Rishi Vyasa

Vyasa, also called Krishna Dvaipayana, is the sage whom tradition names as the arranger of the Vedas and the author of the Mahabharata. Dvaipayana means "born on an island". Krishna means "dark". Vyasa means "arranger" or "divider", and the Mahabharata says he was called Vyasa because he arranged the Vedas.

The Mahabharata gives his parents as the sage Parashara and Satyavati, who ferried travellers across the Yamuna. He was born on an island in the river and left for the forest soon after. Before going he told his mother that he would come to her whenever she thought of him [Mahabharata, Adi Parva, section 63 in Ganguli]. Satyavati later married King Shantanu of Hastinapura. Through Parashara, Vyasa belongs to the line of Vashishtha.

Vyasa is also an office. The Vishnu Purana says that in every Dvapara age a Vyasa divides the one Veda into parts, that twenty-eight have done so in the present Manvantara, and that Krishna Dvaipayana was the twenty-eighth. It adds that the next will be Drauni, the son of Drona [Vishnu Purana 3.3]. The same Purana tells Maitreya to know Krishna Dvaipayana as the deity Narayana [3.4].

Scholars read this differently. The Mahabharata grew over several centuries, and a common estimate puts its composition between about 400 BCE and 400 CE. Many scholars therefore treat Vyasa as the traditional name for the epic's authorship, not as one historical author. Tradition also identifies Vyasa with Badarayana, the author of the Brahma Sutras. Scholars do not treat that identification as settled.

1. Birth on the island: Parashara and Satyavati had a son on an island in the Yamuna, and he was called Dvaipayana after it [Mahabharata, Adi Parva, section 63].
2. Dividing the Veda: In the twenty-eighth Dvapara age Vyasa separated the Veda into four. He gave the Rik to Paila, the Yajus to Vaishampayana, the Sama to Jaimini and the Atharva to Sumantu. He took Suta Lomaharshana as his pupil in history and legend [Vishnu Purana 3.4].
3. The Mahabharata: The epic says Vyasa composed it after analysing the Veda through penance and meditation. He taught it to his son Shuka and to Sumantu, Jaimini, Paila and Vaishampayana, and Vaishampayana recited it at Janamejaya's snake sacrifice [Adi Parva, sections 1 and 63]. The story that Ganesha wrote it down as Vyasa dictated is in Ganguli's translation of Adi Parva section 1. It is a southern-recension passage and is not in the main text of the Critical Edition.
4. Fathering the Kuru heirs: Vichitravirya, Satyavati's son by Shantanu, died without a son. At Bhishma's suggestion Satyavati asked Vyasa to father children on his widows. Dhritarashtra was born blind because the elder queen shut her eyes at the sight of Vyasa. Pandu was pale because the younger queen turned pale. A maid bore Vidura [Adi Parva, sections 105 and 106]. The epic adds that Vidura was the god Dharma, born in this way under Mandavya's curse [section 107].
5. The Puranas: The Vishnu Purana says Vyasa, skilled in the meaning of the Puranas, compiled a Puranic Samhita, and it lists the eighteen Puranas [Vishnu Purana 3.6]. Tradition credits him with all eighteen.

• An island in the Yamuna, where he was born
• A forest hermitage, where he taught his pupils
• The Kuru court at Hastinapura, where the births of Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura took place