Shloka 13
वेदव्यासः, चातुर्होत्रम्, ऋग्वेदशाखाः
Vyāsa’s Veda-division and Ṛgveda lineages
ततः स ऋच उद्धृत्य ऋग्वेदं कृतवान् मुनिः यजूंषि च यजुर्वेदं सामवेदं च सामभिः
tataḥ sa ṛca uddhṛtya ṛgvedaṃ kṛtavān muniḥ yajūṃṣi ca yajurvedaṃ sāmavedaṃ ca sāmabhiḥ
Then that sage, drawing forth the ṛc verses, fashioned the Ṛgveda; from the yajus formulas he constituted the Yajurveda, and from the sāman chants he formed the Sāmaveda.
Sage Parāśara (teaching Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: How the Vedas were constituted from distinct mantra-corpora for sustaining yajña and dharma
Teaching: Historical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: Sacred revelation becomes efficacious in the world when it is organized into coherent Vedic forms that guide rite and right order.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Study and practice in a structured way—organize knowledge into usable disciplines rather than leaving it as undifferentiated information.
Vishishtadvaita: Unity-in-diversity: one sacred speech manifests as multiple Vedas serving coordinated purposes within the same divine order.
FAQs
This verse presents the Vedas as deliberately organized into functional streams—hymn, ritual formula, and chant—so dharma and yajña can be preserved and practiced clearly across ages.
Parāśara describes a sage (contextually Vyāsa) as selecting and arranging different kinds of sacred utterance—ṛc, yajus, and sāman—into distinct Vedic collections.
Even while speaking of Vedic compilation, the Purana’s underlying stance is that cosmic order and revealed knowledge ultimately rest on Vishnu’s supreme sovereignty, with the Vedas serving as instruments of that order through dharma and yajña.