Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c31.105

c31.105

The final compilation was made after Devāpi’s time and not until that of Vyāsa, who followed him by about half a century, because hymns are attributed to Asita or Devala, and Devala was a contemporary of the Pāṇḍavas (p. 233) and so of Vyāsa. Vyāsa¹ must have added all the hymns that were incorporated latest, and completed the canon. Tradition entirely supports this. It says generally that he arranged the Veda,² he divided the Veda into four,³ he divided the four-pāda Veda into four;⁴ and there are explicit statements that he compiled the Rigveda.⁵ Both tradition and the latest hymns in the Rigveda therefore show the time when the canon was established, and tradition proclaims the man by whom that was done. Only a rishi of commanding ability, knowledge and eminence could have made it a canon accepted unquestioningly thereafter, and that is exactly the character and position which tradition unanimously attributes to Vyāsa, a rishi pre-eminent above all others.⁶ He would probably have completed that work about a quarter of a century before the Bhārata battle, that is, about 980 B. C. (p. 182). The priestly literature has suppressed all these facts (p. 10).