Vishnu Purana

About the Author

Vyasa is often considered the original scribe of all the Puranas, including the one under discussion. The third chapter of book III of this Purana narrates that Vishnu, in the person of Vyasa (also called Veda Vyasa), divides the original single Veda into four Vedas—Rig, Yajus, Saman, and Atharvan—in every Dvapara Age (the third age in the eternal cycle of time, according to Hindu mythology). This legendary Vyasa is believed to have been born as a son of Parashara and a non-Aryan princess called Satyavati, and he is said to have had perfect knowledge of all time. It is difficult to talk about the real authorship of this text in its historical setting, for such texts survived and were transformed through a long oral tradition and even the name Vyasa is often regarded as a title given to many ancient compilers of a large body of Hindu sacred texts, including the Puranas. The Vishnu Purana itself mentions that it was transmitted orally for a long time, beginning with Brahma, the creator of the Hindu universe, through Parashara, before being compiled by Vyasa.