SB 1.4.23

SB 1.4.23

Devanagari

त एत ऋषयो वेदं स्वं स्वं व्यस्यन्ननेकधा । शिष्यै: प्रशिष्यैस्तच्छिष्यैर्वेदास्ते शाखिनोऽभवन् ॥ २३ ॥

Verse text

ta eta ṛṣayo vedaṁ svaṁ svaṁ vyasyann anekadhā śiṣyaiḥ praśiṣyais tac-chiṣyair vedās te śākhino ’bhavan

Synonyms

te they ; ete all these ; ṛṣayaḥ learned scholars ; vedam the respective Vedas ; svam svam in their own entrusted matters ; vyasyan rendered ; anekadhā many ; śiṣyaiḥ disciples ; praśiṣyaiḥ granddisciples ; tat śiṣyaiḥ — great-granddisciples ; vedāḥ te followers of the respective Vedas ; śākhinaḥ different branches ; abhavan thus became .

Translation

All these learned scholars, in their turn, rendered their entrusted Vedas unto their many disciples, granddisciples and great-granddisciples, and thus the respective branches of the followers of the Vedas came into being.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Each of these sages divided up his Veda into many divisions and these Vedas then developed branches as they were passed on to disciples, grand-disciples and great-grand-disciples.

Purport

The original source of knowledge is the Vedas. There are no branches of knowledge, either mundane or transcendental, which do not belong to the original text of the Vedas. They have simply been developed into different branches. They were originally rendered by great, respectable and learned professors. In other words, the Vedic knowledge, broken into different branches by different disciplic successions, has been distributed all over the world. No one, therefore, can claim independent knowledge beyond the Vedas.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Vyasyan means divided.