Krishnavatara VI: The Book of Vedavyaasa The Master Read online

  BHAVAN’S BOOK UNIVERSITY

  KRISHNAVATARA

  VOLUME VI

  THE BOOK OF VEDAVYAASA,

  THE MASTER

  By

  K.M.MUNSHI

  2020

  BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN

  Kulapati K.M.Munshi Marg

  Mumbai – 400007

  All Rights Reserved

  © Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

  Kulapati K. M. Munshi Marg

  Mumbai - 400007

  First Print Edition: 1971 (Hard Cover)

  Second Print Edition: 1980

  Third Edition: 1984

  Fourth Print Edition: 1988

  Fifth Print Edition: 1990

  Sixth Print Edition: 2006

  Seventh Print Edition: 2010

  Eighth Print Edition: 2013

  Ninth Print Edition: 2017

  First e-edition: 2020

  KULAPATI’S PREFACE

  The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan—that Institute of Indian Culture in Bombay—needed a Book University, a series of books which, if read, would serve the purpose of providing higher education. Particular emphasis, however, was to be put on such literature as revealed the deeper impulsions of India. As a first step, it was decided to bring out in English 100 books, 50 of which were to be taken in hand, almost at once.

  It is our intention to publish the books we select, not only in English, but also in the following Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

  This scheme, involving the publication of 900 volumes, requires ample funds and an all-India organisation. The Bhavan is exerting its utmost to supply them.

  The objectives for which the Bhavan stands are the reintegration of Indian culture in the light of modern knowledge and to suit our present-day needs and the resuscitation of its fundamental values in their pristine vigour.

  Let me make our goal more explicit:

  We seek the dignity of man, which necessarily implies the creation of social conditions which would allow him freedom to evolve along the lines of his own temperament and capacities; we seek the harmony of individual efforts and social relations, not in any makeshift way, but within the frame-work of the Moral Order; we seek the creative art of life, by the alchemy of which human limitations are progressively transmuted, so that man may become the instrument of God, and is able to see Him in all and all in Him.

  The world, we feel, is too much with us. Nothing would uplift or inspire us so much as the beauty and aspiration which such books can teach.

  In this series, therefore, the literature of India, ancient and modern, will be published in a form easily accessible to all. Books in other literatures of the world, if they illustrate the principles we stand for, will also be included.

  This common pool of literature, it is hoped, will enable the reader, eastern or western, to understand and appreciate currents of world thought, as also the movements of the mind in India, which though they flow through different linguistic channels, have a common urge and aspiration.

  Fittingly, the Book University’s first venture is the Mahabharata, summarised by one of the greatest living Indians, C. Rajagopalachari; the second work is on a section of it, the Gita by H.V.Divatia, an eminent jurist and student of philosophy. Centuries ago, it was proclaimed of the Mahabharata: “What is not in it, is nowhere.” After twenty-five centuries, we can use the same words about it. He who knows it not, knows not the heights and depths of the soul; he misses the trials and tragedy and the beauty and grandeur of life.

  The Mahabharata is not a mere epic: it is a romance, telling the tale of heroic men and women and of some who were divine; it is a whole literature in itself, containing a code of life, a philosophy of social and ethical relations, and speculative thought on human problems that is hard to rival: but, above all, it has for its core the Gita, which is, as the world is beginning to find out, the noblest of scriptures and the grandest of sagas in which the climax is reached in the wondrous Apocalypse in the Eleventh Canto.

  Through such books alone the harmonies underlying true culture, I am convinced, will one day reconcile the disorders of modern life.

  I thank all those who have helped to make this new branch of the Bhavan’s activity successful.

  K.M.Munshi

  New Delhi

  1, Queen Victoria Road,

  October 3, 1951

  INTRODUCTION

  Who has not heard of Sri Krishna who delivered the message of the Bhagavad Gita and whom the Bhagavata calls ‘God Himself?’

  From the earliest days that my memories can go back to, Sri Krishna has been, in a sense, dominating my imagination. In my childhood, I heard his adventures with breathless amazement. Since then I have read of him, sung of him, admired him and worshipped him in a hundred temples and every year on his birthday at home. And day after day, for years and years, his message has been the strength of my life.

  Unfortunately, his fascinating personality, which could be glimpsed in what may be called the original Mahabharata, has been overlaid with legends, myths, miracles and adorations for about three thousand years.

  Wise and valorous, he was loving and loved, far-seeing and yet living for the moment, gifted with sage-like detachment and yet intensely human; the diplomat, the sage and the man of action with a personality as luminous as that of a divinity.

  The urge, therefore, came upon me, time and again, to embark upon a reconstruction of his life and adventures by weaving a romance around him.

  It was an almost impossible venture, but like hundreds of authors, good, bad and indifferent, from all parts of India for centuries, I was impelled by an irrepressible urge and I could not help offering him the little imagination and creative power I possess, feeble though they are.

  I have called the whole work Krishnavatara, The Descent of the Lord. The First Part, which ends with the death of Kamsa, has been named The Magic Flute, for it deals with his boyhood associated with the flute, which hypnotized men, animals and birds alike, sung with such loving tenderness by innumerable poets.

  The Second Part, which ends with Rukmini Haran, is entitled The Wrath of an Emperor, as the central theme is the successful defiance by Sri Krishna of Jarasandha, the Emperor of Magadha.

  The Third Part is entitled The Five Brothers and ends with Draupadi’s Swayamvara. The Fourth Part is entitled The Book of Bhima, the Fifth Part The Book of Satyabhaama, the Sixth Part The Book of Vedavyaasa, the Master, and the Seventh Part The Book of Yudhishthira.

  I hope to carry forward the series till the episodes when, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Krishna reveals himself as the Eternal Guardian of the Cosmic Law — Saashvata Dharma Gopta — to Arjuna, if it is His will that I should do so.

  I have followed the technique since 1922 to reconstruct the episodes connected with Chyavana and Sukanya in Purandara Parajaya (a play); Agastya and Lopamudra, Vasishta and Vishwamitra, Parashurama and Sahasrarjuna in Vishvaratha (a romance); Deve Didheli (a play); Vishwamitra Rishi (a play); Lomaharshini (a romance) and Bhagawan Parashurama (a romance), and now Sri Krishna and the heroes and heroines of the Mahabharata in these volumes of Krishnavatara.

  Time and again, I have made it clear that none of these works is an English rendering of any of the old Purana.

  In reconstructing Sri Krishna’s life and adventures, I had, like many of my predecessors to reconstruct the episodes inherited from the past, so as to bring out his character, attitude and outlook with the technique of modern romance for portraying a sustained personality. I also had to give flesh and blood to various obscure characters referred to in the Mahabharata.

  In
the course of this adventure, I often had to depart from legend and myth, for such a reconstruction by a modern author must necessarily involve the exercise of whatever little imagination he has in presenting a connected and cohesive narrative.

  I trust He will forgive me the liberty I am taking, but I must write of Him as I see Him in my imagination.

  K.M.Munshi

  Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,

  Chowpatty Road, Bombay – 7

  August 15, 1967

  FOREWORD

  This book, The Book of Vedavyaasa, the Master, should have been the prologue to the whole of the Krishnavatara series.

  As I struggled with the reconstruction of Sri Krishna’s life recorded in the Epic and the Puranas, I felt that its background, represented by the life span of the sage Veda Vyaasa, was a necessary prologue to Sri Krishna’s life and achievements.

  The Mahabharata refers briefly to the birth of Dvaipaayana Vyaasa. He emerges about sixty years later as a highly revered sage, the redactor of the Vedas, the embodiment of dharma, whose advice was sought by the Kuru elders and the Pandavas.

  I therefore had to reconstruct this period from whatever material I could gather, however scarce.

  Vyaasa survived the Bharata war and is considered to be the author of the original Mahabharata, on which, with interpolations and additions, the present structure of the Epic rests.

  The Puranic literature also attributes most of the Puranas to Vyaasa and contains fragmentary references to some events in his life, sometimes of a very contradictory nature. However, on the whole, he was accepted during his lifetime as the ‘Master’ (Swami), the great architect of Dharma.

  These references are all silent as to how he came to attain the position he did when he emerged in the world of the Epic.

  The Shrauta literature reflects a struggle between the school of Trayi Vidya — Rig, Yajur and Sama — on the one hand and of the Atharvana-Angiras on the other.

  The Trayi Vidya school looked upon the Atharvana school with contempt because its lore, among other things, included sorcery (Yatu Vidya), medicinal practices (Bhishag Karmani) and state-craft (Raj Karmani). The Atharvana rishis appear to have been denied the office of Brahmaa, one of the four principal ritualists at the sacrifices.

  Evidently this schism ended in favour of the Atharvanas. Their sacred chants were accepted as an integral part of the Vedas and the Atharvana-Angiras rishis were accorded the status of Brahmaa at the sacrifices though they were barred from reciting Atharvana mantras at the sacrifice.

  The Puranas give the guru-shishya origin of Veda Vyaasa. According to them, when Vyaasa organized the schools of Vedic lore, the Atharvana lore had won a place in the Shrauta rituals, and Sumantu was Vyaasa's first disciple of the Atharvana school.

  The second important thing which can be attributed to Veda Vyaasa is the standardisation of the WORD, the order and the accents of every mantra-a standardisation which has come down to us intact from 3000 years ago.

  The Skanda Purana records a conversation between Vatikaa, Vyaasa’s wife, the daughter of rishi Jaabaali and her son, Sukdev, in which she tries to persuade the latter of the need for grahasthashrama, the founding of a home as a stage in a dedicated life.

  Sukdev is traditionally believed to have been a Sanyasi. However, according to several Puranas, Hari Vamsa and Devi Bhagvat, he was married and had children. According to Devi Bhagvat, his wife was named Peevaree, by whom he had four sons and one daughter.

  The establishment of the Order of Sannyasis, which is traditionally accepted to have been founded by Sukdev under the inspiration of his father, Veda Vyaasa himself, has been the firm foundation of Sanatana dharma for well-nigh 30 centuries. Adi Sankaracharya re-organized the Order under the name of Dashanami Sampradaya.

  There is no reason to doubt that Vyaasa was the founder of the Order of Sannyasis, which has done and is doing so much to preserve the inspiration of Sanatana dharma and present its spiritual heritage to India and nations abroad.

  Sannyasis like Dayananda and Vivekananda and even Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and hundreds of others, who have been keeping the flame of Santana dharma alive in modern times, belong to this Order.

  Throughout the Mahabharata, Vyaasa advises those in difficulties to go and take their bath at the sacred teerthas and purify themselves. The teertha cult, so unique, has preserved the unity of our country and the consciousness of the country’s being one. Veda Vyaasa appears to be the founder of this cult. At any rate, it was he who emphasised the sanctity of the teerthas by attributing purificatory power to them.

  The social structure, the four-fold order of society — Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras — was in the process of being institutionalised in Veda Vyaasa’s lifetime. It was not a rigid social system.

  Vasishtha, the greatest of the Vedic rishis, was born of a hetaira. Vishwamitra, the son of a king, became a rishi.

  Veda Vyaasa himself was the son of a fisher girl. Sri Krishna’s father, Vasudeva and Kunti were born of a Naga princess; some of his ancestors inter-married with the Nagas. Bheema married a Rakshasi named Hidimbaa. Arjuna had Naga wives.

  With the advance of Aryan culture in the country, all the people who came within the orbit of the Sanatana dharma, were provided with a social status.

  Vyaasa was a mighty figure accepted on all hands as the embodiment of dharma. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna even identifies Vyaasa with himself. The Yogic school accepted him as the ideal Vitraga, though he had a wife and son.

  He was considered to be Vishnu with two arms and not four; as Brahma with one face and not four, and as Shiva without the third eye. In fact, several Puranas accept him as one of the avataars of Vishnu.

  K.M.Munshi

  Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,

  Chowpatty Road, Bombay – 7

  January 26, 1971

  CONTENTS

  KULAPATI’S PREFACE

  INTRODUCTION

  FOREWORD

  CONTENTS

  CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY

  PROLOGUE

  1. ‘COME, FATHER, COME’

  2. THE PARTING

  3. THE FIELD OF ASHES

  4. DVAIPAAYANA IS REBORN

  5. WHAT DVAIPA LEARNED FROM HIS FATHER

  6. VISIT TO KALPI ISLET

  7. THE FIELD OF WOLVES

  8. MAHA ATHARVAN JAABAALI

  9. DVAIPAAYANA ELUDES THE DEATH CHARM

  10. EMPRESS MEETS DVAIPAAYANA

  11. GANGEYA’S VOWS

  12. THE RAJYA SABHA

  13. “HERE IS THAT SON”

  14. AN UNEXPECTED ALLY

  15. MAHA ATHARVAN LAYS A DEADLIER CHARM

  16. VATIKAA FEELS UNHAPPY

  17. ARRIVALS

  18. THE MAGIC CIRCLE

  19. THE ASCENT TO HEAVEN

  20. THE VENERABLE MOTHER IN DISTRESS

  21. THE MASTER ON THE SCENE

  22. THE MASTER’S DECISION

  23. ‘TAKE ME TO GODHULI’

  24. “IF THE MOTHER LEAVES?”

  25. “I BOW TO YOUR COMMANDS”

  26. SHUKA CREATES A PROBLEM

  27. THE SON OF MAHISHAASURA, THE BUFFALO GOD

  28. THE MANDATE OF THE GODS

  29. AT THE TRIBAL HEADQUARTERS

  30. MOSA INVOKES THE DIVINE BUFFALO

  31. MOSA EXPIATES HIS SIN

  32. MOTHER SHARMI ASSUMES CHARGE

  33. THERE IS SOMETHING IN A NAME

  34. “MOTHER SHARMI CANNOT BE DISOBEYED”

  35. ENTER SHAKUNI

  36. THE MASTER’S MISSION

  GLOSSARY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY

  KRISHNA DVAIPAAYANA — later called Veda Vyaasa, generally referred to as the Master.

  MATSYAGANDHAA (shortly Matsyaa) — his mother; a fishergirl; later the Empress Satyavati, consort of the Emperor Shantanu.

  PARAASHARA — his father; a very learned Arya rishi at the close of Vedic period; son of Shakti; grandson of Vasishtha, the great Ve
dic sage; founder of a school of Jyotish (Astrology), Dharmashastra and Ayurveda.*

  ASVAL AND PAILA — Disciples of Sage Paraashara.

  JARUTH — father of Matsyagandhaa; a fisherman living in an islet near Kalpi on the Yamunaa.

  CHANDODARI — mother of Matsyagandhaa.

  SAHASRARJUNA (Arjuna of the Thousand Arms) — the king of Mahishmati, the powerful leader of the Haihaya tribes, who invaded Aryavarta; himself killed and his invading hordes destroyed by Parashu Raama, the Bhargava.

  RICHIKA — the High Priest of Mahishmat (grandfather of Sahasrarjuna) and Chief of the Bhrigus, a tribe of warrior priest.**

  JAMADAGNI — son of Richika, one of the seven leading Vedic rishis (seers).

  PARASHURAAMA — son of Jamadagni.

  (Later in life accepted as God-incarnate).

  * Among the works attributed to Paraashara are : Brihat-Paraashara: Hora Shastra (Astrology); Paraashara – Dharmasamhita (Law Text) and Paraashara-Samhita (Ayurveda).

  ** The earlier episodes are described in my book Bhagawan Parshurama published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

  PROLOGUE

  The tempestuous and headstrong King Mahishmat spread terror from his capital Mahishmati in Anupdesh on the West Coast. Even the denizens of Patala, who lived across the dark seas, trembled at his very name.

  In the arrogance of unlimited power, Mahishmat paid no heed to the advice of the Sage Richika, his High Priest and hereditary leader of the Bhrigus, a tribe of warrior priests.

  Under Mahishmat's leadership, the Haihaya tribes also defied the Cosmic Law of Rita, which the Great God Varuna, who ruled the Universe, had laid down for the Aryas to observe.

  The Sage Richika, master of the Atharvan lore, was wroth with the Haihayas and their king Mahishmat. He, therefore, laid a curse on them and, as a sign of his displeasure, left Anupdesh.

  With his tribesmen, his cows and his horses of unmatched mettle, the Sage migrated to Aryavarta (the unpartitioned Punjab) where the cultured Aryas lived.