[Advaita-l] vyAsa - a portfolio

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sat, 26 Mar 2011, Venkata sriram P wrote:

> Namaste,
>  
> Kurma Purana names 27 vyAsAs in Vaivasvata Manvantara.  They are:
>  
> svAyaMbhuva manu, prajApati, shukrAchArya, brihaspati,
> sUrya, yama, dEvEndra, vashiShTha, sArasvata, tribhuvana,
> riShabha, sujEta, dharma, suchakSha, trayyAruNi, dhananjaya,
> kritanjaya, rutanjaya, bharadwAja, Gautama, vAchashrava,
> nArAyaNa, triNabindu, vAlmiki, shakti, parAshara, jAtukarNa,
> kriShNadvaipAyana. 
>  
> Devi Bhagavata mentions 28th vyAsa as “ashwatthAma”. 

The Vishnupurana says DrauNi "son of droNa" which means the same.  I find 
this curious because Ashvatthama is a rather villainous character in the 
Mahabharata being responsible for the slaughter of the children of the 
Pandavas.

> Generally we don't find in South but in North, whoever expounds the 
> purANa, first his seat is worshipped with flowers which is called "vyAsa 
> gaddi".  The crossed stand to keep the holy books is called "vyAsa 
> pIth".

And the Brahmanas who specialized in the recitation of puranas have the 
surname Vyas. :-)

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>