Vyasa

Vyasa is a legendary figure of Hindu tradition, linked to ancient India and the Sanskrit language. He is less a documented author than a name to which tradition attributes much of Hinduism's sacred and epic literature. His importance lies in the role assigned to him as compiler of the Vedas and author of the Mahabharata.

His birth name was Krishna Dvaipayana. The title Vyasa, which can be rendered as "compiler" or "arranger", came to replace his birth names after he was said to have arranged the Vedic texts into separate collections, a task that made the Vedas easier to study and to memorize. Scholars note, however, that the oldest Veda, the Rigveda, does not mention any Vyasa, and that his first clear appearance is in Buddhist birth stories, which places the figure long after the texts credited to him.

The legend of his birth tells that he was the son of the sage Parashara and Satyavati, a young woman who ferried travellers across the Yamuna river. According to the story, the sage conjured a fog and an island so that their union would go unseen, and the boy was born on that island with a dark complexion, which gave him the names Krishna and Dvaipayana, "born on an island". Soon after his birth he left the island and took up the life of an ascetic. Later, through the practice of niyoga, he fathered the princes Dhritarashtra and Pandu and, according to the same account, Vidura, which made him grandfather to the rival sides of the battle of Kurukshetra.

As an author, he is credited with the Mahabharata, whose core, the Jaya, is a dialogue between the blind king Dhritarashtra and his adviser Sanjaya, who narrates the war day by day. Within this epic sits the Bhagavad Gita, a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna about duty and action. Tradition also credits him with the Puranas, encyclopedic texts, and in some accounts with the Brahma Sutras. Scholars generally conclude that the works attributed to him came from many authors over long periods, a view supported by differences in style and in the Sanskrit used, and that the dense, elaborate language of the epic likely reflects composition in several stages.

His figure carries great weight in Hinduism. The Puranas present him as a secondary avatar of Vishnu, and the Mahabharata counts him among the chiranjivis, long-lived or immortal beings who, according to belief, are still alive in the present age. His works continue to be read, commented on and performed across the Indian subcontinent and beyond.