The wandering deva-rishi, veena in hand, who appears across the Puranas, Ramayana, and Mahabharata as messenger, mischief-maker, and teacher of devotion.
देव-ऋषि · Deva-rishi
Tradition holds Narada as a son of Brahma given the unusual boon of ceaseless travel between the worlds, chanting 'Narayana, Narayana' as he goes — a wanderer bound to no single realm.
He is credited with authoring the Narada Bhakti Sutra, a foundational text on devotional love, and appears as catalyst in dozens of Puranic stories — including setting Valmiki on his path to composing the Ramayana. His frequent stirring of conflict between gods and sages, often for a deeper instructive purpose, has made a 'Narada-like' figure a byword in Indian storytelling for a well-meaning troublemaker.