legendary Indian sage who is traditionally credited with composing or compiling the Mahabharata, a collection of legendary and didactic poetry worked around a central heroic narrative.

According to legend, Vyasa was the son of the ascetic Parashara and the dasyu (aboriginal) princess Satyavati and grew up in forests, living with hermits who taught him the Vedas (ancient sacred literature of India). Thereafter he lived in the forests near the banks of the river Sarasvati, becoming a teacher and a priest, fathering a son and disciple, Shuka, and gathering a large group of disciples. Late in life, living in caves in the Himalayas, he is said to have divided the Vedas into the four traditional collections, composed Puranas, and, in a period of two and a half years, composed his great poetic work, the Mahabharata, supposedly dictating it to his scribe, Ganesha, the elephant god.