Lives of Great Religious Books The Bhagavad Gita Lives of Great Religious Books TheDead Sea Scrolls, John J. Collins TheBhagavad Gita, Richard H. Davis TheBook of Mormon, Paul C. Gutjahr The Book ofGenesis , Ronald Hendel TheBook of Common Prayer, Alan Jacobs The Book ofJob , Mark Larrimore The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’sLetters and Papers from Prison, Martin E. Marty Thomas Aquinas’sSumma theologiae, Bernard McGinn The I Ching, Richard J. Smith TheYoga Sutras of Patanjali, David Gordon White Augustine’s Confessions, Garry Wills Forthcoming: The Book ofRevelation , Timothy Beal Confucius’s Analects, Annping Chin and Jonathan D. Spence Josephus’s Jewish War, Martin Goodman John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bruce Gordon TheLotus Sutra, Donald S. Lopez, Jr. C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, George Marsden The Greatest Translations of All Time: TheSeptuagint and the Vulgate, Jack Miles The PassoverHaggadah , Vanessa Ochs The Song of Songs, Ilana Pardes TheDaode Jing, James Robson Rumi’s Masnavi, Omid Safi TheTalmud , Barry Wimpfheimer The Bhagavad Gita A Biography Richard H. Davis PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Princeton and Oxford Copyright © 2015 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu Jacket illustration © B. G. Sharma. www.bgsharmaart.com All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Davis, Richard H., 1951– The Bhagavad Gita : a biography / Richard H. Davis. pages cm — (Lives of great religious books) Summary: “The Bhagavad Gita, perhaps the most famous of all Indian scriptures, is universally regarded as one of the world’s spiritual and literary masterpieces. Richard Davis tells the story of this venerable and enduring book, from its origins in ancient India to its reception today as a spiritual classic that has been translated into more than seventy-five languages. The Gita opens on the eve of a mighty battle, when the warrior Arjuna is over- whelmed by despair and refuses to fight. He turns to his charioteer, Krishna, who counsels him on why he must. In the dialogue that follows, Arjuna comes to realize that the true battle is for his own soul. Davis high- lights the place of this legendary dialogue in classical Indian culture, and then examines how it has lived on in diverse settings and contexts. He looks at the medieval devotional traditions surrounding the divine character of Krishna and traces how the Gita traveled from India to the West, where it found admirers in such figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Aldous Huxley. Davis explores how Indian nationalists like Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda used the Gita in their fight against colonial rule, and how contemporary inter- preters reanimate and perform this classical work for audiences today. An essential biography of a timeless masterpiece, this book is an ideal introduc- tion to the Gita and its insights into the struggle for self-mastery that we all must wage”— Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-13996-8 (hardback) 1. Bhagavadgita—History. 2. Bhagavadgita—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title. BL1138.66.D38 2014 294.5'92409—dc23 2014023890 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro Printed on acid- free paper. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 contents list of illustrations vii acknowledgments ix introduction 1 chapter 1 TheBhagavad Gita in the Time of Its Composition 10 chapter 2 Krishna and His Gita in Medieval India 43 chapter 3 Passages from India 72 chapter 4 Krishna, the Gita, and the Indian Nation 115 chapter 5 Modern Gitas: Translations 154 chapter 6 TheGita in Our Time: Performances 178 epilogue TheBhagavad Gita in Great Time 204 notes 211 glossary of sanskrit terms 227 select english translations of the bhagavad gita 229 further readings 233 index 237 vi illustrations Figure 1 Kurukshetra Utsav: Gita Jayanti Samaroh, poster, 2011 5 Figure 2 Sampurna Viratsvarup (Krishna in his supernal form), chromolithograph by B. G. Sharma, ca. 1965 30 Figure 3 Sri Jnanesvara (Jnanadeva composing Jnaneshvari), chromolithograph by Mulgaonkar, ca. 1960 67 Figure 4 Sir Charles Wilkins, by James Godsell Middleton, ca. 1820 78 Figure 5 Friedrich Schlegel, by Franz Gareis, 1801 88 Figure 6 Swami Vive Kananda, the Hindoo Monk of India, poster, 1893 110 Figure 7 Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Mandir, Mathura 117 vii Figure 8 B. G. Tilak Composing Gita Rahasya, mural by Gopal Damodar Deuskar 131 Figure 9 Mahatma Gandhi at evening prayer, Sabarmati Ashram, 1930 138 Figure 10 Mahatma Gandhi, chromolithograph 144 Figure 11 Aurobindo Ghose in Pondicherry, ca. 1915 151 Figure 12 Prayer Grounds at Sevagram Ashram, Wardha 182 Figure 13 Subhash Gethe at Alandi 187 Figure 14 Swami Parthasarathy in Mumbai 192 Figure 15 Shri Krishna Arjun Rath, bronze sculpture by Ram Sutar and Anil Sutar, 2007 202 viii list of illustrations acknowledgments I am grateful to Fred Appel for asking me to work on a biography of the Bhagavad Gita. His invitation set me on a journey that has been challenging and rewarding, and it is not over yet. In the course of my work on this biography, I’ve prof- ited from the conversations, enthusiasm, and suggestions of many friends and colleagues. At Bard College, my col- leagues Sanjib Baruah, Bruce Chilton, and Carolyn De- wald all read portions of this work and gave valuable comments. Kristin Scheible read through a full draft of the manuscript with her class on “Reading Religious Texts,” to see how well it would work as an undergraduate course book. I appreciate the comments and advice of Dennis Dalton, Joshua Greene, Brian Hatcher, Jack Hawley, Gene Irschick, Jon Keune, Steve Lindquist, Donald Lopez, Christian Novetzke, Phil Oldenberg, Rosane Rocher, Steve Rosen, Gordon Stavig, and Tom Trautmann on various portions of this work. I am also grateful for the thoughtful suggestions of the anonymous readers at Princeton University Press. In India, many people helped me during work on this project; I can single out only a few. In Delhi, I appreciate the invitation of Jyotindra Jain and Kavita Singh to pres- ent some of my work at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the vigorous comments of the faculty and students there. In Mumbai, Rashmi Poddar and Shekhar Bajaj gave me much needed assistance, and in Wardha, I was aided by Bharat Mahodaya and Ashok Mehre. For my visits to Kurukshetra, I am grateful for the help and friendship of Rajendra S. Rana and Anand Pal Tomar. For my time in Pune and Alandi, I thank Sucheta Paranjpe for her assistance. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to present talks growing out of my work on the biography of the Gita at Barnard College, Brown University, Harvard University, Luther College, Tufts University, the Univer- sity of Michigan, and Yale University. I thank audiences at all of these talks for their stimulating questions. I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a fellowship that enabled me to work full-time on this book, and to Bard College for its sup- port of continuing faculty research. Finally, I wish to ac- knowledge my gratitude to the students at Bard College over many years who have patiently read through the Bhagavad Gita with me and who have engaged in their own dialogues with Krishna. x acknowledgments Lives of Great Religious Books The Bhagavad Gita xi Introduction Dhritarashtra asked: “When my troops and the Pandavas met together, itching for battle, at Kurukshetra, the field of dharma, what happened, Sanjaya?” — Bhagavad Gita 1.1 The Bhagavad Gita opens on a field of battle. At Kuru- kshetra, two massive armies led by the Pandavas and Kauravas have assembled. All the rulers along with the entire warrior class of India are involved, siding with one camp or the other. Leaders blow thunderously on conch shells, while drums and cymbals create a cacophonous roar. Warriors are slapping their arms in eager anticipa- tion. Nearby, packs of jackals and flocks of crows have also assembled, looking forward to a feast of human flesh. Just as the battle is about to commence, Arjuna, the leading warrior of the Pandava side, asks his charioteer Krishna to station his vehicle in between the two vast forces. “I want to look at the men arrayed here so eager for war,” he explains, and Krishna drives his chariot into the no- man’s- land. At this moment, Arjuna is overcome with anxiety and despair. He drops his bow and threatens to renounce the battle altogether. It is Krishna’s task to persuade Arjuna to overcome his doubts. The ensuing dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna goes far beyond a rationale for war. It touches on many of the ethical dilemmas, religious practices, and philosophi- cal issues that concerned Indian elites of ancient times. As Krishna instructs Arjuna, he draws on ideas from the many contending schools of thought in classical India, and seeks to integrate them within his own overarching agenda. In the course of their conversation, Krishna re- veals to Arjuna that he is the Supreme Lord. Hence this work has long been known by the title Bhagavad Gita, the song (gita) of the Lord (bhagavan). One can visit the spot in India where this famous dia- logue took place. Nowadays a small pilgrimage center, Kurukshetra lies in the fertile plains of Haryana state, in northwestern India, along the course of the dried- up Sarasvati River, once a tributary of the Indus River. In and around the town are numerous sites where signifi- cant events in the great battle are supposed to have oc- curred.