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Vyasa

January 12, 2023

For the title for the divider of Vedas, see Vyasa (title). For other uses, see Vyasa (disambiguation).

Krishna Dvaipayana (Sanskrit: कृष्णद्वैपायन, romanized: Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better known as Vyasa (/ˈvjɑːsə/; Sanskrit: व्यासः, romanized: Vyāsaḥ, lit. 'compiler') or Vedavyasa (वेदव्यासः, Veda-vyāsaḥ, "the one who classified the Vedas"), is a revered sage portrayed in most Hindu traditions. He is traditionally regarded as the author of the epic Mahabharata.

Vyasa
An early 20th-century illustration of Vyasa
Personal
Born
Krishna Dvaipayana
ReligionHinduism
SpouseVatikā [1]
ChildrenLegitimate (from Vatikā)
Extra-Marital see Niyoga
Parents
Known forMahabharata
RelativesMaternal Half-Brothers
Religious career
Disciples
HonoursFestival of Guru Purnima, also known as the Vyasa Purnima, is dedicated to him

Born to fisherwoman Satyavati and the sage Parashara, Vyasa himself fathered the Kuru king Pandu 'under Niyoga practice' in place of a half-brother who died heirless, at the behest of Satyavati. Vyasa was also the surgeon who put the Kauravas siblings into incubation.[2]

Vyasa is also regarded by many Hindus as a partial incarnation (aṃśa-avatāra) of the god Vishnu and the compiler of the mantras of the Vedas into four Vedas, as well as the author of the eighteen Puranas and the Brahma Sutras. He is one of the seven immortal Chiranjeevis, implying he is still alive in the current Kali yuga.

Name

Vyasa's birth name is Krishna Dvaipayana, which possibly refers to his dark complexion and birthplace,[3] although he is more commonly known as "Veda Vyasa" (Veda Vyāsa) as he has compiled the single, eternal Veda into four separate books — Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda.[4][5]

The word "Vyasa" (Vyāsa) refers to "compiler," or, "arranger,"[6][7] and also means "separation," or, "division."[6] Other meanings are "split," "differentiate," or, "describe." It is also a title, given to "a holy sage or a pious learned man," and applied to "persons distinguished for their writings."[8]

Swami Vivekananda expresses the opinion that Vyasa may not have been a single person but a lineage of sages who were content to simply develop the ideas without claiming credit, as they were free from desire for the results of their work, and hence attributed the authorship to Vyasa.[9] He says that Vyasa being only a title, anyone who composed a new Purana was known by the name Vyasa.[10]

Hindus traditionally hold that Vyasa subcategorized the primordial single Veda to produce four parts as a canonical collection. Hence he was called Veda Vyasa, or "Splitter of the Vedas," the splitting being a feat that allowed people to understand the divine knowledge of the Veda.

The Vishnu Purana elaborates on the role of Vyasa in Hindu chronology.[11] The Hindu view of the universe is that of a cyclic phenomenon that comes into existence and dissolves repeatedly. Each kalpa cycle is presided over by a number of Manus, one for each manvantara, and each manvantara has a number of Yuga Cycles, each with four yuga ages of declining virtues. The Dvapara Yuga is the third yuga. The Vishnu Purana (Book 3, Ch 3) says:

In every third world age (Dvapara), Vishnu, in the person of Vyasa, in order to promote the good of mankind, divides the Veda, which is properly but one, into many portions. Observing the limited perseverance, energy and application of mortals, he makes the Veda fourfold, to adapt it to their capacities; and the bodily form which he assumes, in order to effect that classification, is known by the name of Veda-Vyasa. Of the different Vyasas in the present Manvantara and the branches which they have taught, you shall have an account. Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivasvata Manvantara [...] and consequently, eight and twenty Vyasa's have passed away; by whom, in the respective periods, the Veda has been divided into four. The first... distribution was made by Svayambhu (Brahma) himself; in the second, the arranger of the Veda (Vyasa) was Prajapati [...] (and so on up to twenty-eight).[12]

According to the Vishnu Purana, Aswatthama, the son of Drona, will become the next sage (Vyasa) and will divide the Veda in 29th Maha Yuga of 7th Manvantara.[13]

Attributed texts

The Mahabharata

Main article: Mahabharata
 
Vyasa narrating the Mahabharata to Ganesha, his scribe, Angkor Wat.

Vyasa is traditionally regarded as the chronicler of this epic and also features as an important character in Mahābhārata. The first section of the Mahābhārata states that it was Ganesha who wrote down the text to Vyasa's dictation,[a] but this is regarded by scholars as a later interpolation to the epic and this part of the story is also excluded in the "Critical Edition" of the Mahabharata.[14]

The five Pandava brothers of the junior line of the Kuru royal house being the ultimate victors, thus India's cultural heroes, Vyasa's relationship with the winners in this kinship war of cousin against cousin is as chronicler who sired the father of the victors. These five protagonists are the surrogate sons of Pandu, sired by various gods on behalf of this Kuru king whom Vyasa himself fathered 'under Niyoga practice' in place of an elder brother who died heirless, at the behest of his mother Satyavati. Vyasa also sired the father of the vanquished, he was certainly the surgeon who put the hundred brothers of antogonist cousins into incubation, and as they are only said to be sired by a boon he conferred on their mother, there's some possibility that he is also their biological sire himself.[15] Hence Vyasa's authorship of the Mahabharata is by way of biography of his own family including its adoptees. This was the struggle between his own ex officio grandsons.[2] And it is in the wake of producing this purportedly historical, smiriti Mahabharata as well as 'compiling' the essential sruti scripture of the Vedas that 'Vyasa' was added as epithet then eclipsed his two birth names, Krishna and Dvaipayana, while his smiriti creation became a canon whose territorial name, drawing on either one or two lengendary ruler's personal names, included in the saga's text, still underlies modern Sanskrit-to-Hindi official form, Bhārat Gaṇarājya, in the names for India through its current constitution.[16][17]

Vyasa's Jaya (literally, "victory"), the core of the Mahabharata, is a dialogue between Dhritarashtra (the Kuru king and the father of the Kauravas, who opposed the Pāndavas in the Kurukshetra War) and Sanjaya, his adviser and charioteer. Sanjaya narrates the particulars of the Kurukshetra War, fought in eighteen days, chronologically. Dhritarashtra at times asks questions and expresses doubts, sometimes lamenting, fearing the destruction the war would bring on his family, friends and kin.

The Bhagavad Gita, Sanskrit, The Song of God, is contained in the Bhishma Parva which is chapters 23–40 of book 6 of the Mahabharata.[18] The Gita, dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE, in its own right is one of the most influential philosophico-religious dialogues, producing numerous commentaries and a global audience. Like the "Jaya", it is also a dialogue, in which Pandava Prince Arjuna's hesitation to attack his cousins is counseled from 'the perspective of the gods' by his charioteer, revealed to be an avatar of Krishna.[19] In 1981, Larson stated that "a complete listing of Gita translations and a related secondary bibliography would be nearly endless".[20] The Bhagavad Gita has been highly praised, not only by prominent Indians including Mahatma Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan,[21] but also by Aldous Huxley, Henry David Thoreau, J. Robert Oppenheimer,[22] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung, Herman Hesse,[23][24] and Bülent Ecevit.[25]

In the Mahabharata, large and elaborate lists are given, describing hundreds of kingdoms, tribes, provinces, cities, towns, villages, rivers, mountains, forests, etc. of the (ancient) Indian subcontinent (Bhārata Varsha). Additionally, he gives descriptions of the military formations adopted by each side on each day, the death of individual heroes and the details of the war-races. Eighteen chapters of Vyasa's Jaya constitute the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text in Hinduism. The Jaya deals with diverse subjects, such as geography, history, warfare, religion and morality.

The 100,000 verses of Vyasa's work Mahābhārata is told by Vaishampayana to Janamejaya. It is structured as a narration by Ugrasrava surnamed Sauti, a professional storyteller, to an assembly of rishis who, in the forest of Naimisha, had just attended the 12-year sacrifice known as Saunaka, surnamed Kulapati. At 100,000 verses, the Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem ever written.

Other texts attributed

 
Narada meets Vyasa

Puranas

Main article: Puranas

Vyasa is also credited with the writing of the eighteen major Purāṇas,[5] which are works of Indian literature that cover an encyclopedic range of topics covering various scriptures. He narrated the Devi-Bhagavata Purana to Parikshit's son Janamejaya.

Brahma Sutras

The Brahma Sutras, one of the foundational texts of Vedanta, is written by Badarayana also known as Veda Vyasa.[26] Badarayana is also called Vyasa, which literally means "one who arranges".[26][27]

In the Mahabharata

Birth

During her youth, Satyavati was a fisherwoman of Kaivartta clan[28] who used to ferry people across river, to help her father. One day, she helped Parashara to cross the river Yamuna. He was enchanted by her beauty and wanted an heir from her. Initially, Satyavati did not agree, telling that if others would see them, then her purity would be questioned. Parashara created a secret place in bushes of a nearby island and a blanket of thick fog. She conceived and immediately gave birth to a son.[4] Parashara named him Krishna Dvaipayana, referring to his dark complexion and birthplace.[29] Dvaipayana became an adult and promised his mother that he would come to her when needed. Parashara restored Satyavati's virginity, gifted her an enchanting smell and left with his son. Satyavati kept this incident a secret, not telling even King Shantanu whom she was married to later.[4][30]

Niyoga and birth of Vichitravirya's sons

 
Vyasa with his mother (Satyavati)

Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons, named Chitrāngada and Vichitravirya. Both of them died early without leaving an heir, but Vichitravirya had two wives - Ambika and Ambalika. A widowed Satyavati initially asked her stepson, Bhishma, to marry both the queens, but he refused, citing his vow of celibacy. Satyavati revealed her secret past and requested him to bring her firstborn to impregnate the widows under a tradition called Niyoga.[31] By this time, Vyasa had compiled the Vedas.

Sage Vyasa was unkempt because of months of meditation in the forest. Hence upon seeing him, Ambika who was rather scared shut her eyes, resulting in their child, Dhritarashtra, being born blind. The other queen, Ambalika, turned pale upon meeting Vyasa, which resulted in their child, Pandu, being born pale. Alarmed, Satyavati requested that Vyasa meet Ambika again and grant her another son. Ambika instead sent her maid to meet Vyasa. The duty-bound maid was calm and composed; she had a healthy child who was later named Vidura.[4]

Connection with the Pandavas and Kauravas

 
Gandhari serving Vyasa

When the children of Vichitravirya grew up, Bhishma got them married to different women. Dhritarashtra was married to Gandhari, princess of Gandhara. Pandu married Kunti and Madri. Pandu left the kingdom, leaving Dhritarashtra as the acting king. Gandhari, during her adolescence, received a boon to have a hundred children but her pregnancy was taking a long period of time. After two years of pregnancy, Gandhari aborted her developing fetus, giving birth to a hard mass that looked like an iron ball. Vyasa came to the kingdom and using his knowledge, he asked to divide the mass into one hundred and one-pieces and put them into pots for incubation. After a year, 101 babies were born. Meanwhile Pandu's wives, Kunti and Madri, were blessed with three and two sons respectively.[4]

While everybody rejoiced at the news of the birth of the Pandavas and Kauravas, misery took place in the forest. Pandu, who was cursed, died because of his attempt to make love with Madri. Kunti and the Pandavas returned to Hastinapura. Vyasa, feeling sorrow for his mother's fate, asked her to leave the kingdom and come with him to live a peaceful life. Satyavati, along with her two daughters-in-law, went to the forest.[4]

Disciples

Vyasa had a son named Shuka, who was his spiritual successor and heir.[b] As per Skanda Purana, Vyasa married Vatikā, alias Pinjalā, who was the daughter of a sage named Jābāli. It is described that Vyasa's union with her produced his heir, who repeated everything that he heard, thus receiving the name Shuka (lit. Parrot).[1][32][33] Other texts including the Devi Bhagavata Purana also narrate the birth of Shuka but with drastic differences. Vyasa was desiring an heir, when an apsara (celestial damsel) named Ghritachi flew in front of him in form of a beautiful parrot, causing him sexual arousal. He discharges his semen, which fell on some sticks and a son developed. This time, he was named Shuka because of the role of the celestial parrot.[4] Shuka appears occasionally in the story as a spiritual guide to the young Kuru princes.

Besides his heir, Vyasa had four other disciples — Paila, Jaimini, Vaishampayana and Sumantu.[5] Each one of them was given the responsibility to spread one of the four Vedas. Paila was the made the incharge of Rigveda, Jaimini of the Samaveda, Vaishampayana of the Yajurveda and Sumantu of Atharvaveda.[34]

Vyasa is believed to have lived on the banks of Ganga in modern-day Uttarakhand. The site was also the ritual home of the sage Vashishta, along with the Pandavas, the five brothers of the Mahabharata.[35]

Vyasa is also mentioned in the Sankara Digvijaya. He confronts Adi Shankara, who has written a commentary on the Brahma-Sutras, in the form of an old Brahmana, and asks for an explanation of the first Sutra. This develops into a debate between Shankara and Vyasa which lasts for eight days. Recognizing the old Brahmana to be Vyasa, Shankara makes obeisance and sings a hymn in his praise. Thereupon, Vyasa inspects and approves Shankara's commentary on the Brahma-Sutras. Adi Shankara, who was supposed to die at the end of his sixteenth year, express his desire to leave his body in the presence of Vyasa. Vyasa dissuades him and blesses him that he may live for another sixteen years to complete his work.[36]

Festival

The festival of Guru Purnima is dedicated to Vyasa. It is also known as Vyasa Purnima, the day believed to be both of his birth and when he divided the Vedas.[37][38]

In Sikhism

In Brahm Avtar, one of the compositions in Dasam Granth, Guru Gobind Singh mentions Rishi Vyas as an avatar of Brahma.[39] He is considered the fifth incarnation of Brahma. Guru Gobind Singh wrote a brief account of Rishi Vyas's compositions about great kings— Manu, Prithu, Bharath, Jujat, Ben, Mandata, Dilip, Raghu Raj and Aj[39][40]— and attributed to him the store of Vedic learning.[41]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ It is believed that Vyasa asks Ganesha to assist him in writing the text. Ganesha imposes a precondition that he would do so only if Vyasa would narrate the story without a pause. Vyasa set a counter-condition that Ganesha understands the verses first before transcribing them. Thus Vyasa narrated the entire Mahābhārata.
  2. ^ Later, Vyasa became the surrogate father of Kuru princes — Pandu and Dhritrashtra.

References

  1. ^ a b Dalal 2019.
  2. ^ a b Bhattacharya, Pradip (May–June 2004). "Of Kunti and Satyawati: Sexually Assertive Women of the Mahabharata" (PDF). Manushi (142): 21–25.
  3. ^ Essays on the Mahābhārata, Arvind Sharma, Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, p. 205
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Mani, Vettam (1975). Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary With Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 885 (Vyāsa). ISBN 0-8426-0822-2.
  5. ^ a b c Sullivan, Bruce M. (1999). Seer of the Fifth Veda: Kr̥ṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa in the Mahābhārata. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 978-81-208-1676-3.
  6. ^ a b Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit, Vyasa
  7. ^ Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 158.
  8. ^ Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 129.
  9. ^ Vivekananda, Swami (2016). "The work before us". The complete works of Swami Vivekananda. Advaita Ashrama. ISBN 978-81-7505-392-2. OCLC 1126811997.
  10. ^ Vivekananda, Swami (2016). "Thoughts on Gita". The complete works of Swami Vivekananda. Advaita Ashrama. ISBN 978-81-7505-392-2. OCLC 1126811997.
  11. ^ Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Puranas, Volume 1 (2001), page 1408
  12. ^ "Vishnu Purana". Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  13. ^ Vishnu Purana -Drauni or Asvathama as Next Vyasa Retrieved 2015-03-22
  14. ^ Mahābhārata, Vol. 1, Part 2. Critical edition, p. 884.
  15. ^ Barti, Kalra; et al. "The Mahabharata and reproductive endocrinology". Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism. 20 (3): 404–407. doi:10.4103/2230-8210.180004.
  16. ^ Clémentin-Ojha, Catherine (2014). "'India, that is Bharat…': One Country, Two Names". South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal. 10.
  17. ^ –The Essential Desk Reference, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 76, ISBN 978-0-19-512873-4 "Official name: Republic of India.";
    –John Da Graça (2017), Heads of State and Government, London: Macmillan, p. 421, ISBN 978-1-349-65771-1 "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya (Hindi)";
    –Graham Rhind (2017), Global Sourcebook of Address Data Management: A Guide to Address Formats and Data in 194 Countries, Taylor & Francis, p. 302, ISBN 978-1-351-93326-1 "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat.";
    –Bradnock, Robert W. (2015), The Routledge Atlas of South Asian Affairs, Routledge, p. 108, ISBN 978-1-317-40511-5 "Official name: English: Republic of India; Hindi:Bharat Ganarajya";
    –Penguin Compact Atlas of the World, Penguin, 2012, p. 140, ISBN 978-0-7566-9859-1 "Official name: Republic of India";
    –Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Merriam-Webster, 1997, pp. 515–516, ISBN 978-0-87779-546-9 "Officially, Republic of India";
    –Complete Atlas of the World, 3rd Edition: The Definitive View of the Earth, DK Publishing, 2016, p. 54, ISBN 978-1-4654-5528-4 "Official name: Republic of India";
    –Worldwide Government Directory with Intergovernmental Organizations 2013, CQ Press, 10 May 2013, p. 726, ISBN 978-1-4522-9937-2 "India (Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya)"
  18. ^ "Mahabharata". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  19. ^ "Bhagavadgita | Definition, Contents, & Significance | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  20. ^ Gerald James Larson (1981), "The Song Celestial: Two centuries of the Bhagavad Gita in English", Philosophy East and West, University of Hawai'i Press, 31 (4): 513–40, doi:10.2307/1398797, JSTOR 1398797
  21. ^ Modern Indian Interpreters of the Bhagavad Gita, by Robert Neil Minor, 1986, p. 161
  22. ^ Hijiya 2000.
  23. ^ Pandit 2005, p. 27
  24. ^ Hume 1959, p. 29
  25. ^ "The Telegraph – Calcutta: Opinion". The Telegraph. Kolkota.
  26. ^ a b Radhakrishna, Sarvepalli (1960). Brahma Sutra, The Philosophy of Spiritual Life. p. 22 with footnote 3 and 4.
  27. ^ The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Edwin F. Bryant 2009 page xl
  28. ^ Sen, Kshitimohan (1997). Jatived (in Bengali). Shantiniketan: Visva-Bharati University. pp. 46, 49.
  29. ^ Monier-Williams, Sir Monier (1875). Indian Wisdom, Or, Examples of the Religious, Philosophical, and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindūs: With a Brief History of the Chief Departments of Sanskṛit Literature, and Some Account of the Past and Present Condition of India, Moral and Intellectual. Wm. H. Allen & Company.
  30. ^ Dalal, Roshen (18 April 2014). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. ISBN 9788184752779.
  31. ^ Bhawalkar, Vanamala (2002). Eminent women in the Mahābhārata. Sharada. ISBN 9788185616803.
  32. ^ Pattanaik 2000.
  33. ^ Skanda Purāṇa, Nāgara Khanda, ch. 147
  34. ^ Shastri, J. L.; Tagare, Ganesh Vasudeo (1 January 2004). Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology Volume 7: The Bhagavata-Purana Part 1. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-3874-1.
  35. ^ Strauss, Sarah (2002). "The Master's Narrative: Swami Sivananda and the Transnational Production of Yoga". Journal of Folklore Research. Indiana University Press. 23 (2/3): 221. JSTOR 3814692.
  36. ^ Vidyaranya, Madhava (2005). Sankara Digvijaya The Traditional life of Sri Sankaracharya. Sri Ramakrishna Math Chennai. p. 70. ISBN 8178233428.
  37. ^ Awakening Indians to India. Chinmaya Mission. 2008. p. 167. ISBN 978-81-7597-434-0.
  38. ^ What Is Hinduism?: Modern Adventures Into a Profound Global Faith. Himalayan Academy Publications. 2007. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-934145-00-5.
  39. ^ a b Dasam Granth, Dr. SS Kapoor
  40. ^ Line 8, Brahma Avtar, Dasam Granth
  41. ^ Line 107, Vyas Avtar, Dasam Granth

Sources

  • Dalal, Roshen (6 January 2019). The 108 Upanishads: An Introduction. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 978-93-5305-377-2.
  • Maas, Philipp A. (2006), Samādhipāda. Das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert. (Samādhipāda. The First Chapter of the Pātañjalayogaśās-tra for the First Time Critically Edited)., Aachen: Shaker
  • Pattanaik, Devdutt (1 September 2000). The Goddess in India: The Five Faces of the Eternal Feminine. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-59477-537-6.

Further reading

External links

  •   Quotations related to Vyasa at Wikiquote
  •   Media related to Vyasa at Wikimedia Commons
  •   Works by or about Vyasa at Wikisource
  • The Mahābhārata – Ganguli translation, full text at sacred-texts.com

January 12, 2023
vyasa, title, divider, vedas, title, other, uses, disambiguation, this, article, uncritically, uses, texts, from, within, religion, faith, system, without, referring, secondary, sources, that, critically, analyze, them, please, help, improve, this, article, ad. For the title for the divider of Vedas see Vyasa title For other uses see Vyasa disambiguation This article uncritically uses texts from within a religion or faith system without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them Please help improve this article by adding references to reliable secondary sources with multiple points of view September 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Krishna Dvaipayana Sanskrit क ष णद व प यन romanized Kṛṣṇadvaipayana better known as Vyasa ˈ v j ɑː s e Sanskrit व य स romanized Vyasaḥ lit compiler or Vedavyasa व दव य स Veda vyasaḥ the one who classified the Vedas is a revered sage portrayed in most Hindu traditions He is traditionally regarded as the author of the epic Mahabharata VyasaAn early 20th century illustration of VyasaPersonalBornKrishna DvaipayanaReligionHinduismSpouseVatika 1 ChildrenLegitimate from Vatika Shuka son Extra Marital see Niyoga Dhritarashtra from Ambika Pandu from Ambalika Vidura from Parishrami ParentsParashara Father Satyavati Mother Known forMahabharataRelativesMaternal Half Brothers ChitrangadaVichitraviryaReligious careerDisciples ShukaJaiminiPailaVaishampayanaSumantuHonoursFestival of Guru Purnima also known as the Vyasa Purnima is dedicated to himBorn to fisherwoman Satyavati and the sage Parashara Vyasa himself fathered the Kuru king Pandu under Niyoga practice in place of a half brother who died heirless at the behest of Satyavati Vyasa was also the surgeon who put the Kauravas siblings into incubation 2 Vyasa is also regarded by many Hindus as a partial incarnation aṃsa avatara of the god Vishnu and the compiler of the mantrasof the Vedas into four Vedas as well as the author of the eighteen Puranas and the Brahma Sutras He is one of the seven immortal Chiranjeevis implying he is still alive in the current Kali yuga Contents 1 Name 2 Attributed texts 2 1 The Mahabharata 2 2 Other texts attributed 2 2 1 Puranas 2 2 2 Brahma Sutras 3 In the Mahabharata 3 1 Birth 3 2 Niyoga and birth of Vichitravirya s sons 3 3 Connection with the Pandavas and Kauravas 4 Disciples 5 Festival 6 In Sikhism 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Sources 11 Further reading 12 External linksName EditVyasa s birth name is Krishna Dvaipayana which possibly refers to his dark complexion and birthplace 3 although he is more commonly known as Veda Vyasa Veda Vyasa as he has compiled the single eternal Veda into four separate books Rigveda Samaveda Yajurveda and Atharvaveda 4 5 The word Vyasa Vyasa refers to compiler or arranger 6 7 and also means separation or division 6 Other meanings are split differentiate or describe It is also a title given to a holy sage or a pious learned man and applied to persons distinguished for their writings 8 Swami Vivekananda expresses the opinion that Vyasa may not have been a single person but a lineage of sages who were content to simply develop the ideas without claiming credit as they were free from desire for the results of their work and hence attributed the authorship to Vyasa 9 He says that Vyasa being only a title anyone who composed a new Purana was known by the name Vyasa 10 Hindus traditionally hold that Vyasa subcategorized the primordial single Veda to produce four parts as a canonical collection Hence he was called Veda Vyasa or Splitter of the Vedas the splitting being a feat that allowed people to understand the divine knowledge of the Veda The Vishnu Purana elaborates on the role of Vyasa in Hindu chronology 11 The Hindu view of the universe is that of a cyclic phenomenon that comes into existence and dissolves repeatedly Each kalpa cycle is presided over by a number of Manus one for each manvantara and each manvantara has a number of Yuga Cycles each with four yuga ages of declining virtues The Dvapara Yuga is the third yuga The Vishnu Purana Book 3 Ch 3 says In every third world age Dvapara Vishnu in the person of Vyasa in order to promote the good of mankind divides the Veda which is properly but one into many portions Observing the limited perseverance energy and application of mortals he makes the Veda fourfold to adapt it to their capacities and the bodily form which he assumes in order to effect that classification is known by the name of Veda Vyasa Of the different Vyasas in the present Manvantara and the branches which they have taught you shall have an account Twenty eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivasvata Manvantara and consequently eight and twenty Vyasa s have passed away by whom in the respective periods the Veda has been divided into four The first distribution was made by Svayambhu Brahma himself in the second the arranger of the Veda Vyasa was Prajapati and so on up to twenty eight 12 According to the Vishnu Purana Aswatthama the son of Drona will become the next sage Vyasa and will divide the Veda in 29th Maha Yuga of 7th Manvantara 13 Attributed texts EditThe Mahabharata Edit Main article Mahabharata Vyasa narrating the Mahabharata to Ganesha his scribe Angkor Wat Vyasa is traditionally regarded as the chronicler of this epic and also features as an important character in Mahabharata The first section of the Mahabharata states that it was Ganesha who wrote down the text to Vyasa s dictation a but this is regarded by scholars as a later interpolation to the epic and this part of the story is also excluded in the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata 14 The five Pandava brothers of the junior line of the Kuru royal house being the ultimate victors thus India s cultural heroes Vyasa s relationship with the winners in this kinship war of cousin against cousin is as chronicler who sired the father of the victors These five protagonists are the surrogate sons of Pandu sired by various gods on behalf of this Kuru king whom Vyasa himself fathered under Niyoga practice in place of an elder brother who died heirless at the behest of his mother Satyavati Vyasa also sired the father of the vanquished he was certainly the surgeon who put the hundred brothers of antogonist cousins into incubation and as they are only said to be sired by a boon he conferred on their mother there s some possibility that he is also their biological sire himself 15 Hence Vyasa s authorship of the Mahabharata is by way of biography of his own family including its adoptees This was the struggle between his own ex officio grandsons 2 And it is in the wake of producing this purportedly historical smiriti Mahabharata as well as compiling the essential sruti scripture of the Vedas that Vyasa was added as epithet then eclipsed his two birth names Krishna and Dvaipayana while his smiriti creation became a canon whose territorial name drawing on either one or two lengendary ruler s personal names included in the saga s text still underlies modern Sanskrit to Hindi official form Bharat Gaṇarajya in the names for India through its current constitution 16 17 Vyasa s Jaya literally victory the core of the Mahabharata is a dialogue between Dhritarashtra the Kuru king and the father of the Kauravas who opposed the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra War and Sanjaya his adviser and charioteer Sanjaya narrates the particulars of the Kurukshetra War fought in eighteen days chronologically Dhritarashtra at times asks questions and expresses doubts sometimes lamenting fearing the destruction the war would bring on his family friends and kin The Bhagavad Gita Sanskrit The Song of God is contained in the Bhishma Parva which is chapters 23 40 of book 6 of the Mahabharata 18 The Gita dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE in its own right is one of the most influential philosophico religious dialogues producing numerous commentaries and a global audience Like the Jaya it is also a dialogue in which Pandava Prince Arjuna s hesitation to attack his cousins is counseled from the perspective of the gods by his charioteer revealed to be an avatar of Krishna 19 In 1981 Larson stated that a complete listing of Gita translations and a related secondary bibliography would be nearly endless 20 The Bhagavad Gita has been highly praised not only by prominent Indians including Mahatma Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 21 but also by Aldous Huxley Henry David Thoreau J Robert Oppenheimer 22 Ralph Waldo Emerson Carl Jung Herman Hesse 23 24 and Bulent Ecevit 25 In the Mahabharata large and elaborate lists are given describing hundreds of kingdoms tribes provinces cities towns villages rivers mountains forests etc of the ancient Indian subcontinent Bharata Varsha Additionally he gives descriptions of the military formations adopted by each side on each day the death of individual heroes and the details of the war races Eighteen chapters of Vyasa s Jaya constitute the Bhagavad Gita a sacred text in Hinduism The Jaya deals with diverse subjects such as geography history warfare religion and morality The 100 000 verses of Vyasa s work Mahabharata is told by Vaishampayana to Janamejaya It is structured as a narration by Ugrasrava surnamed Sauti a professional storyteller to an assembly of rishis who in the forest of Naimisha had just attended the 12 year sacrifice known as Saunaka surnamed Kulapati At 100 000 verses the Mahabharata is the longest epic poem ever written Other texts attributed Edit Narada meets Vyasa Puranas Edit Main article Puranas Vyasa is also credited with the writing of the eighteen major Puraṇas 5 which are works of Indian literature that cover an encyclopedic range of topics covering various scriptures He narrated the Devi Bhagavata Purana to Parikshit s son Janamejaya Brahma Sutras Edit The Brahma Sutras one of the foundational texts of Vedanta is written by Badarayana also known as Veda Vyasa 26 Badarayana is also called Vyasa which literally means one who arranges 26 27 In the Mahabharata EditBirth Edit During her youth Satyavati was a fisherwoman of Kaivartta clan 28 who used to ferry people across river to help her father One day she helped Parashara to cross the river Yamuna He was enchanted by her beauty and wanted an heir from her Initially Satyavati did not agree telling that if others would see them then her purity would be questioned Parashara created a secret place in bushes of a nearby island and a blanket of thick fog She conceived and immediately gave birth to a son 4 Parashara named him Krishna Dvaipayana referring to his dark complexion and birthplace 29 Dvaipayana became an adult and promised his mother that he would come to her when needed Parashara restored Satyavati s virginity gifted her an enchanting smell and left with his son Satyavati kept this incident a secret not telling even King Shantanu whom she was married to later 4 30 Niyoga and birth of Vichitravirya s sons Edit Vyasa with his mother Satyavati Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons named Chitrangada and Vichitravirya Both of them died early without leaving an heir but Vichitravirya had two wives Ambika and Ambalika A widowed Satyavati initially asked her stepson Bhishma to marry both the queens but he refused citing his vow of celibacy Satyavati revealed her secret past and requested him to bring her firstborn to impregnate the widows under a tradition called Niyoga 31 By this time Vyasa had compiled the Vedas Sage Vyasa was unkempt because of months of meditation in the forest Hence upon seeing him Ambika who was rather scared shut her eyes resulting in their child Dhritarashtra being born blind The other queen Ambalika turned pale upon meeting Vyasa which resulted in their child Pandu being born pale Alarmed Satyavati requested that Vyasa meet Ambika again and grant her another son Ambika instead sent her maid to meet Vyasa The duty bound maid was calm and composed she had a healthy child who was later named Vidura 4 Connection with the Pandavas and Kauravas Edit Gandhari serving Vyasa When the children of Vichitravirya grew up Bhishma got them married to different women Dhritarashtra was married to Gandhari princess of Gandhara Pandu married Kunti and Madri Pandu left the kingdom leaving Dhritarashtra as the acting king Gandhari during her adolescence received a boon to have a hundred children but her pregnancy was taking a long period of time After two years of pregnancy Gandhari aborted her developing fetus giving birth to a hard mass that looked like an iron ball Vyasa came to the kingdom and using his knowledge he asked to divide the mass into one hundred and one pieces and put them into pots for incubation After a year 101 babies were born Meanwhile Pandu s wives Kunti and Madri were blessed with three and two sons respectively 4 While everybody rejoiced at the news of the birth of the Pandavas and Kauravas misery took place in the forest Pandu who was cursed died because of his attempt to make love with Madri Kunti and the Pandavas returned to Hastinapura Vyasa feeling sorrow for his mother s fate asked her to leave the kingdom and come with him to live a peaceful life Satyavati along with her two daughters in law went to the forest 4 Disciples EditVyasa had a son named Shuka who was his spiritual successor and heir b As per Skanda Purana Vyasa married Vatika alias Pinjala who was the daughter of a sage named Jabali It is described that Vyasa s union with her produced his heir who repeated everything that he heard thus receiving the name Shuka lit Parrot 1 32 33 Other texts including the Devi Bhagavata Purana also narrate the birth of Shuka but with drastic differences Vyasa was desiring an heir when an apsara celestial damsel named Ghritachi flew in front of him in form of a beautiful parrot causing him sexual arousal He discharges his semen which fell on some sticks and a son developed This time he was named Shuka because of the role of the celestial parrot 4 Shuka appears occasionally in the story as a spiritual guide to the young Kuru princes Besides his heir Vyasa had four other disciples Paila Jaimini Vaishampayana and Sumantu 5 Each one of them was given the responsibility to spread one of the four Vedas Paila was the made the incharge of Rigveda Jaimini of the Samaveda Vaishampayana of the Yajurveda and Sumantu of Atharvaveda 34 Vyasa is believed to have lived on the banks of Ganga in modern day Uttarakhand The site was also the ritual home of the sage Vashishta along with the Pandavas the five brothers of the Mahabharata 35 Vyasa is also mentioned in the Sankara Digvijaya He confronts Adi Shankara who has written a commentary on the Brahma Sutras in the form of an old Brahmana and asks for an explanation of the first Sutra This develops into a debate between Shankara and Vyasa which lasts for eight days Recognizing the old Brahmana to be Vyasa Shankara makes obeisance and sings a hymn in his praise Thereupon Vyasa inspects and approves Shankara s commentary on the Brahma Sutras Adi Shankara who was supposed to die at the end of his sixteenth year express his desire to leave his body in the presence of Vyasa Vyasa dissuades him and blesses him that he may live for another sixteen years to complete his work 36 Festival EditThe festival of Guru Purnima is dedicated to Vyasa It is also known as Vyasa Purnima the day believed to be both of his birth and when he divided the Vedas 37 38 In Sikhism EditIn Brahm Avtar one of the compositions in Dasam Granth Guru Gobind Singh mentions Rishi Vyas as an avatar of Brahma 39 He is considered the fifth incarnation of Brahma Guru Gobind Singh wrote a brief account of Rishi Vyas s compositions about great kings Manu Prithu Bharath Jujat Ben Mandata Dilip Raghu Raj and Aj 39 40 and attributed to him the store of Vedic learning 41 See also Edit Hinduism portal Poetry portalChiranjivi Parashara Guru Gita Gnana Saraswati Temple Basar Vedic mythologyNotes Edit It is believed that Vyasa asks Ganesha to assist him in writing the text Ganesha imposes a precondition that he would do so only if Vyasa would narrate the story without a pause Vyasa set a counter condition that Ganesha understands the verses first before transcribing them Thus Vyasa narrated the entire Mahabharata Later Vyasa became the surrogate father of Kuru princes Pandu and Dhritrashtra References Edit a b Dalal 2019 a b Bhattacharya Pradip May June 2004 Of Kunti and Satyawati Sexually Assertive Women of the Mahabharata PDF Manushi 142 21 25 Essays on the Mahabharata Arvind Sharma Motilal Banarsidass Publisher p 205 a b c d e f g Mani Vettam 1975 Puranic Encyclopaedia A Comprehensive Dictionary With Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature Delhi Motilal Banarsidass pp 885 Vyasa ISBN 0 8426 0822 2 a b c Sullivan Bruce M 1999 Seer of the Fifth Veda Kr ṣṇa Dvaipayana Vyasa in the Mahabharata Motilal Banarsidass Publ ISBN 978 81 208 1676 3 a b Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit Vyasa Gopal Madan 1990 K S Gautam ed India through the ages Publication Division Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India p 158 Gopal Madan 1990 K S Gautam ed India through the ages Publication Division Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India p 129 Vivekananda Swami 2016 The work before us The complete works of Swami Vivekananda Advaita Ashrama ISBN 978 81 7505 392 2 OCLC 1126811997 Vivekananda Swami 2016 Thoughts on Gita The complete works of Swami Vivekananda Advaita Ashrama ISBN 978 81 7505 392 2 OCLC 1126811997 Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Puranas Volume 1 2001 page 1408 Vishnu Purana Retrieved 15 March 2014 Vishnu Purana Drauni or Asvathama as Next Vyasa Retrieved 2015 03 22 Mahabharata Vol 1 Part 2 Critical edition p 884 Barti Kalra et al The Mahabharata and reproductive endocrinology Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism 20 3 404 407 doi 10 4103 2230 8210 180004 Clementin Ojha Catherine 2014 India that is Bharat One Country Two Names South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal 10 The Essential Desk Reference Oxford University Press 2002 p 76 ISBN 978 0 19 512873 4 Official name Republic of India John Da Graca 2017 Heads of State and Government London Macmillan p 421 ISBN 978 1 349 65771 1 Official name Republic of India Bharat Ganarajya Hindi Graham Rhind 2017 Global Sourcebook of Address Data Management A Guide to Address Formats and Data in 194 Countries Taylor amp Francis p 302 ISBN 978 1 351 93326 1 Official name Republic of India Bharat Bradnock Robert W 2015 The Routledge Atlas of South Asian Affairs Routledge p 108 ISBN 978 1 317 40511 5 Official name English Republic of India Hindi Bharat Ganarajya Penguin Compact Atlas of the World Penguin 2012 p 140 ISBN 978 0 7566 9859 1 Official name Republic of India Merriam Webster s Geographical Dictionary 3rd ed Merriam Webster 1997 pp 515 516 ISBN 978 0 87779 546 9 Officially Republic of India Complete Atlas of the World 3rd Edition The Definitive View of the Earth DK Publishing 2016 p 54 ISBN 978 1 4654 5528 4 Official name Republic of India Worldwide Government Directory with Intergovernmental Organizations 2013 CQ Press 10 May 2013 p 726 ISBN 978 1 4522 9937 2 India Republic of India Bharat Ganarajya Mahabharata World History Encyclopedia Retrieved 1 April 2022 Bhagavadgita Definition Contents amp Significance Britannica www britannica com Retrieved 27 December 2022 Gerald James Larson 1981 The Song Celestial Two centuries of the Bhagavad Gita in English Philosophy East and West University of Hawai i Press 31 4 513 40 doi 10 2307 1398797 JSTOR 1398797 Modern Indian Interpreters of the Bhagavad Gita by Robert Neil Minor 1986 p 161 Hijiya 2000 sfn error no target CITEREFHijiya2000 help Pandit 2005 p 27harvnb error no target CITEREFPandit2005 help Hume 1959 p 29harvnb error no target CITEREFHume1959 help The Telegraph Calcutta Opinion The Telegraph Kolkota a b Radhakrishna Sarvepalli 1960 Brahma Sutra The Philosophy of Spiritual Life p 22 with footnote 3 and 4 The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Edwin F Bryant 2009 page xl Sen Kshitimohan 1997 Jatived in Bengali Shantiniketan Visva Bharati University pp 46 49 Monier Williams Sir Monier 1875 Indian Wisdom Or Examples of the Religious Philosophical and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindus With a Brief History of the Chief Departments of Sanskṛit Literature and Some Account of the Past and Present Condition of India Moral and Intellectual Wm H Allen amp Company Dalal Roshen 18 April 2014 Hinduism An Alphabetical Guide ISBN 9788184752779 Bhawalkar Vanamala 2002 Eminent women in the Mahabharata Sharada ISBN 9788185616803 Pattanaik 2000 Skanda Puraṇa Nagara Khanda ch 147 Shastri J L Tagare Ganesh Vasudeo 1 January 2004 Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology Volume 7 The Bhagavata Purana Part 1 Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 978 81 208 3874 1 Strauss Sarah 2002 The Master s Narrative Swami Sivananda and the Transnational Production of Yoga Journal of Folklore Research Indiana University Press 23 2 3 221 JSTOR 3814692 Vidyaranya Madhava 2005 Sankara Digvijaya The Traditional life of Sri Sankaracharya Sri Ramakrishna Math Chennai p 70 ISBN 8178233428 Awakening Indians to India Chinmaya Mission 2008 p 167 ISBN 978 81 7597 434 0 What Is Hinduism Modern Adventures Into a Profound Global Faith Himalayan Academy Publications 2007 p 230 ISBN 978 1 934145 00 5 a b Dasam Granth Dr SS Kapoor Line 8 Brahma Avtar Dasam Granth Line 107 Vyas Avtar Dasam GranthSources EditDalal Roshen 6 January 2019 The 108 Upanishads An Introduction Penguin Random House India Private Limited ISBN 978 93 5305 377 2 Maas Philipp A 2006 Samadhipada Das erste Kapitel des Patanjalayogasastra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert Samadhipada The First Chapter of the Patanjalayogasas tra for the First Time Critically Edited Aachen Shaker Pattanaik Devdutt 1 September 2000 The Goddess in India The Five Faces of the Eternal Feminine Simon and Schuster ISBN 978 1 59477 537 6 Further reading EditThe Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli published between 1883 and 1896 The Arthashastra translated by Shamasastry 1915 The Vishnu Purana translated by H H Wilson 1840 The Bhagavata Purana translated by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 1988 copyright Bhaktivedanta Book Trust The Jataka or Stories of the Buddha s Former Births edited by E B Cowell 1895External links Edit Quotations related to Vyasa at Wikiquote Media related to Vyasa at Wikimedia Commons Works by or about Vyasa at Wikisource The Mahabharata Ganguli translation full text at sacred texts com Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Vyasa amp oldid 1131665622, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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