History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s39.8

v1.c6.s39.8

In Aparārka and other works there are numerous verses attributed to Vyāsa which are certainly not taken from the Mahābhārata or from the Vyāsasmṛti in the Ānandāśrama collection (pp. 357-371). For example, on Yāj. I. 12 he cites a verse of Vyāsa in the Vasantatilakā metre about the auspicious asterism for *caula* and another verse laying down Saturday, Sunday and Friday as unsuitable for *caula*. Similarly Vyāsa's verses dealing with the merit of bathing on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in conjunction with certain *tithis* are cited by Aparārka (p. 213). Vyāsa speaks of śrāddhas when the Sun is in the sign of Virgo (Aparārka p. 424). These indications are sufficient to assign Vyāsa to a comparatively later date. But as Aparārka evidently makes no distinction between Vyāsa the jurist, Vyāsa the reputed compiler of the Mahābhārata (e. g. he quotes on p. 961 six verses of the Bhagavatgītā as Vyāsa's) and Vyāsa who wrote on the saṁskāras, śrāddha and other topics, it appears that the jurist and the writer on other topics of dharma were separated from him by several centuries. Whether the jurist and the writer on other topics of dharma are identical is a difficult problem. All that can be said is that the two may probably be identical. The Smṛticandrikā quotes a Gadya-Vyāsa and about 450 verses of Vyāsa on āhnika, vyavahāra and prāyaścitta.