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As I discuss in this answer, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Dṛṣṭas (literally seers) have heard sacred verses (mantras) directly from the gods during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation). And then in the Dvāpara Yuga (the age before the current one), a sage named Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vedavyāsa (Vyāsa for short) compiled these verses from all those different sages into a coherent work, dividing them into a set of four books we call the Vedas. (Technically Vyāsa only compiled the Rig, Yajus, and Sāma Veda; the Atharvaṇa Veda was compiled by the sages Atharva and Aṅgiras).

But Vyāsa wasn't the first one to compile and divide the Vedas, and he won't be the last. Vedavyāsa is in fact a title, assigned to a different person in every Dvāpara Yuga, as described by Vyāsa's father Parāśara in the Viṣṇu purāṇa:

Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivaśvata Manvantara in the Dvāpara age, and consequently eight and twenty Vyāsa have passed away; by whom, in their respective periods, the Veda has been divided into four. In the first Dvāpara age the distribution was made by Svayambhu (Brahma) himself; ... I [Parāśara] was the Vyāsa of the twenty-sixth Dvāpara, and was succeeded by Jaratkāru; the Vyāsa of the twenty-eighth, who followed him, was Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana. These are the twenty-eight elder Vyāsas, by whom, in the preceding Dvāpara ages, the Veda has been divided into four. In the next Dvāpara, [Aśvatthāma] Drauṇi (the son of Droṇa) will be the Vyāsa, when my son, the Muni Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana, who is the actual Vyāsa, shall cease to be (in that character).

My question is, why do the Vedas need to be recompiled and redivided in every Dvāpara Yuga? I can understand if the knowledge of the Vedas is lost over the generations as people die, and thus in every Dvāpara Yuga someone needs to go back to all the sages and find out the verses they heard from the gods. But most of the people mentioned in the above quote are Cirañjīvis (immortals), so why doesn't the new Vedavyāsa just ask some previous one for their compiled work?

Vyāsa's father Parāśara is immortal, for instance, so couldn't Vyāsa have just asked his dad for the verses he had compiled two Dvāpara Yugas ago? And Aśvatthāma is immortal (as I discuss in this answer), and he's alive right now, so rather than waiting until the next Dvāpara Yuga, couldn't he just walk into a bookstore tomorrow and buy a copy of Vyāsa's version of the Vedas? Or if there's an issue of all the original Śākhās (recensions) not being included in the books they sell in bookstores, couldn't Aśvatthāma have just gotten the Vedas from Vyāsa himself in the last Dvāpara Yuga, especially considering that he was a student of Vyāsa?

Is the issue simply that the compiled Vedas grow in size each time, because in the intervening years between Dvāpara Yugas, sages will have heard certain verses from the gods that had never been heard before? Is Vyāsa's version of the Vedas bigger than Parāśara's, and will Aśvatthāma's be even bigger? Are there any scriptures that describe this?

Tammikēlu
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Keshav Srinivasan
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  • Good question. I think the answer is what you gave in the last part. Vedas must be relocated and upgraded after every 4,320,000 years. It might be that, for example many people translate Geeta according to their own understanding, like Tilak did for Geetarahasya, Dnyaneshwar for dnyaneshwari, etc. So vedas also must be getting changed according to each person's thinking. During this period, original Sanskrit verses must be untouched. Hence to revive the original meaning, Vyas must again revive the whole text and preach its meaning. – Shreemay Panhalkar Aug 18 '14 at 05:32
  • well that verse says 'twenty and eight Vyasas have passed away' so that could mean they are not around to be asked. also it says 'shall cease to be' with (in that character) added in paranthesis ! so that means the verse is implying that Vyasa will no longer be (in a physical body) at that time, isn't it? How else would you interpret those words – Sai Jan 07 '15 at 22:58
  • @Sai I think "cease to be in that character" just means cease to be the Vedavyasa, not cease to be in their physical body. The present Vyasa's father Parashara was still alive at the time that Vyasa was compiling the Vedas; in fact Parashara is the one who is telling this list of Vyasas to his disciple Maitreya, after His son had already done the work. – Keshav Srinivasan Jan 08 '15 at 03:21
  • Maybe the concern is that at the end of Kali yuga, leading into Dwapara, the Vedas have been essentially lost. – Gratus D. Jan 08 '15 at 18:35
  • @KeshavSrinivasan just saying that the only thing parashara says is cease to be the rest was in paranthesis meaning he didnt say it. It s just the interpretation of the translator. It is possible that Parashara was alive (or in physical) when this was going on. But his description is a more general one i think. – Sai Jan 08 '15 at 20:01
  • 1/2 What is the motivation for this question? What prompted this and how does it benefit this SE? It is incorrect to believe asking "Why" of everything is indicative of a scientific or rational temperament. The Goal of Hinduism as discussed in the other question is to attain moksha and make use of all tools that are at our disposal; –  Jan 09 '15 at 12:25
  • 2/2 questioning them is beneficial only in the most egregious cases and the vEdas and VyAsa are not such. This SE will benefit from questions and answers that attempt to understand existing body of knowledge and proof by negation is not a valid method in the case of knowledge that is divined by sages. –  Jan 09 '15 at 12:27
  • My motivation in asking this question is that in the course of answering this question, I found out that Ashwatthama became a disciple of Vyasa. Before that I had assumed that the Vyasa never makes contact with previous Vyasas, so he needs to do the compilation and division work from scratch. But now I realized that Ashwatthama had contact with Vyasa, and it's apparently this contact that will lead Ashwatthama to becoming the new Vyasa. So I wanted to understand, what is the relationship between the work Ashwatthama will do and the current work. – Keshav Srinivasan Jan 10 '15 at 02:55
  • @moonstar2001 "questioning them is beneficial only in the most egregious cases and the vEdas and VyAsa are not such." i'm not trying to "question" Hindu scripture at all. I think Hindu scripture is sacred and infallible. I'm trying to understand it, not question it. – Keshav Srinivasan Jan 10 '15 at 03:02
  • "This SE will benefit from questions and answers that attempt to understand existing body of knowledge and proof by negation is not a valid method in the case of knowledge that is divined by sages." I think you're misunderstanding the purpose of my questions on the site. I'm not doing "proof by negation" - I'm not trying to take quotes from Hindu scripture and show that they're wrong. I'm doing the opposite: I take for granted that Hindu scripture is right, so when Hindu scripture says something, I want to understand what it's saying and find more information about what it's talking about. – Keshav Srinivasan Jan 10 '15 at 03:06
  • Agree with @moonstar2001 While it is exiting to exhume lost history, it would be more beneficial from a spiritual point of view, if we start discussing about the nature of Dharma, Moksha, Mukthi and the sooksha aspects of various spiritual practices. Unfortunately, I see no such discussion in this site, although there are very brilliant and knowledgeable people here. Ancient history/mythology is a wild goose chase with no end in sight. – Naveen Jun 23 '15 at 00:46
  • @Naveen Well, Hinduism is a big religion, so there's room on this site for both kinds of questions, questions on mythology and questions on spiritual subjects. I've personally asked lots of questions on spiritual subjects, like this question about the nature of Advaita liberation from a Sri Vaishnava perspective: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6686/36 But I should make clear that this site is not meant to be a forum for discussion. It's meant to be a place where people can ask and answer factual questions about Hinduism. – Keshav Srinivasan Jun 23 '15 at 02:31
  • Chandogya Upanishad only mentions about 3 vedas - Rig, Sama and Yajur then why Atharva Veda is considered as a part of the Vedas? – Pinakin May 01 '16 at 09:39
  • @ChinmaySarupria Not just the Chandogya Upanishad, lots of scriptures speak about "the three Vedas". There's a very good reason for that - strictly speaking only the first three Vedas were compiled by Vyasa; the Atharvana Veda was an independent compilation done by the sages Bhrigu and Angiras. – Keshav Srinivasan May 01 '16 at 15:24

5 Answers5

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Good question. I think the answer is what you gave in the last part. Vedas must be relocated and upgraded after every 4,320,000 years. It might be that, for example many people translate Geeta according to their own understanding, like Tilak did for Geetarahasya, Dnyaneshwar for dnyaneshwari, etc. So Vedas also must be getting changed according to each person's thinking. During this period, original Sanskrit verses must be untouched. Hence to revive the original meaning, Vyasa must again revive the whole text and preach its meaning.

Keshav Srinivasan
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Shreemay Panhalkar
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    "Vedas also must be getting changed according to each person's thinking." No, great pains are taken to ensure that the exact words of the Vedas are preserved from generation to generation. But even if later generations had lost or changed some of the original words, that wouldn't matter, because the whole reason I'm asking the question is that the previous Vyasas are still alive, and they would presumably know the uncorrupted version. So Vyasa could just ask his father Parashara for the version that he had compiled. – Keshav Srinivasan Aug 19 '14 at 19:51
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    "i think the answer is what you gave in the last part." I don't want speculation, I want a definitive answer based on scripture. – Keshav Srinivasan Aug 19 '14 at 19:53
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https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp077.htm

In every Dwápara (or third) age, Vishńu, in the person of Vyása, in order to promote the good of mankind, divides the Veda, which is properly but one, into many portions: observing the limited perseverance, energy, and application of mortals, he makes the Veda fourfold, to adapt it to their capacities; and the bodily form which he assumes, in order to effect that classification, is known by the name of Veda-vyása.

The bolded words such as to promote the good of mankind ,observing the limited perseverance, energy, and application of mortals are the reasons why the vedas need to be recompiled.

https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm

Vyasa also knew that virtue would become less.

And the learned Dwaipayana, beholding that virtue is destined to become lame by one leg each yuga (she having four legs in all) and that the period of life and the strength of men followed the yugas, and moved by the desire of obtaining the favour of Brahman and the Brahmanas, arranged the Vedas. And for this he came to be called Vyasa (the arranger or compiler).

The bolded words such as to promote the good of mankind ,observing the limited perseverance, energy, and application of mortals are the reasons why the vedas need to be recompiled.

Fun life
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Vyasa does not "compile" the Vedas every Dwapara Yuga, Vyasa splits or divides the Vedas every Dwapara Yuga. The word Vyasa means "divider."

From the Srimad Bhagavatam:

Verse 47: Observing that people in general were diminished in their life span, strength and intelligence by the influence of time, great sages took inspiration from the Personality of Godhead sitting within their hearts and systematically divided the Vedas.

And the division of the Vedas is done simply by teaching each of his four sishyas each part of the Vedas (Rk, Yajus, Saman, and Atharvan).

Text 51: The most powerful and intelligent Vyāsadeva called four of his disciples, and entrusted to each of them one of these four saṁhitās.

Texts 52-53: Śrīla Vyāsadeva taught the first saṁhitā, the Ṛg Veda, to Paila and gave this collection the name Bahvṛca. To the sage Vaiśampāyana he spoke the collection of Yajur mantras named Nigada. He taught the Sāma Veda mantras, designated as the Chandoga-saṁhitā, to Jaimini, and he spoke the Atharva Veda to his dear disciple Sumantu.

And since the current Vyasa is an incarnation of Vishnu, he automatically knows all the Vedic mantras, so he doesn't need to ask the other Rishis for their mantras:

The almighty Lord, exhibiting a divine spark of a portion of His plenary portion, then appeared in the womb of Satyavatī as the son of Parāśara. In this form, named Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, he divided the one Veda into four.

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It is because kali yuga is the time when humans are manda bhAgya ( of poor fortune and capacity to attain brahman) , manda buddhi(of poor intellect) and alpa Ayushkas (people with short lifespans). They are incapable of learning all the vEdas and shastras , preserving them and propagating them and, benefiting from their entirety. So, in order to benefit people of kali yuga and to preserve the sanctity and extant of the vEdas, and to allow people of kali to continue to have a relationship with the divine through the vEda, Vyasa who is an avatar of Vishnu, analysed and synthesised them into smaller, more easily consumable capsules. You can check for the validity of the nature of kali people in the bhAgavta purAna.

Keshav Srinivasan
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    Unfortunately, this doesn't answer my question. I already knew why it's necessary to divide the Vedas for the benefit of people in the Kali Yuga. But my question was, why does this work of division need to be done from scratch by a new Vyasa every time? Why couldn't the present Vyasa just use the division that previous Vyasas had done in past Dwapara Yugas? Couldn't he just ask his father Parashara for the division he had done two Dwapara Yugas ago? Couldn't Ashwathhama, who became a disciple of the present Vyasa after all, just use the work that the present Vyasa already did? – Keshav Srinivasan Jan 09 '15 at 21:42
  • One possible explanation is that each new Vyasa expands on the work of the previous one, incorporating Vedic hymns that were heard from the gods more recently. But so far I haven't found any scriptural basis for an explanation like that. – Keshav Srinivasan Jan 09 '15 at 21:52
  • @KeshavSrinivasan - Yup, that seems quite logical. Another reason could be to record the activities of recent saints and bhaktas. For instance, the works of Sri Purandara Dasa, Narsimha Mehta, Mirabai, etc. might go into the next recompiled version. – Prahlad Yeri Feb 15 '15 at 11:03
  • @PrahladYeri We're talking here about the Samhitas of the Vedas, i.e. the core part of the Vedas heard from the gods. (That's what Vyasa compiled.) The Samhitas don't contain much in the way of stories about rishis or devotees. They mostly just consist of hymns praising various gods. Here's the Rig Veda Samhita, for instance: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm – Keshav Srinivasan Feb 15 '15 at 11:08
  • "They mostly just consist of hymns praising various gods." - I was referring to the same. The works of Purandara dasa contain several hymns praising lord Vishnu as part of Kannada Literature - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purandara_Dasa – Prahlad Yeri Feb 15 '15 at 11:18
  • @PrahladYeri Well, the works of Purandara Dasa are certainly great, and may even be divinely inspired, but that's different from saying that they're mantras heard from the gods during Tapasya. That is what is compiled in the Samhitas of the Vedas. – Keshav Srinivasan Feb 15 '15 at 12:01
  • @KeshavSrinivasan You might be interested to look into this question which is similar to the current one on the contents of the Vedas. – Naveen Jun 23 '15 at 00:40
  • @KeshavSrinivasan How a particular Veda is attributed to some people? For example, My Veda Shaka is Krishna Yajur Veda. My maternal grandfather's was Sama Veda. If only one Veda existed instead of four Vedas when Rishis receive revelation and begetting children, all people together learnt only one Veda till the first time Vyasa was born. After Vyasa divided Vedas into three or four, who attributed which Veda a person is going to follow along with his descendants? How this is possible? – Tat Tvam Asi Jun 06 '18 at 14:02
  • @NarayanaSharma Vyasa’s disciples started a bunch of different Shakhas, and then different people became shishyas of different disciples of Vyasa. See my answer here: https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36 – Keshav Srinivasan Jun 06 '18 at 21:13
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https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp077.htm

"In every Dwápara (or third) age, Vishńu, in the person of Vyása, in order to promote the good of mankind, divides the Veda, which is properly but one, into many portions: observing the limited perseverance, energy, and application of mortals, he makes the Veda fourfold, to adapt it to their capacities; and the bodily form which he assumes, in order to effect that classification, is known by the name of Veda-vyása. Of the different Vyásas in the present Manvantara 1, and the branches which they have taught, you shall have an account."

This is in Vishnu Purana.

Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa is the current Vyasa and Drona's son Ashwathama or Drauni will be the future Vyasa.