“And it was thus that Vyasa was born of Satyavati through Parasara.  And because he was born in an island, he was called Dwaipayana (Dwaipa or islandborn).  And the learned Dwaipayana, beholding that virtue is destined to become lame by one leg each yuga (she having four legs in all) and that the period of life and the strength of men followed the yugas, and moved by the desire of obtaining the favour of Brahman and the Brahmanas, arranged the Vedas.  And for this he came to be called Vyasa (the arranger or compiler).  The boon-giving great one then taught Sumanta, Jaimini, Paila, his son Suka, and Vaisampayana, the Vedas having the Mahabharata for their fifth.  And the compilation of the Bharata was published by him through them separately.

“Then Bhishma, of great energy and fame and of immeasurable splendour, and sprung from the component parts of the Vasus, was born in the womb of Ganga through king Santanu.  And there was a Rishi of the name of Animandavya of great fame.  And he was conversant with the interpretations of the Vedas, was illustrious, gifted with great energy, and of great reputation.  And, accused of theft, though innocent, the old Rishi was impaled.  He thereupon summoned Dharma and told him these words, ’In my childhood I had pierced a little fly on a blade of grass, O Dharma!  I recollect that one sin:  but I cannot call to mind any other.  I have, however, since practised penances a thousandfold.  Hath not that one sin been conquered by this my asceticism?  And because the killing of a Brahmana is more heinous than that of any other living thing, therefore, hast thou, O Dharma, been sinful.  Thou shalt, therefore, be born on earth in the Sudra order.’  And for that curse Dharma was born a Sudra in the form of the learned Vidura of pure body who was perfectly sinless.  And the Suta was born of Kunti in her maidenhood through Surya.  And he came out of his mother’s womb with a natural coat of mail and face brightened by ear-rings.  And Vishnu himself, of world-wide fame, and worshipped of all the worlds, was born of Devaki through Vasudeva, for the benefit of the three worlds.  He is without birth and death, of radiant splendour, the Creator of the universe and the Lord of all!  Indeed, he who is the invisible cause of all, who knoweth no deterioration, who is the all-pervading soul, the centre round which everything moveth, the substance in which the three attributes of Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas co-inhere, the universal soul, the immutable, the material out of which hath been created this universe, the Creator himself, the controlling lord, the invisible dweller in every object, progenitor of this universe of five elements, who is united with the six high attributes, is the Pranava or Om of the Vedas, is infinite, incapable of being moved by any force save his own will, illustrious, the embodiment of the mode of life called Sannyasa, who floated on the waters before the creation, who is the source whence hath sprung this mighty frame, who is the great combiner, the uncreate, the invisible essence of all, the great immutable, bereft of those attributes that are knowable by the senses, who is the universe itself, without beginning, birth, and decay,—­is possessed of infinite wealth, that Grandsire of all creatures, became incarnate in the race of the Andhaka-Vrishnis for the increase of virtue.