Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Please accept my most humble obeisances.

I am doing some research for a paper and would like to know if anyone can provide more info on the life of Srila Vyasadeva, the compiler of the Mahabharata and Srimad-Bhagavatam. Anything you may know or can lead me to will be of great help:

1. Is anything known about Srila Vyasadeva's early childhood? young adult life? marriage, etc? I know his son was Sukadeva Goswami, reciter of the Bhagavatam to Maharaja Pariksit, but anything else?

2. What is the time line between Vyasadeva's compiling of the Mahabharata along with his scribe, Ganesha, and his writing of the Srimad-Bhagavatam? Was it shortly after the writing of Mahabharata or was there a many-year gap, etc?

3. Srila Vyasadeva is considered "ciran-jiva" or one the seven deathless persons. Thus he is living still in a cave in the Himalayas. But is there any record of his supposed disappearance as far as mundane history is concerned? Just curious.

4. Since those entities of the Dvapara-yuga with which Vyasadeva existed are supposed to live to 1,000 years, has there ever been an assessment as to how old Vyasadeva was materially when he did finally complete the Puranas?

5. It is said that Vysadeva in a trance saw Lord Sri Krsna along with the personified internal, external and marginal potencies of the Lord and that he, Vyasadeva, wrote Srimad-Bhagavatam and revised or edited it later. Did Vyasadeva compile the entire verses of Srimad Bhagavatam while in this trance state? Or, was it dictated to him from memory or indeed within this trance state by Lord Krsna Himself?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Your Servant,
Bhakta Wallace
arjuna108@dygo.com