a son born by illicit sex is called dvaja. The common word still current in Hindu society for such a son is dogla, 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. Mamata, therefore, was perplexed, but the demigods gave the child the appropriate name Bharadvaja, which indicated that the child born illegitimately should be maintained by both Mamata and Brihaspati.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness