Sage Vedavyasa, great grandson of Sage Vashista, was also known as Dwaipayana and Badarayana. He classified the Vedas into 4, wrote the Brahma Sutra, and divided the Puranas into 18 Mahapuranas. He initiated four of his disciples–Paila, Vaishampayana, Jaimini and Sumanthu – into the Vedas and invested with them the responsibility of continuing the tradition. Sage Vedavyasa had the power of seeing into the past and the future. Thus he convinced Drupada that the Pandavas were semi-divine and gave him a boon through which he was able to see the real form of the five brothers. Convinced, Drupada agreed to give his daughter in marriage to the five men. It was Vedavyasa who gave a sound warning to Dhritarashtra about the evil mind of his son, Duryodhana. He foresaw and warned Dharmaraya about several calamities that were to occur in the future. He appeared at an opportune time to arm Dharmaraya with a special mantra called Prathismruthi in order to face the Kauravas. He brought back to life, out of the Ganga, all those who had died in the Mahabharatha war. Sage Vedavyasa wrote the Mahabharatha, one of the greatest epics, with the help of Lord Ganesha as his scribe. He composed a sea of literature to spread dharma but he always hungered for more. Thus came Srimad Bhagwatha, whose theme is devotion to God. Vedavyasa remains the best among sages even today as we see his name being invoked while offering tharpana. The great sage was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and we have references to this in our Puranas as well.
