ŚB 1.4.23
Devanagari
त एत ऋषयो वेदं स्वं स्वं व्यस्यन्ननेकधा ।
शिष्यै: प्रशिष्यैस्तच्छिष्यैर्वेदास्ते शाखिनोऽभवन् ॥ २३ ॥
शिष्यै: प्रशिष्यैस्तच्छिष्यैर्वेदास्ते शाखिनोऽभवन् ॥ २३ ॥
Verse text
ta eta ṛṣayo vedaṁ
svaṁ svaṁ vyasyann anekadhā
śiṣyaiḥ praśiṣyais tac-chiṣyair
vedās te śākhino ’bhavan
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.
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.