VYASA in Sanskrit means distributor ; in this Vyasa is kindred to the Greek Homeros, Isp and rip. It is a literary title common to many old authors, but is especially applied to the Vyasa who arranged the Vedas, and who is also styled Saswatas, the immortal. His ordinary name is Krishna Dwaipayana. The name is also given to the compiler of the Mahabharata, to the founder of 'the Vedanta philosophy, and to the arranger of the Puranas ; and the Puranas mention 28 Vyasas. The names given in the Kurma, Vayu, and Vishnu Puranas of the Vyasa are as under :— Swsysmbhuva. Trivrishan. Vena or Rajas (Brahma). Bharadwaja. ravas.
Prajapati or Antariksha. Saumasushm Menu. Vaprivan. yana or Trina Usanas. Trayyaruna. bindu.
Brihaspati. Dhananjaya. Riksha or Val Savitri. Kritanjaya. miki.
Marityu or Yama. Rinajaya. • Sakti.
Indra. Bharadwaja. Jatukarna.
Vashishta. Gautama, Krishna Dwaipa Saras wata. Uttama or Har- yana.
Tridhaman. yatman, the last of whom, Krishna Dwaipayana, was the most celebrated. He is said to have compiled the Vedas, written the Mahabharata, composed some of the Puranas and compiled the rest ; but to have done all this was quite beyond any individual's power.. Krishna Dwaipayana was the son of Para sara by Satyavati, a fisherman's daughter. Parti san met Satyavati when quite a girl, when cross ing the river Yamuna (Jumna) in a boat. Their son Vyasa was called Krishna from his swarthy com plexion, Dwaipayana because born on an island, and Kanina because of his illegitimacy. His mother
afterwards married king Santanu, and had two sons ; the elder was killed in battle, and Vichitra Virya, the younger, died childless. Krishna Dwaipayana became the spiritual father or pre ceptor of his nieces, the daughters of Vichitra Virya, the son and successor of Santana. He pre ferred a life of religious retirement, but, in accordance with law, and at his mother's request, he took the two childless widows of her son Vichitra-Virya, and by them he had two sous, Dhritarashtra and Parish', between whose descendants the great war of the Mahabharata was fought. Arriau gives the story thus : He (Hercules) had a daughter when he was advanced in years, and, being unable to find a husband worthy of her, he married her himself, that he might supply the throne of India with monarchs. Her name was Pandea, and he caused the whole province in which she was born to receive its name from her.' One Vyasa was the propounder of the Vedanta philosophy or psychology. This Vedanta of Vyasa considered all existing beings and things to be an evolution of the deity in and throughout all beings and things. Sankaracharya went further, and declared that the soul of man is a part of the deity, not different, but confined in the body as a temporary prison, and on the death of the body flowing back to the deity.—Rajasthan, p. 30 ; Rev. TV. Taylor.