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Krishnavatara #6
The Book of Vedavyaasa the Master
Veda Vyaasa also called Dwaipayana was the son of Sage Parashar and Satyavati, the fisher girl. He was born when the Muni was brought to her village in a sick condition. He would come to visit them every year on his son's birthday. On one of his birthdays he takes Dwaipayana with him and teaches him all about WORD. The childhood of Veda Vyasa is spent in the company of his father. This book talks of his brahmacharya, his thread ceremony, his initiation into the world of the twice born, his marriage, his meeting with Satyavati, his mother and his help to her. On growing up he performs niyoga on Satyavati's childless daughters in law and begets blind Dhritharashtra and Pandava and through the maid servant Vidura.
218 pages, Paperback
First published June 6, 1970
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About the author
Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi
119 books225 followersK.M. Munshi is one of Gujarat's most well-known literary writers. His historical novels have contributed profoundly to the sense of past that Gujarat lives with. A multi-faceted personality, he was a prominent lawyer, freedom fighter and politician. He was also the founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 17, 2013
This book is an oddity in these series because the story doesn’t move forward here. Instead you read about the background of Kuru kings and the bold decisions that they take to continue their kingship. This is also an important book in these series because it shows us the way of life in an Aryan community and we get to know more about Veda Vyasa himself, the man who wrote the Mahabharata.
The book begins with Satyavathi and her fishermen tribe saving Sage Parashara from his burning hermitage. Parashara is injured and Satyavathi tends to him. After about five years, we see Krishna waiting anxiously for his father to arrive. Satyavathi is anxious for him as his obsession for his father’s presence increases every day while her father wants her to get married to someone eligible
Sage Parashara arrives and understands the situation and takes his son away with him and Krishna leaves his mother with a promise that if she ever needs him again, she just needs to call him.
Sage Parashara tutors Krishna and he learns all about vedas and the Aryan way of life. The next few chapters give us a wonderful insight about the daily life of Aryans and their very many traditions. It was a time when the vedas was considered to be three-fold and Atharva veda was not a part of the sacred vedas. A controversial subject in the then arya world, no one taught their pupil the verses of Athrava veda.
After Sage Parashara’s death, Krishna is attacked by wild hoards that leave him injured. Rescued by Maha Atharva Jaabali's recitation of Atharva veda and its magic potency Krishna is much influenced by this great sage and seeks to learn from him but Atharvan scoffs his attempts and sends him on his way. But his own daughter falls in love with Krishna and helps him to escape her father’s wrath.
Krishna goes to his mother’s island to meet her and is shocked to hear that she had left after her marriage to a king. With no knowledge of her whereabouts, he is left bereft. In the mean time, he continues his mission to unite the four vedas and to bring Atharva veda into the mainstream of vedas. His mission takes him to the Kuru empire but his entry was at an importune time, because Emperor Shantanu lies dying and everyone is distracted.
With Brahmins invoking aswins (Gods of medicine) to heal the king, Krishna recites the newly learnt atharva verses and is successful in healing the king. And he gets the shock of his life when he finds that the Empress is none other than his own mother. Satyavathi proudly introduces her son to Shantanu and Bhishma who are grateful for his timely intervention.
With royal support backing him, Krishna debates with the most learned and erudite teachers of that time to unite the four vedas together. After much arguments, they concede defeat and agree to Vyasa's decision. Delighted Vyasa hurries to Maha Atharvan Jaabali to relay the momentous news. Jabaali is shocked and surprized to hear what his disciple had achieved.
Veda Vyasa’s role in Mahabharata is well known, he impregnated the queens of Vichitravirya to perpetuate the line of Kuru kings. A controversial situation, Vyasa himself is reluctant to go about the task but the alternative is unthinkable. Vyasa’s agrees to aid his mother and performs his duty but the results are equally bad. He becomes the confidante of his mother and consoles her whenever things turn bad for her.
This book ends with the death of Pandu and the resultant confusion in the succession, as the Five Brothers too were conceived through Niyoga. So who had the higher claim to the throne? Duryodhana and his brothers who were the rightful sons of Dhristrashtra or the sons of Pandu who were obviously not his flesh and blood.
I loved this book because it shows a very vivid picture of vedic India. And Vyasa is probably the best character to give us an impartial insight about the decisions that the Kurus took that finally led them to war.
The book begins with Satyavathi and her fishermen tribe saving Sage Parashara from his burning hermitage. Parashara is injured and Satyavathi tends to him. After about five years, we see Krishna waiting anxiously for his father to arrive. Satyavathi is anxious for him as his obsession for his father’s presence increases every day while her father wants her to get married to someone eligible
Sage Parashara arrives and understands the situation and takes his son away with him and Krishna leaves his mother with a promise that if she ever needs him again, she just needs to call him.
Sage Parashara tutors Krishna and he learns all about vedas and the Aryan way of life. The next few chapters give us a wonderful insight about the daily life of Aryans and their very many traditions. It was a time when the vedas was considered to be three-fold and Atharva veda was not a part of the sacred vedas. A controversial subject in the then arya world, no one taught their pupil the verses of Athrava veda.
After Sage Parashara’s death, Krishna is attacked by wild hoards that leave him injured. Rescued by Maha Atharva Jaabali's recitation of Atharva veda and its magic potency Krishna is much influenced by this great sage and seeks to learn from him but Atharvan scoffs his attempts and sends him on his way. But his own daughter falls in love with Krishna and helps him to escape her father’s wrath.
Krishna goes to his mother’s island to meet her and is shocked to hear that she had left after her marriage to a king. With no knowledge of her whereabouts, he is left bereft. In the mean time, he continues his mission to unite the four vedas and to bring Atharva veda into the mainstream of vedas. His mission takes him to the Kuru empire but his entry was at an importune time, because Emperor Shantanu lies dying and everyone is distracted.
With Brahmins invoking aswins (Gods of medicine) to heal the king, Krishna recites the newly learnt atharva verses and is successful in healing the king. And he gets the shock of his life when he finds that the Empress is none other than his own mother. Satyavathi proudly introduces her son to Shantanu and Bhishma who are grateful for his timely intervention.
With royal support backing him, Krishna debates with the most learned and erudite teachers of that time to unite the four vedas together. After much arguments, they concede defeat and agree to Vyasa's decision. Delighted Vyasa hurries to Maha Atharvan Jaabali to relay the momentous news. Jabaali is shocked and surprized to hear what his disciple had achieved.
Veda Vyasa’s role in Mahabharata is well known, he impregnated the queens of Vichitravirya to perpetuate the line of Kuru kings. A controversial situation, Vyasa himself is reluctant to go about the task but the alternative is unthinkable. Vyasa’s agrees to aid his mother and performs his duty but the results are equally bad. He becomes the confidante of his mother and consoles her whenever things turn bad for her.
This book ends with the death of Pandu and the resultant confusion in the succession, as the Five Brothers too were conceived through Niyoga. So who had the higher claim to the throne? Duryodhana and his brothers who were the rightful sons of Dhristrashtra or the sons of Pandu who were obviously not his flesh and blood.
I loved this book because it shows a very vivid picture of vedic India. And Vyasa is probably the best character to give us an impartial insight about the decisions that the Kurus took that finally led them to war.
April 14, 2015
I have written Bhagavad Gita preaches Bible, Koran, Socialism & Swa-dharma (inter alia Bear God being Swa and have life as joy), Spiritual socialism (Holy Spirit in each and all, so all birth-religions prech the same pious secular religion to re-align in One God) And also Gujarati book વિશ્વધર્મી ભગવદ ગીતા વિગેરે કે જેનો હેતુ માનવજાતને 2017-2024 કયામત સમયે ઉગારવાનો છે. આ પુસ્તકો મને ramesh_v_sheth@yahoo.co.in ઇ મેલ કરવાથી વિનામૂલ્ય મળી શકે છે. આ પુસ્તકો અંગે શ્રી. નરેન્દ્ર મોદીજીનો અભિપ્ર્રાય ... પાંચ તારક છે.
વેદવ્યાસજી-ચરિત્રઃ
1.જન્મબ્રાહ્મણવાદી હોઈ ત્રણે વેદો, ઉપનિષદોનો સંગ્રહ કર્યો.
2.મહાભારત યુદ્ધ પૂર્વે મહાભારત લખવાનું શરૂ કર્યું, પણ શ્રીકૃષ્ણે યુદ્ધ ટાળવાને પાંચ પાંડવો માટે પાંચ ગામ માંગ્યા, તો કુરૂવડિલો અનુકુળ થયા પણ સુયોધને વિરોધ કરવાથી યુદ્ધ નિશ્ચિત થવાથી માત્ર પોતે જ પોતાના પુત્ર-પાૌત્રોને યુદ્ધ ટાળવા સમજાવી શકશે, તેમ માને છે.
3. ધૃતરાષ્ટ્રના સારથીને દિવ્ય દ્રષ્ટિ આપે છે ... આ પ્રમાણે અનેક સિદ્ધો પોતાને અત્યંત બુદ્ધિશાળી, શક્તિશાળી સમર્થ માને છે, પરંતુ કોઈ શ્રીકૃષ્ણને અવતાર સમજ્યા નથી અને સુદર્શ્ન ચક્ર પામ્યા નથી.
4. ઘણા વર્ષે નારદજીએ દોરવવા છતાં માત્ર શ્રીકૃષ્ણકથાને બદલે ભાગવત લખે છે, તેથી -વલ્લભાચાર્યજીને થયેલી આજ્ઞાના રહસ્ય પ્રમાણે- આજે પણ અવતારો, સિદ્ધો અને સંતોની શારીરોની જુદાઈઓ ગવાય છે, તેથી કયામત ....
5. શ્રી. નરેન્દ્ર મોદીજી 125 કરોડ ભારતીયોના સેવક હોવાને મથે છે, તે કણકણ-જ્ણજણમાં રહેલા એક્ને પ્ર-પદ્યો (ભાવથી ગાઓ/સરણ રહો /હમ્દ કરો /પ્રેઈઝ ઓમ્નીપ્રેઝન્ટ્થી) તો સર્વમાંથી તમને ભજશે.
વેદવ્યાસજી-ચરિત્રઃ
1.જન્મબ્રાહ્મણવાદી હોઈ ત્રણે વેદો, ઉપનિષદોનો સંગ્રહ કર્યો.
2.મહાભારત યુદ્ધ પૂર્વે મહાભારત લખવાનું શરૂ કર્યું, પણ શ્રીકૃષ્ણે યુદ્ધ ટાળવાને પાંચ પાંડવો માટે પાંચ ગામ માંગ્યા, તો કુરૂવડિલો અનુકુળ થયા પણ સુયોધને વિરોધ કરવાથી યુદ્ધ નિશ્ચિત થવાથી માત્ર પોતે જ પોતાના પુત્ર-પાૌત્રોને યુદ્ધ ટાળવા સમજાવી શકશે, તેમ માને છે.
3. ધૃતરાષ્ટ્રના સારથીને દિવ્ય દ્રષ્ટિ આપે છે ... આ પ્રમાણે અનેક સિદ્ધો પોતાને અત્યંત બુદ્ધિશાળી, શક્તિશાળી સમર્થ માને છે, પરંતુ કોઈ શ્રીકૃષ્ણને અવતાર સમજ્યા નથી અને સુદર્શ્ન ચક્ર પામ્યા નથી.
4. ઘણા વર્ષે નારદજીએ દોરવવા છતાં માત્ર શ્રીકૃષ્ણકથાને બદલે ભાગવત લખે છે, તેથી -વલ્લભાચાર્યજીને થયેલી આજ્ઞાના રહસ્ય પ્રમાણે- આજે પણ અવતારો, સિદ્ધો અને સંતોની શારીરોની જુદાઈઓ ગવાય છે, તેથી કયામત ....
5. શ્રી. નરેન્દ્ર મોદીજી 125 કરોડ ભારતીયોના સેવક હોવાને મથે છે, તે કણકણ-જ્ણજણમાં રહેલા એક્ને પ્ર-પદ્યો (ભાવથી ગાઓ/સરણ રહો /હમ્દ કરો /પ્રેઈઝ ઓમ્નીપ્રેઝન્ટ્થી) તો સર્વમાંથી તમને ભજશે.
August 6, 2018
Yet again I fall short of words to describe the beauty of the book and the care with which the writer has forged his words to write this series of book. I can all but imagine the amount if research the writer must have made to keep the content relevant to us humans while completely being intune with mahabharat.
July 19, 2016
Gives a very vivid description of the history of the Vedas and Vedic India and their religious importance to India. Explores the background of one of the greatest sages Veda Vyasa, who becomes the narrator of The Mahabharata.
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October 28, 2014good
July 8, 2020
The sixth installment of KM Munshi's magnum opus on the life of Krishna focusses on a different Krishna - Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa. Munshi begins with Satyavati, her tryst with Parashara and then explains the ideas around the 4 Vedsas. While I'm not sure of the historical authenticity of these assumptions, the book helps in creating a vivid visual backdrop to the Mahabharata in general. The whole stress of the epic on 'restoring Dharma' finally begins to make some sense to me!
April 11, 2023
K M Munshi's The Book of Vedavyaasa
In my opinion the book should be read by every Indian . Without knowledge of our past , we can not build a country of our dreams .
In my opinion the book should be read by every Indian . Without knowledge of our past , we can not build a country of our dreams .
March 5, 2025
I liked this book and found it really interesting to learn about such a revered historical figure. Particularly of his childhood and his father, whom I had never heard of prior.
August 21, 2015
Well.... Came to know more about Sage Vedvyaasa! He was a mystery to me till I read this book!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews