VYASA is the reputed arranger of the Vedas (q.v.), and the reputed author of the Maliabliarata (q.v.), the Pusan as (q.v.). the -Brahmasatras (see VEDANTA), and a Dharmas'astra. According to tradition, he was a sou of the sage Para.' ara and Saty avati, "the truthful," who was a daughter of king Vasu, and a heavenly nymph, Adrika. Another tradition makes him also the father of Dhrlitardshera, Pan'd'a, and Vidura. On account of his dark complexion, he was called Kr'ishn'a (black); and, be cause he was born in an island (deipa) of the-Yranung (Jumna) river, his second name was Draipeiyana. That the immense bulk of literature comprised ,by the above-named works, and relating to different periods, cannot belong to the authorship of one and the same personage, is no matter of doubt. But the name itself of the individual to whom it is attributed conveys the meaning which must be sought for in some of the legends connected with his history. Vydsa (from the Sanskrit ri and as, literally, " throw in different direction," hence " distribute") means the person who arranges a subject matter in a diffuse manner, or the act itself of such a diffuse arrangement, and is often contrasted with samosa (from sam and as, contract), the act of making a concise arrange ment, or of abridging (compare the Greek from om = sam = sun, and ar = as). Vyasa is, therefore, a symbolical representation of the work of generations, as embodied in the Vedas, the Mahabharata, and the Puransas, and of the order which gradually was brought into this literary mass. When, therefore, the Vishn'u-Purania speaks of 28 Vyasas who in the reign of the present Mann arranged the Vedas, it is not impossible Ihat some historical truth may underlie this statement, implying, as it does, a different arrangement of the Hindu scriptures at various times: and that the Mithablifirata, and the Puranias too, may have undergone various arrangements and recensions, until they settled down in their present form, sufficiently results from their contents. Regarding the Brahmasiltras, tradition itself seems only loosely to connect their author with the Vytisa of the forming works, for it says that he was in a former life a Brahman, Apfintaratamas, who, after having attained final beatitude, "by special command of the deity, resumed a corporeal frame and the human shape, at the period intervening between the third and fourth ages of the present world, and was the compiler of the Vedas." (See
Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i. p. 327, Loud. 1837.) As the author of the Dharmasittstra, Vyasa is possibly a personae distinct from the legendary individual V y bearing this name, as is the case with other asas who occur as authors of other works.
twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, "is'a letter which performs the double office of a consonant and a vowel." According to the decisive experi ments of prof. Willis (Cambridge Phil. 2rans. iii. 231), the natural order of the vowels is i, e, a, o, 41, or the reverse; in which the sounds must be understood to he thoss which prevail on the continent. The sounds, then, of i (that is, ee) and u (that is, -so) are the most remote, and the attempt to pass with rapidity from either of These to the others, more particularly to the other extreme, gives an initial breathing which nas the character of a consonant, viz., in the one case, or you; in the other, or we. See Key's Alphabet. This acute analysis of the articulations denoted by the characters so and y throws a clear light on the double function they perform as conso nants and as vowels. The letter w, which originated in the middle ages, is • joined to another, as its English name imports. It is peculiar to the English, German, and Dutch alphabets. It would appear, from a variety of phenomena in Latin and Greek, that the Latin v or u, used as a consonant, as well as the old Greek digamma (4), were more of the nature of the modern w than of the decidedly consonantal English v (see U and V). The French having, like the other Romanic nations, no character w, express the sound by prefixing ou to the vowel; as oui (pron. wee), Edouard = Edward. In the beginning of proper names they substitute gu; e.g., Guillaume = William. The Span iards also use gu, as in the many names compounded of the Arabic wadi; e.g., Guadal quivir; but more frequently hu, as in Chihuahua (pron. Cliftaawa). In High-German, which has become classical German, so is confounded with v, and a with f; thus, Wel lington is pronounced Vellington. In London, w is substituted for a, and v for w with " a most amusing perversity."