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Bhagvadgītā: A Bird’s Eye View of Its Historical Background, Formation, and Teaching

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Abstract

Though the Bhagavadgītā (400 BCE–400 CE) or Gītā is one of the important sourcebooks of Indian philosophy and religion, or rather of Hindu philosophy and religion, its date, authorship, textual formation, teaching, etc. are still debatable among the scholars—oriental and occidental. While supports in this regard can be garnered from both ancient and modern sources, they too seem to be inconclusive and contradictory. Thus, this paper, while analysing these debatable points regarding this text, taking into consideration both textual sources and modern scholars’ views, concludes that, in order to have an unbiased attitude (towards these points) and its true import at large, the text (i.e. the Bhagavadgītā) is to be viewed and read scrupulously from its literary need and historicity.

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Notes

  1. Apte (1998: p. 187).

    In the course of his discussion about the Gītā literature in relation to its goal ‘brahmavidyā’, Umesh Chandra Bhattacharjee finds several texts in both the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇic literature, which like the Bhagavadgītā, bear the general suffix ‘gītā’, have similarity in dialogical structure, and are select portions of sacred texts either propagating worship of sectarian deities or intending to impart ‘brahmavidyā’, make use of the Upaniṣad-s directly or indirectly, and are also modelled upon the text Gītā in terms of their literary composition. Bhattacharjee mentions of the following as consisting of the Mahābhārata such as the Utathyagītā, Vāmadevagītā, Ṛṣabhagītā, Śampākagītā, Maṃkigītā, Bodhyagītā, Vicakhnugītā, Hārītagītā, Vṛtragītā, Parāśaragītā, Haṃsagītā, Anugītā, and Brāhmaṇagītā. Another set of Gītā-s, according to him, is found in different Purāṇic literature. These are the Īśvaragītā (the Kūrmapurāṇa), Vyāsagītā (the Kūrmapurāṇa), Rāmagītā, Gaṇeśagītā (the Gaṇeṣapurāṇa), Śivagītā, Devīgītā (the Devībhāgavata), Kapilagītā (the Bhāgavatapūrāņa), Aṣṭāvakragītā, Avadhūtagītā (said to have been authored by Dattātreya and considered to be anterior to the Bhagavadgītā--cf. Sitaramiah 1965: p. 241), Avadhūtagītā (the Bhāgavatapūrāņa), Sūryagītā, Yamagītā (the Viṣṇupurāṇa), Yamagītā (the Nṛsiṃhapurāṇa), Yamagītā (the Agnipurāṇa), Haṃsagītā (the Bhāgavatapurāṇa), Pāṇḍavagītā, Brahmagītā (the Skandapurāṇa), Brahmagītā (the Yogavāśiṣṭha), Siddhagītā (the Yogavāśiṣṭha), and Pitṛgītā, Agastyagītā, Rūdragītā (all three in the Varāhapurāṇa) [Bhattacharjee 1926: pp. 537–546, 761–771]. Besides the Gītā-s given by Bhattacharjee, V. Raghavan in his search for greater Gītā literature finds more of them in different Purāṇic and philosophical literatures. These are: the Arjunagītā, Aśmakagītā, Ātmadarśanagītā, Uttaragītā (the Mahābhārata), Uddhavagītā (the Bhāgavata), Ṛbhugītā, Ailagītā (the Bhāgavata), Oṃkāragītā, Kapilagītā (the Padmapurāṇa), Dṛṣṭāntasārakapilagītā, Siddhāntasārakapilagītā (the Padmapurāṇa), Karmagītā, Kāvaṣeyagītā (the Brahmapurāṇa ?), Kāśīgītā (the Brahmavaivartapurāṇa), Kaulagītā, Garbhagītā (the Viṣṇupurāṇa), Gurugītā (the Viśvasāratantra), Gurugītā (the Skandapurāṇa), Gorakṣanāthagītā, Dattagorakṣagītā, Janmagītā, Jīvanmuktigītā (ascribed to Dattātreya and considered to be anterior to the Bhagavadgītā--cf. Sitaramiah 1965: p. 241), Jñānagītā, Tattvagītā, Tattvasāragītā, Tulasīgītā, Devīgītā (the Kūrmapurāṇa), Dhīśagītā, Nāradagītā, Pitṛgītā (the Padmapurāṇa ?), Pṛthivīgītā, Praṇavagītā or Prapannagītā, Bodhānandagītā, the Bhavānīśaṃkaragītā (the Brahmavaivartapurāṇa), Bhikṣugītā (the Bhāgavata), Bhṛgugītā, Mṛtyuñjayagītā, Yamagītā (the Skandapurāṇa), the Yājñavalkyagītā, Yogagītā, Rāgigītā, Rāsagītā, Rudragītā (the Bhāgavata), Rudragītā (the Bṛhatbrahmasaṃhitā), Laghugītā, Vasiṣṭhagītā (the Yogavāsiṣṭha), Viratagītā, Vedāntagītā, Vaiṣṇavagītā, Śaṃkaragītā (the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa), Śāntigītā, Śivarāmagītā, Śivaśaṃkaragītā, Śivottaragītā (the Harivaṃsapurāṇa), Śivottaragītā, Śiṣṭagītā, Śrutigītā (the Bhāgavata), Ṣaḍjagītā, Sadāśivagītā, Sanatkumāragītā, Siddhāntagītā (the Laghunārāyaṇopaniṣad), Sudarśanagītā (the Bṛhatbrahmasaṃhitā), Sūkṣmagītā, Sūtagītā (the Sūtasaṃhitā), Sūryagītā, Saumyagītā (the Padmapurāṇa), Haṃsagītā (the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa), and Veṇugītā, Gopīyugalagītā, Gopīkāgītā, Bhramaragītā (all four in the Bhāgavata) [Raghavan 1938: pp. 86–122]. Recently, the Gita press has also published a work containing twenty-five such Gītā-s with translation in Hindi. They include the Gaṇeśagītā (the Gaṇeṣapurāṇa), Bhikṣugītā (the Bhāgavata), Paramahaṃsagītā (the Bhāgavata), Ṣaḍgītā (the Mahābhārata), Piṅgalāgītā (the Mahābhārata), Śampākagītā (the Mahābhārata), Maṃkigītā (the Mahābhārata), Ᾱjagaragītā (the Mahābhārata), Hārītagītā (the Mahābhārata), Vṛtragītā (the Mahābhārata), Putagītā (the Mahābhārata), Kāmagītā (the Mahābhārata), Yamagītā (1) [the Viṣṇupurāṇa], Yamagītā (2) [Agnipurāṇa], Haṃsagītā (1) [the Bhāgavata], Haṃsagītā (2) (the Mahābhārata), Nāradagītā (the Mahābhārata), Uttaragītā (the Mahābhārata), Rāmagītā (1) [Adhyātmarāmāyaṇa], Rāmagītā (2) [Adbhutarāmāyaṇa], Bhagavatīgītā/Pārvatīgītā (Devīpurāṇa), Aṣṭāvakragītā (Aṣṭāvakramuni), Avadhūtagītā (1) [Dattātreya], Avadhūtagītā (2) (the Bhāgavata), and the Jīvanmuktagītā (Dattātreya) [Gītāsaṃgraha 2071 Samvad].

  2. In the strictest sense of the term, the book is not meant for singing only. It also suggests to be read as is found in Bhagavadgītā 18.70.

  3. Belvakkar (1925: p. 109).

  4. Apte (1983: p. 1).

  5. Though we find the commentators often naming the chapters differently in colophons, we are mentioning them according to Sripad Krishna Belvalkar; 1. arjunaviṣādayoga (‘yoga’ added, 47 verses), 2. sāṃkhyayoga (72 verses), 3. karmayoga (43 verses), 4. brahmayajñapraśaṃsāyoga (‘yoga’ added, 42 verses), 5. saṃnyāsayoga (29 verses), 6. dhyānayoga (47 verses), 7. jñānavijñānayoga (30 verses), 8. akṣarabrahmayoga (28 verses), 9. rājavidyārājaguhyayoga (34 verses), 10. vibhūtiyoga (42 verses), 11. viśvarūpadarśanayoga (‘yoga’ added, 55 verses), 12. bhaktiyoga (20 verses), 13. kṣetrakṣetrajñayoga (34 verses), 14. guṇatrayavibhāgayoga (27 verses), 15. puruṣottamayoga (20 verses), 16. daivasurasaṃpadvibhāgayoga (24 verses), 17. śraddhātrayavibhāgayoga (28 verses), 18. mokṣasaṃnyāsayoga (78 verses) (total 700 verses) (Bhagavadgītā 1941b). Again, though we cannot claim with certainty if the authors always write these colophons, or they are written by the scribes of manuscripts or by the editors, we are mentioning bellow some variations in the naming of the chapters by three major earlier commentators, viz. Śaṃkara, Rāmānuja, Madhva, and by a famous Advaita commentator Madhusūdana Sarasvatī (ca. sixteenth century CE): Śaṃkara: Bhagavadgītā 2 ‘sāṃkhyayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2000); Bhagavadgītā 3 ‘karmapraśaṃsāyoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 4 ‘jñānakarmasaṃnyāsayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘brahmayajñapraśaṃsāparanāmā jñānakarmasaṃnyāsayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2000); Bhagavadgītā 5 ‘karmasaṃnyāsayoga’(Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘prakṛtigarbha’ (Bhagavadgītā 2000); Bhagavadgītā 6 ‘ātmasaṃyamayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), Bhagavadgītā 7 ‘jñānavijñānayoga’(Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 8 ‘brahmākṣaranirdeśa’(Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 11 ‘viśvarūpadarśanam’(Bhagavadgītā 1999); BhG 12 ‘bhaktiyoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 13 ‘prakṛtipuruṣavivekayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘kṣetrakṣetrajñayoga’(Bhagavadgītā 2000); Bhagavadgītā 14 ‘guṇatrayavibhāgayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999 ); Bhagavadgītā 17 ‘śraddhātrayavibhāgayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2000); Bhagavadgītā 18 ‘mokṣasaṃnyāsayoga’(Bhagavadgītā 1999). Rāmānuja: Bhagavadgītā 2 ‘sāṃkhyayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2000); Bhagavadgītā 3 ‘karmayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2000); Bhagavadgītā 5 ‘karmasaṃnyāsayoga’(Bhagavadgītā 2000). Madhva: no special name is found. Madhusūdana: Bhagavadgītā 2 ‘sarvagītārthasūtraṇam’(Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 3 ‘karmayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1912), ‘jñānaniṣṭhāvarṇanam’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 4 ‘jñānakarmasaṃnyāsayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘brahmārpaṇayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 5 ‘svasvarūpaparijñānam’ (Bhagavadgītā 1912) ‘karmasaṃnyāsayoga’(Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘svarūpaparijñānaṃ’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 6 ‘ātmasaṃyamayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘adhyātmayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 7 ‘adhikāribhedenajñeyadheyapratipādyatattvabrahmanirupaṇam’ (Bhagavadgītā 1912) ‘jñānavijñānayoga’(Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘adhikāribhedenajñānavijñānayoga jñeyadheyapratipādyatattvabrahmanirupaṇam’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 8 ‘akṣaraparabrahmayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘adhikāribhedenākṣaravivaraṇa’(Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 9 ‘adhikāribhedenarājavidyārājaguhyayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 1912); Bhagavadgītā 10 ‘adhikāribhedenavibhūtiyoga’(Bhagavadgītā 1912); Bhagavadgītā 11 ‘viśvarūpadarśananirūpanam’(Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 12 ‘bhaktiyogavivaraṇam’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999); Bhagavadgītā 13 ‘prakṛtipuruṣavivekayogavivaraṇam’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘kṣetrakṣetrajñaviveka’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 14 ‘guṇatrayavibhāgayogavivaraṇam’ (Bhagavadgītā 1999), ‘prakṛtiguṇatrayavibhāgayoga’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 17 ‘śraddhātrayavibhāgayogavivaraṇam’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001); Bhagavadgītā 18 ‘saṃnyāsayogapratipādanam’ (Bhagavadgītā 2001).

  6. While discussing the fact that the Mahābhārata is basically written in anuṣṭubh metre, Arvind Sharma finds that in spite of its common usage in the post-Vedic literature, this metre is hardly characterised in the entire Vedas. In order to account for it, Sharma offers both the possible modern-critical and traditional justifications. Modern scholars think that the sūta-s (bards—a special caste having affinity with the warrior class) found this metre comfortable for recitation and oral composition. The traditional scriptural references substantiate that anuṣṭubh metre had a close association with the śudra-s who were denied the Vedic studies. Thus, Sharma thinks that, the Mahābhārata, being a post-Vedic Hindu religious literature, unveils one of the main causes of its composition (Sharma 2000: pp. 225–278).

  7. Mahābhārata (1947).

  8. T. M. P. Mahadevan rightly observed that the crisis Arjuna found is a common human state of affairs. It is the Lord who can rescue the human kind from it (Mahadevan 1976: p. 25).

  9. Some scholars like Heinrich Zimner, etc. find the background of the Gītā as a war between two rival groups a paradox of its teaching. Zimner thinks that a combination of thought held by the aboriginal Indians and the Aryan Vedic invaders materialised in the text (Zimner 1951: p. 378).

  10. Malinar (2007: p. 207).

  11. Khair (1981: p. 1).

  12. Telang (1908: pp. 30 and 34).

  13. Cf. Garbe (Utgikar 1918: pp. 29–30).

  14. See Patil 1959: p. 66.

  15. Hill (1928: p. 18).

  16. Dasgupta (Dasgupta 2000–2007: Vol. II, p. 549).

  17. Belvalkar also mentions the term ‘nirvāna’ as referred to in the Gītā to be a pre-Buddhistic technical term of ‘kāla’ philosophy (Belvalkar 1962: p. 156).

  18. Upadhyaya (1968: pp. 163–173).

  19. See Mainkar (1977–1978: p. 751).

  20. Zaehner (1969: p. 7).

  21. See Dasgupta (2000–2007: Vol. II, p. 551).

  22. Utgikar (1918: p. 33).

  23. Dasgupta (2000–2007: Vol. II, pp. 443–451).

  24. Brockington ( 1998: pp. 267–277) and Brockington (2000: pp. 32–33).

  25. Divanji (1946: 299–309).

  26. Khair 1969 [However, before Khair, scholars like R. Motor Smith, etc., applied an elaborate statistical analysis of the text to find out its multiple authorships (Smith 1968: pp. 39–46) [see also Khair (1981: pp. 29–42)].

  27. Minor (1982: pp. 29–42).

  28. ‘The interpolations and additions can with great probability be conjectured even if one be not in the position to single them out’ (Gareett 1846: p. 53).

  29. ‘Now this epic has had inserted into it a little poem which in origin is evidently a late Upaniṣad. It is nevertheless one of the earliest of the poems set in the frame of the epic. But it is by no means a poem in its original form. Both the beginning and the end are later additions.’

    ‘This Divine Song (or Song of the Blessed One) is at present a Krishnaite version of an older Vishnuite poem, and this in turn was at first an unsectarian work, perhaps a late Upaniṣad’ (Hopkins 1895: pp. 145, 389).

  30. Utgikar (1918: pp. 1–35).

  31. Schrader 1930.

  32. ‘F. Otto Schrader…puts forth the view that these Kashmirian sources, with their “fourteen additional stanzas and four half-stanzas unknown to the Vulgate, as well as the 282 exclusively Kashmirian varietas lectiones”, preserve a more authentic, and even an intrinsically superior text of the BG, which, he claims, was pre-Śaṁkara’ (quoted in Bhagavadgītā 1968: Editorial note, p. XVI).

  33. Belvalkar 1939: pp. 211–51.

  34. Edgerton (1932: p. 75).

  35. Bhagavdgītā 1968: Editorial note, pp. xxiv–xxxiv.

  36. Dasgupta (2000–2007: Vol. II, p. 552).

  37. Telang (1908: pp. 5–6).

  38. Brockington 2000: p. 29.

  39. ‘… to isolate the Gītā and treat it as a distinct textual entity, independent of the main body of the epic, is a fallacious undertaking’ (Feuerstein 1974: p. 57).

  40. J. A. B. van Buitenen of course finds the Kashmiri transmission closer to the original version of the Mahābhārata, though it is difficult to find out the authentic version of the revised epic (Buitenen 1965: p. 109).

  41. Dutt (2006: p. 115) and Bhagavadgītā 1968: Critical notes, p. 77 (For details regarding the contradiction of verse number, see Schrader 1938: pp. 62–68. Again, for Belvalkar’s criticism of Schrder and others’ views, see Belvalkar 1939a, 1943).

  42. Shastri 1936: pp. 67–82.

  43. Bhagavadgītā (1999): Śrīmacchaṃkarabhāṣyam.

  44. Bhagavadgītā (2000): Rāmānujabhāṣyam.

  45. Bhagavadgītā (2000): Mādhvabhāṣyam and Bhagavadgītā (2007).

    It is notable that Keśava Kāśmīrī Bhaṭṭa (1510 CE), a distinguished follower of the school of Dvaitādvaita or Svābhāvikabhedābheda (innate non-identity in identity) Vedānta propagated by Nimbārka (ca. 1200 CE), at the beginning of his commentary, remarks that it contains seven hundred and forty-five verses. Nevertheless, he comments on the generally accepted text of the Gītā, which has seven hundred verses only [Bhagavadgītā 2001: Vol. 1, Tattvaprakāśikā, p. 3 (see also Bhagavadgītā 2005: Introduction, p. 3).

  46. Bhagavadgītā (1965).

  47. Bhagavadgītā (1941a): Introduction, p. XXXVII [J. C. Chatterji mentions of manuscripts containing Vasugupta’s commentary, called the Vāsaviṭīkā along with another commentary, called the Lāsakī by Rājanaka Lasakāka, in which, he opines, the first six chapters of the former are incorporated (Chatterji 1986: p. 166)].

  48. Bhagavadgītā (1941b).

  49. Bhagavadgītā (1941a).

  50. Bhagavadgītā (1999): Abhinavaguptācāryavyākhyā.

  51. A comparison among the texts followed by Bhāskara and Kashmirian commentators indicates clearly, at the first hand, that, either these commentators followed Bhāskara or the reading followed by Bhāskara was current in that region (for the variation between the texts, see Bhagavadgītā 1941a: pp. XLiii–LXXX).

  52. Bhagavadgītā (1917) and Row (1939).

  53. Bhāgavata (2064 Vikrama Saṃvad).

  54. Bhattacharya (2014: pp. 17–23).

  55. Brockington (2000: pp. 34–35).

  56. Malinar (2007): p. 266 ff.

  57. Adluri, Vishwa and Joydeep Bagchee (2014, 2016).

  58. Bhattacharya (2014).

  59. Adluri, Vishwa and Joydeep Bagchee (2016b).

  60. Dasgupta (2000–2007: Vol. II, p. vii).

  61. Theodor (2010).

  62. Quoted in Radhakrishnan (2009: p. 442).

  63. Yamunacharya (1945: pp. 119–124).

  64. Shivaram (1946: p. 23).

  65. Kunhan Raja (1946: pp. 9–22).

  66. Sharma (1995: pp. 186–195) (While the Mīmāṃsic approach of karma differs from that of the Bhagavadgītā, the readers are referred to the sources, as a detailed discussion of it seems to be beyond the ambit of this paper).

  67. Sinha (1999: p. 206) (italics supplied).

  68. Modi (1950–1951: pp. 39–42).

  69. Tadpatrikar (1946: p. 36).

  70. Apte (1972: pp. 200–203), Mainkar (1977–1978: p. 752).

  71. Deshpande (1977–1978: pp. 23–24).

  72. White (1979: pp. 501–507).

  73. Dasgupta (2000–2007: Vol. II, p. 550).

  74. Gode (1923: pp. 63–95).

  75. Brockington (2000: p. 45).

  76. De (1942–1943: p. 21).

Abbreviations

ABORI:

Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

ALB:

Adyar Library Bulletin (Brahmavidyā)

AP:

Aryan Path

AUS:

Allahabad University Studies (Arts & Science)

BV:

Bhāratīya Vidyā

JAOS:

Journal of the American Oriental Society

JGJRI:

Journal of the Ganganatha Jha Research Institute

JMU:

Journal of the Madras University

JOR:

Journal of Oriental Research (Madras)

JRAS:

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Great Britain and Ireland)

JUB:

Journal of the University of Bombay

IA:

Indian Antiquary

IC:

Indian Culture

IJDS:

International Journal of Dharma Studies

IJHS:

International Journal of Hindu Studies

IHQ:

Indian Historical Quarterly

IIJ:

Indo-Iranian Journal

NIA:

New Indian Antiquary (IA series 1938 ff.)

PEW:

Philosophy East and West

PG:

Pathway to God

PO:

Poona Orientalist

PTAIOC:

Proceedings and Transactions of All India Oriental Conference

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Acknowledgements

This article is a revised and enlarged version of Appendix I of author’s PhD dissertation written at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2014). The author would like to acknowledge his deep gratitude to Dr. Theodore N. Proferes (PhD supervisor, Department of Religions and Philosophies, School of Oriental and African Studies) and Professor Prabal Kumar Sen (Formerly, Department of Philosophy, University of Calcutta) for seeing through the draft version of this article. The author is also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad, Dhanbad, Jharkhand, 826004, India

    Niranjan Saha

  2. ‘Tarpan-Sahalay’ Sripur School Road (Opp. School), Habra, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, 743263, India

    Niranjan Saha

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Saha, N. Bhagvadgītā: A Bird’s Eye View of Its Historical Background, Formation, and Teaching. J. Indian Counc. Philos. Res. 35, 139–157 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40961-017-0098-6

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