Vyasa

Vyasa (व्यास), also called Veda Vyasa or Krishna Dvaipayana, is the sage traditionally credited with composing the Mahabharata, dividing the Vedas into four, and compiling the Puranas. He is also a character in the epic, the biological father of Dhritarashtra and Pandu, and the one who gave Sanjaya the sight through which the Bhagavad Gita reaches us.

Who was Vyasa?

Vyasa was born to the sage Parashara and Satyavati on an island in the Yamuna, which gives him the name Dvaipayana, “island-born”, and his dark complexion the name Krishna. He grew up quickly and went to practise tapas. His title Vyasa means “the arranger”, for the way he classified the Vedic hymns into Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva.

Vyasa in the family story

When Vichitravirya died without sons, Satyavati asked Vyasa, her own son, to father heirs by the widowed queens. This is how Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura were born, and why Vyasa is grandfather to both the Kauravas and the Pandavas. He remained a counsellor to the family throughout the epic.

Vyasa and the Gita

Before the war, Vyasa offered Dhritarashtra the power to see the battle, but the king chose not to witness the killing of his kin. Vyasa instead gave the divine sight to Sanjaya, so that he could narrate everything to the king from a distance. This is why the Gita, spoken on the field, is heard by Dhritarashtra at all, and why tradition names Vyasa as the author who preserved it within the Kurukshetra story.

Composer of the epic

Tradition says Vyasa dictated the Mahabharata and that Ganesha wrote it down, on the condition that Vyasa never pause. The epic describes itself as a work that contains all themes, and the saying “what is not here is nowhere” is often quoted of it. Vyasa’s day is remembered as Guru Purnima.