In 1772, when Warren Hastings was appointed the governor general of Bengal, he recommended, “The British colonial administration should seek to govern the territories under its control not according to British law but rather according to the laws and customs of the local residents.” This provided the impetus for British administrators to study Sanskrit and, in 1785, with Hastings’ support Charles Wilkins published his translation of the Bhagavad Gita. It was the first work of classical Sanskrit translated directly into English.
Today, more than 300 English translations of the Gita have been published and it’s been translated into more than 75 languages worldwide.
How does one write the biography of a book that has travelled so far and wide from the place of its birth? A text that is so malleable it is not only hard to interpret but even more difficult to pin down historically. From its first recitation in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, across countries and cultures, the Gita has come to represent different things to different people, depending on what the reader seeks from the text.
In The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography, Richard H. Davis, professor of religion at Bard College, New York, tells the tale of the Gita from the time of its composition, its journey as it became “an interpretive battlefield, a Kurukshetra for medieval theologians”, its use as a political tool during India’s freedom movement, and its relevance today.
“I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Krsna, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom or happiness,” says a distraught Arjuna to Krishna, his charioteer, as he looks at the Pandava and Kaurava armies on his either side, ready to begin the battle of Kuruskshetra. This moment of doubt and hesitation is the premise for the Bhagavad Gita (Song of God).
What follows is Krishna’s exposition “on many of the ethical dilemmas, religious practices, and philosophical issues that concerned Indian elites of ancient times”.
Yet, many scholars and indologists seek to view the Gita and present it solely as a rationale for war. Krishna instructing Arjuna to follow his kshatriya dharma (warrior duty) and fight his enemies, even though they are his kinsman, is used as the brush with which to paint Hinduism as a violent religion.
One can, however, see the rationale for insisting on viewing the Gita through this inadequate prism. By making the Gita the One Book of Hindus and arguing that it spurs its followers to violence, it becomes easy to bracket Hinduism with other beliefs which in practice have such books and texts.
Davis’ book is significant for debunking this assumption about the Gita.
Much like writers as diverse as D.D Kosambi and Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Davis recognizes and understands the fluidity of the Gita. He elaborates this point by a thorough exploration of its journey through the long span of Indian history right up to the present day. Each age has had its own interpretation of the text: from the almost atomistic, inward-looking, individual interpretations popular during medieval times to the collective, nationalist meaning imparted during the decades leading to freedom. In these politically polarized times, Davis’ book will serve as a corrective to many misplaced notions. A text that is so open to interpretation and different uses can hardly inspire fundamentalism. But that is a question best left for scholars to answer and should be kept away from politics at all costs, if only for the sake of proper enquiry.
The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography is a splendid travelogue for all those who want to embark on a journey of understanding the Gita’s complicated life. Davis’ book is as calm a reflection as his description of Henry David Thoreau taking Wilkins’ Gita to Walden Pond, “where he imagined himself communicating with a Brahmin priest on the Ganges as he sat reading.”
Gayatri Chandrasekaran is Staff Writer (Views) at Mint.
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