'INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA' (1882) By Telang

Author's info.: Kashinath T. Telang (1850-1893), an indologist and a judge at Bombay High Court

Text:

It has become quite a literary commonplace, that—to borrow the words of Professor Max Müller in one of his recent lectures—history, in the ordinary sense of the word, is almost unknown in Indian literature[1]. And it is certainly a remarkable irony of fate, that we should be obliged to make this remark on the very threshold of an introduction to the Bhagavadgîtâ; for according to the eminent French philosopher, Cousin[2], this great deficiency in Sanskrit literature is due, in no inconsiderable measure, to the doctrines propounded in the Bhagavadgîtâ itself. But however that may be, this much is certain, that the student of the Bhagavadgîtâ must, for the present, go without that reliable historical information touching the author of the work, the time at which it was composed, and even the place it occupies in literature, which one naturally desires, when entering upon the study of any work. More especially in an attempt like the present, intended as it mainly is for students of the history of religion, I should have been better pleased, if I could, in this Introduction, have concentrated to a focus, as it were, only those well ascertained historical results, on which there is something like a consensus of opinion among persons qualified to judge. But there is no exaggeration in saying, that it is almost impossible to lay down even a single proposition respecting any important matter connected with the Bhagavadgîtâ, about which any such consensus can be said to exist. The conclusions arrived at in this Introduction must, therefore, be distinctlyunderstood to embody individual opinions only, and must be taken accordingly for what they are worth.

The full name of the work is Bhagavadgîtâ. In common parlance, we often abbreviate the name into Gîtâ, and in Sanskrit literature the name occurs in both forms. In the works of Sankarâkârya, quotations from the Gîtâ are introduced, sometimes with the words 'In the Gîtâ,' or 'In the Bhagavadgîtâ,' and sometimes with words which may be rendered 'In the Gîtâs,' the plural form being used[3]. In the colophons to the MSS. of the work, the form current, apparently throughout India, is, 'In the Upanishads sung (Gîtâs) by the Deity.' Sankarâkârya, indeed, sometimes calls it the Îsvara Gîtâ[4], which, I believe, is the specific title of a different work altogether. The signification, however, of the two names is identical, namely, the song sung by the Deity, or, as Wilkins translates it, the Divine Lay.

This Divine Lay forms part of the Bhîshma Parvan of the Mahâbhârata--one of the two well-known national epics of India. The Gîtâ gives its name to a subdivision of the Bhîshma Parvan, which is called the Bhagavadgîtâ Parvan, and which includes, in addition to the eighteen chapters of which the Gîtâ consists, twelve other chapters. Upon this the question has naturally arisen, Is the Gîtâ a genuine portion of the Mahâbhârata, or is it a later addition? The question is one of considerable difficulty. But I cannot help saying, that the manner in which it has been generally dealt with is not altogether satisfactory to my mind. Before going any further into that question, however, it is desirable to state some of the facts on which the decision must be based. It appears, then, that the royal family of Hastinâpura was divided into two branches; the one called the Kauravas, and the other the Pândavas. The former wished to keep the latter out of the share of the kingdom claimed by them; and so, after many attempts atan amicable arrangement had proved fruitless, it was determined to decide the differences between the two parties by the arbitrament of arms. Each party accordingly collected its adherents, and the hostile armies met on the 'holy field of Kurukshetra,' I mentioned in the opening lines of our poem. (continue reading) >>> https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Bhagavad_Gita_(Telang_translation)/Introduction

Interesting biography of the author (Kashinath Trimbak Telang) on Wikipedia: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashinath_Trimbak_Telang

Justice Telang was a great intellectual and scholar. He had a good command over the English language and also knew Sanskrit well. Based on my reading of India's ancient religious texts and after going over his essay ("Introduction to Bhagavad Gita"), I think he had a deep knowledge and understanding about Hinduism's important / famous texts, philosophies and cultural practices.

He indicates in his essay that the Liberation according to the Upanisads and the Gita etc. has more to do with gaining true knowledge of the Self, rather than engage in ritual practices etc. In this regard, the Bhagavad Gita also says (Ch. 7: V. 16, 17), 'There are four kinds of men who are good, and four love me: the man of sorrows, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of something he treasures, and the man of vision. The greatest of these is the man of vision, who is ever one, who loves the One. For I love the man of vision, and the man of vision loves me.'

Coming back to the main point of the article, there is much confusion and lack of understanding among people, especially the foreigners, on the real / exact historicity of Hindu religious texts. Moreover, the relative placing of various texts with respect to one another in terms of their religious and philosophical nature is not always clear and well-defined.

In this scholarly essay, Telang tries to answer these two important questions(by establishing verifiable date and the relation with religious texts) for the Bhagavad Gita. By using internal evidence and external evidence from various texts and other sources (religious practices etc.), which he analyses and argues beautifully, he is able to say with certainty that the Gita can't have origins later than the third century B.C.("..must be earlier than the third century B.C., though it is altogether impossible to say at present how much earlier."), and that the Gita is definitely in the class of Upanisads, rather than a Smriti (as some people mistakenly consider Gita because of its association with the Mahabharata, a Smriti) or a pure philosophy (some people wrongly characterize Gita as a philosophy because of its highly philosophical content).