Bharadwaja
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In Hinduism, Bharadwaja was one of the great sages(rishi) who lived in ancient India.
Regarding his early life it is said that the marudwaja gods found him abandoned as a baby. Looking at the plight of the baby and the radiance which shone from it's face, they adopted the him. Young Bharadwaja was characterized by an insatiable desire to learn. He spent all his time on understanding the Vedas. The marudwaja gods thought him all they knew about the vedas but bharadwaja wanted to learn more. So he was asked to meditate upon Indra.
It is said that bharadwaja performed rigourous penance for years, his body became weak and after sometime he found it impossible to even sit. The marut gods were filled with pity for bharadwaja. One day as Bharadwaja fell down meditating, Indra appeared. Bharadwaja was filled with joy. Indra the king of gods asked bharadwaja on what he would do if he was given a longer life. To this bharadwaja replied that he would still meditate and learn more about the vedas.
Indra told Bharadwaja that this was his third life and he had already worn out himself in the preious two lifes understanding the Vedas. Indra then materialized 3 mountains, and took three handfulls of soil from the mountains and showed it to bharadwaja. He said, the 3 vedas are like the 3 mountains, what you have learnt is equivalent of these 3 handfulls, but that does'nt mean it is small, you have already gained more knowlegde than the gods. Indra told bharadwaja that vedic knowledge is endless, and just as gaining knowledge is important, spreading it among the people is also very important.
From that day onwards, bharadwaja decided that spreading the vedic knowledge among people, freeing the society from poverty, disease and war as his life's objectives. He travelled far and wide and took many virtuous kings as his disciples. Prominent among them being Abhayavarti and Divodasa. He helped the virtuous kings in times of peril, using his supreme knowlegde and the help of the gods.
With the help of bharadwaja, a long period of peace was achieved, where people prospered both in the physical sense and the spiritual sense. Bharadwaja was also the adopted son of the king Bharata. Though he could have taken over the vast kingdom of Bharata (the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala), the great sage Bharadwaja had no interest in worldly affairs. With his advice, bharata carried out a yagna through which he got a son and so the line which had great warriors before and after that was continued.
Bharadwaja married susheela and had a son called Garga, who was well versed in the Vedas and the Upanishads. It is said that when bharadwaja's time in this world came to an end, The celestial gods shovered flowers on the couple and Indra came on his divine chariot, offered his respect to this great personality and took them to heaven.
Bharadwaja is one of the seven rishis of this manvantara. A number of yugas make a manvantara, and each manvantara has a set of seven rishis who help in preserving and propogating knowledge in that manvantara. For the present manvantara called the vaivasvata manvantara, Bharadwaja is one of the seven rishis. The other six being Atri, Jamadagni, Vishwamitra, Vasishta, Gauthama and Kashyapa.