Richard H. Davis - The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography

LIVES OF GREAT RELIGIOUS BOOKS

The Bhagavad Gita

LIVES OF GREAT RELIGIOUS BOOKS

The Dead Sea Scrolls, John J. Collins

The Bhagavad Gita, Richard H. Davis

The Book of Mormon, Paul C. Gutjahr

The Book of Genesis, Ronald Hendel

The Book of Common Prayer, Alan Jacobs

The Book of Job, Mark Larrimore

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Donald S. Lopez, Jr.

Dietrich Bonhoeffers Letters and Papers from Prison, Martin E. Marty

Thomas Aquinass Summa theologiae, Bernard McGinn

The I Ching, Richard J. Smith

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, David Gordon White

Augustines Confessions, Garry Wills

FORTHCOMING:

The Book of Revelation, Timothy Beal

Confuciuss Analects, Annping Chin and Jonathan D. Spence

Josephuss Jewish War, Martin Goodman

John Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bruce Gordon

The Lotus Sutra, Donald S. Lopez, Jr.

C. S. Lewiss Mere Christianity, George Marsden

The Greatest Translations of All Time: The Septuagint and the Vulgate, Jack Miles

The Passover Haggadah, Vanessa Ochs

The Song of Songs, Ilana Pardes

The Daode Jing, James Robson

Rumis Masnavi, Omid Safi

The Talmud, 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 worlds 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 overwhelmed 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 highlights 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 interpreters reanimate and perform this classical work for audiences today. An essential biography of a timeless masterpiece, this book is an ideal introduction to the Gita and its insights into the struggle for self-mastery that we all must wageProvided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-691-13996-8 (hardback)

1. BhagavadgitaHistory. 2. BhagavadgitaCriticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.

BL1138.66.D38 2014

294.5'92409dc23

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

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, Ive profited from the conversations, enthusiasm, and suggestions of many friends and colleagues. At Bard College, my colleagues Sanjib Baruah, Bruce Chilton, and Carolyn Dewald 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 present 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 University 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 support of continuing faculty research. Finally, I wish to acknowledge 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.

LIVES OF GREAT RELIGIOUS BOOKS

The Bhagavad Gita

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 Kurukshetra, 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 anticipation. 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-mans-land. At this moment, Arjuna is overcome with anxiety and despair. He drops his bow and threatens to renounce the battle altogether. It is Krishnas task to persuade Arjuna to overcome his doubts.