2.Veda vyasa - brahma purana

2. Veda Vyasa

Brahma Purana by Dipavali Debroy-Bibek Debroy

The meaning of vedavyasa is that person who has learnt the Vedas. It is only a title for a person who has divided and codified the Vedas. As of now there are 28 vedavyasa who have held the title vedavyasa.

The vedavyasa who is credited to have composed the Mahabharata was the 28 Th vedavyasa or vyasadeva.  His name was Krishna Dvaipayana. He was called so because of his dark in complexion. The word Krishna means dark. He was called Dvaipayana because he was born on an island, the word dvipa means island.

He composed the Mahabharata. It has one lakh shlokas or couplets. It is believed that after composing the Mahabharata Vedavyasa was not happy with the stories that he had recounted. Therefore he composed the puranas, which are 18 in number. Put together the Mahapuranas consists of five lakh shlokas in all.

The Brahma purana consists of nineteen thousand shlokas; hence it is medium in size as far as the puranas. These shlokas or couplets are divided into 245 adhyayas or chapters.

Most scholars agree that the mahapuranas were composed between 300 A.D. and 1000 A.D.

It is important to note here that the puranas were not composed by a single author at one particular time frame. Several authors have contributed with their own stories and interpretation; hence the texts grew into volume through the ages. It may be possible that some of the early puranas might have been composed around 500 B.C.It is believed that Vedavyasa might have composed major part of the puranas.