See Akshauhini

A mountain as per Mahabharata Ashwamedhikaparva Chapter 43 verse 5.

Garuda’s son as per Mahabharata Udyogaparva Chapter 101 verse 13.

During creation, the veda emerged from the creator’s mouth and had four padas including Rik and consisted of a lakh of granthas. One granth equals 32 characters. From vedas were created yajnas. Later Vyasa divided the veda into 4. Brahma asked Vyasa to do so. Vyasa chose 4 disciples who could see the other side of the vedas. He chose Paila to study the Rigveda, Vaishambaya for Yajurveda, Jaimini for Samaveda and Sumantu for the Adharvaveda. He also made the suta Romaharshana his disciple for the puranas. Vyasa further split the Yajurveda into 4, according to 4 kriyas – Chaturhotra. He decided upon the kriyas for Adharyu using Yajus, Hota with Rik, Udgata with Sama and Brahma with Adharva. With Riks he made Rigveda, with Yajus he made the Yajurveda, Samas Samaveda. With Adharvaveda he narrated the deeds of kings and Brahma’s kriyas.

Paila split the Rigveda into samhitas and gave one each to Indrapramati and Bashkala. Bashkala split his samhita into 4 and taught Bodhi, Adimaddhaka, Yajnavalkya, Parashara. Indrapramati taught his entire samhita to his son Mandukeya. In this dynasty was born Vedamitra in the Shakalyagotra. He split the samhita into 5 and taught Mulgala, Gomukha, Vatsya, Shaliya, Sharira. Shakapurna, who studied with Vedamitra split the samhita into 3 and added a fourth part. This was taught to Krauncha, Vaitalika, and Balaka. Bashkala split his samhita further into 3 and taught them to Kalayani, Gargya, Kathajava. All of the above were the Rigvedis.

Vyasa’s disciple Vaishambayana split the Yajurveda into 27 partsand taught his disciples including Yajnavalkya, son of Brahmarata. From him originated the Thaithiriya shakha. Once all the sages took a decision regarding the vedas. The sage who did not appear in the Brahmasamajas on Meru would get a brahmahatya curse. Once Vaishambayana was not able to attend it and had a curse on him. He called his disciples and asked them to take a vrat to get rid of it. Yajnavalkya volunteered to do the entire task himself. When he was asked for the reason, he said that the others did not have the spiritual energy required. Vaishambayana did not like this and asked Yajnavalkya to return everything that he had been taught. Yajnavalkya vomited his yajas in front of his guru and left. The remaining sages consumed the yajas by taking the form of Thithiri birds, and thus this branch of the vedas came to be known as Thaithariya and the sages, Thaithariyas. Later, even without Vaishambayana realising it, Yajnavalkya created the yajas named Ayatayama. After leaving his guru, Yaknavalkya began praying to Surya, who appeared as a horse. (vaji) Yajnavalkya asked for yajas that even his guru did not have, and thus Surya taught him the Ayatayamas. The sages who learned this later came to be known as Vajis. The Vaji branches amount to 15, all of which can trace their origins to Yajnavalkya.

Vyasa taught the Samaveda to Jaimini, whose son was Sumantu, and who in turn had a son named Sutva. They were both brilliant and practised a veda branch each. Sutva’s son Sukarma divided the Samaveda into a thousand branches. He had two disciples – Hiranyanabha (Kausalya) and Paushpinji. They both practised the entire set of branches. Hiranyanabha’s 500 disciples were from the north and were called Udichya (northern) Samaganmas. Another 500 disciples came from the east, learned 500 branches and were called  Prachya (eastern) Samaganmas. Paushpinji’s disciples were Lokakshi, Naudhami, Langali, Kakshivan. They, and their disciples split the branches even further. Kriti, a sage in Hiranyanabha’s set of disciples taught 24 samhitas to his own disciples.

Vyasa taught the Adharvaveda to Sumantu, who first taught it to his disciple Kabandha. Kabandha split it into 2 and taught it to his disciples Devadarsha, Padhya. Devadarsha’s disciples were Medha, Brahmabala, Shaulkayani, Pippilada. Padhya had 3 disciples Jabali, Kumudadi, Shaunaka, and each made his own samhita. Shaunaka split his samhita into two and gave it to Babhru and Saindhava. Munjikesha received it from Saindhava and split it first into two, and then three parts. His works Nakshatrakalpa, Vedakalpa, Samhitakalpa, Aangirasakalpa and Shantikalpa are part of the Adharva veda. The Nakshatrakalpa has the kriyas of Brahma, the Samhitakalpa contains mantras, the Aangirasakalpa has rituals and the Shantikalpa has Ashvagajadi shantis.

Vyasa made the purana samhita from Akhyana, Upakhyana, Gadha, Kalpanirnaya and taught them to the suta Romaharsha. Romaharsha had six disciples – Sumati, Agnivarchas, Mitrayus, Shamsapayana, Akritavarna, Savarni. The last three were born in kashyapa’s dynasty and had built puranasamhitas. A mulasamhita made by Romaharsha was the base for all of these. From these four was created the Vishnupurana. There are eighteen puranas – Brahma, Padma, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Bhagavata, Naradiya, Markandeya, Agneya, Bhavishya, Brahmavaivarta, Lainga, Varaha, Skanda, Vamana, Kaurma, Matsya, Garuda, Brahmanda. There are eighteen upapuranas too and they describe creation, pralaya, the dynasty of the devas, Manvantaras, royal dynasties, as per Vishnupurana Ansh 3 and Bhagavata Dwadashaskanda.

Father, mother, Agni, Atma and teacher are considered gurus as per Mahabharata Vanaparva Chapter 214 verse 27.

A prince of Sauvira. He was Jayadratha’s friend and was killed by Arjuna in Kurukshetra as per Mahabharata Vanaparva Chapter 271 verse 27.

A caste name. As per the varna system in ancient India, brahmins ended their names with Sharma, kshatriyas with Varma, vaishyas with Gupta and shudras with Dasa, as per Agnipurana Chapter 153.

A devastri who danced at Arjuna’s birth ceremony according to Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 122 verse 61.

A river. Parashurama once killed kshatriyas on its northern banks as per Mahabharata Dronaparva Chapter 70 verse 8.

The author of Brihat Katha, a famous work in Sanskrit literature. He wrote it in the Paishacika language, and since it was not readable by the masses, a poet named Kshemendra translated it into Sanskrit and named it Brihatmanjari. Another famous poet named Somadeva then translated Gunaddya’s works extensively. This is now known as Kathasaritasagara. Gunaddhya is also believed to be the incarnation of Malyavan, an attendant of Shiva.

Once Parvati troubled Shiva for a secret story. She asked Nandi to guard so that no one would disturb them. Shiva began telling her the story of the vidyadharas. At this time, Pushpadanta, who was a prominent bhutagana and who had the freedom to disturb Shiva at all times, arrived there. Ignoring Nandi’s protests, he went inside and heard the entire story. He in turn, told his wife Jaya, who later repeated it to Parvati. Parvati was furious and complained to Shiva that he had told her a story that even Jaya knew. Shiva realised that Pushpadanta had overheard them and told this to Parvati. She grew angrier, and summoned Pushpadanta. She cursed him, and Malyavan who was defending him, and turned them into humans. When they begged her for mercy, she told them about Vaishravana who cursed a yaksha named Supratika. He began living in the Vindhyas as Kanabhuti, a pisacha. Parvati told them that they would regain their old form when they met Kanabhuti, and that Pushpadanta should tell him the story that Shiva shared. Then Pushpadanta would regain his earlier form. On hearing that, Kanabhuti would tell Malyavan many stories. With that Kanabhuti himself would be released from his curse, and when Malyavan shared the stories with the world, he too would get back his earlier form.

According to this, Malyavan was born as Gunaddhya in Supratishti and Pushpadanta as Vararuchi in Kaushambi. Kanabhuti, originally Supratika – a yaksha, had been turned into a pisacha already. He had been good friends with a rakshasa named Shulashiras, and Kuber, displeased with this, had cursed him. Supratika’s elder brother Deerkhajankha begged for mercy and Kuber said that he would be released when he heard the story from Pushpadanta and also shared more stories with Malyavan.

In the kingdom of Pratishtthana, there was a town named Supratishtita. There, to a brahmin named Somasharma were born two sons – Vatsa, Gulmaka, and a daughter named Shrutartha. Their parents died soon after and Shrutartha grew up in her brothers’s care. Later, Vasuki’s brother Kirtisena married her in the gandharva tradition. Their son was Gunaddhya and as a child, he went south for his education. After he grew up, he started traveling, and became the minister of Satavahana. He also got married there. Once Satavahana was ridiculed by his wife for a language error. From then on, he became very moody. A brahmin named Sharvasharma proclaimed that he could make the king a language pundit in 6 months. Gunaddhya said that it was impossible and they entered a wager. he said that if Sharvasharma could teach the king Shabdashastra in 6 months, he would give up his learning of Sanskrit, Prakrita and Deshabhasha, and if Sharvasharma failed, he would have to carry Gunaddhya’s slippers on his head for twelve years. Sharvasharma prayed to Subramanya and won the wager. Gunaddhya gave up his knowledge and after bidding the king goodbye in sign language, set out for the Vindhyas. At that time, the ruler of the pisachas Kanabhuti was away. Gunaddhya began learning the pisacha language. When Kanabhuti came back, he told Gunaddhya the story of seven vidyadharas. Gunaddhya, in seven years, made it into a epic of seven lakh texts. This was Brihatkatha. His only equipment was leaves, blood and sticks. The devas came down to listen to it and Kanabhuti gained release from his curse.

Gunaddhya wondered how best to popularise the Brihatkatha. His two disciples Gunadeva and Nandideva suggested that he dedicate the text to Satavahana. He agreed and the disciples took it to the king. He didn’t care for it much because he felt it was too long, the language too basic and it was written in blood. The disciples took it back to their guru, who was disheartened. He climbed a hill with his disciples and made a bonfire. After leaving the story of Naravahanadatta for his disciples, who were crying, he read each text and threw it into the fire. Even the wild animals were moved. In the meantime, Satavahana fell ill and the physicians said that it was due to bad meat. The cooks put the blame on the hunters who said that a man was throwing texts into a fire on top of a hill, and all the animals were watching him, giving up their food. So they only had stale meat. Satavahana went with the hunters to see this and when he realised that it was Gunaddhya, he fell at his feet. Gunaddhya recited the texts in pisacha language and the disciples translated it. The king asked for the text, but by then 6 lakh texts were already in the fire. Gunaddhya gave the remaining lakh texts to the king and bid goodbye. He then walked into the fire and went back to shivaloka. The king returned with the text to his palace and rewarded the disciples. Satavahana then added a prologue to elaborate why the text was written in pisacha language. Gradually the text became popular as per Kathasaritasagara Peetthanulambaka.