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Rig Veda Mandala 2, Hymn 36, verse 2 states:

य॒ज्ञैः सम्मि॑श्लाः॒ पृष॑तीभिर्ऋ॒ष्टिभि॒र्याम॑ञ्छु॒भ्रासो॑ अञ्जिषु॑ प्रि॒या उ॒त । आ॒सद्या॑ ब॒र्हिर्भ॑रतस्य सूनवः पो॒त्रादा सोमं॑ पिबता दिवो नरः ॥

yajñáiḥ sámmišlāḥ pṛ́ṣatībhir ṛṣṭíbhir yā́mañ chubhrā́so añjíṣu priyā́ utá āsádyā barhír bharatasya sūnavaḥ potrā́d ā́ sómam pibatā divo naraḥ

Translation from one of the books (Griffith) I have is:

Busied with sacrifice, with spotted deer and spears, gleaming upon your way with ornaments, yea, our Friends, Sitting on sacred grass, ye Sons of Bharata, drink Soma from the Potar's bowl, O Men of heaven (Maruts?).

Now are Maruts being referred to son of Bharata in this context?

āsádyā barhír bharatasya sūnavaḥ means sit on the ritual grass, sons of Bharata. My question is who is the term referring to? The actual sons of Bharatas or the Maruts?

This is the link to the entire hymn: http://www.gatewayforindia.com/vedas/rigveda/rigveda02036.shtml

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This is very interesting question. Here we find a name Bharata and that is what your inquiry is about . Your question is why Maruts are being referred to son of Bharata? and who is the term referring to?

Author H.H.Wilson has provided explanation about this word BHARATA in his translation of Rig Veda Mandala 2, Hymn 36, verse 2. According to him this is the name of Rudra , as the cherisher or sovereign.

य॒ज्ञैः सम्मि॑श्लाः॒ पृष॑तीभिर्ऋ॒ष्टिभि॒र्याम॑ञ्छु॒भ्रासो॑ अं॒जिषु॑ प्रि॒या उ॒त ।
आ॒सद्या॑ ब॒र्हिर्भ॑रतस्य सूनवः पो॒त्रादा सोमं॑ पिबता दिवो नरः ॥

2 MARUTS ,together worshiped with sacrifices , standing in the car drawn by spotted mares radiant with lances and delighted by ornaments ,sons of BHARATA leaders in the firmament , seated on the sacred grass drink the soma presented by the potri.

Commentary - Bharatasya Sunavah : the first is said to a name of Rudra as the cherisher or sovereign, bharttri of the world.

In Rig-Veda maruts or Marutagana are storm deities and sons of Rudra and Prisni. But Maruts are also sometimes identified with Rudras. The answer - Bharata is the another name of the Rudra who is the the father of Maruts. Here in this sukta Rudra is called by name Bharata and so here maruts are referred as "Sons of Bharata" or Rudra.

And BHARATA here is Rudra.

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  • Looks like you keep checking chatroom's transcript. Isn't it? :D BTW Good answer – TheLittleNaruto Nov 26 '20 at 13:17
  • HAHA , No I haven't. I just searched as usual and found the explanation.Can u pls. post the link to that transcript? – SwiftPushkar Nov 26 '20 at 13:28
  • Read from here: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/56261599#56261599 Also if you're available/free tonight from 10 PM onwards, join chatroom. Today we have weekly event on Upanishad. – TheLittleNaruto Nov 26 '20 at 13:57
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    Good answer, you pre-empted me lol. @TheLittleNaruto had tagged me and I came a bit late. By the way, Wilson is only using Sayanacharya's Bhashya. So it would be better to say, according to Sayanacharya, Maruts are called Rudra's sons, because Rudra is called the lord of the universe. Sayana's Bhashya: "भरतस्य सूनवः - सर्वस्य जगतः भर्तुः रुद्रस्य पुत्राः". I always prefer to use and reference our native traditional scholars in matters of our own native Vedic scriptures. – RamAbloh Nov 27 '20 at 0:35

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