Vyas

Vyas, also spelled Byas, is a municipality of Tanahun District in Gandaki Province of Nepal. It incorporates the town of Damauli, the district headquarters, and is therefore often called Damauli. The municipality was established by merging the former village development committee of Damauli with several neighbours, the most recent merger being with Pokhari Bhanjyang in 2014. It lies on the bank of the Madi Khola and on the Prithvi Highway between Kathmandu and Pokhara. It has 14 wards. At the 2011 census it had about 70,000 to 71,000 residents, the first languages being Nepali, Magar, Gurung and Newar, and about 89 percent of residents were Hindu. Tradition cited in the Skanda Purana places the birth of the sage Vedavyasa on an island near the confluence of two Gandaki rivers in present day Damauli, and the municipality takes its name from him.