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34
BHAGAVADGITA.
of the Bhagavadgita and its position in Sanskrit literature. Although, as stated at the very outset, the conclusions we have deduced in the course of that examination are not all such as at once to secure acceptance, I venture to think that we have now adequate grounds for saying, that the various and independent lines of investigation, which we have pursued, converge to this point, that the Gità, on numerous and essential topics, ranges itself as a member of the Upanishad group, so to say, in Sanskrit literature. Its philosophy, its mode of treating its subject, its style, its language, its versification, its opinions on sundry subjects of the highest importance, all point to that one conclusion. We may also, I think, lay it down as more than probable, that the latest date at which the Gità can have been composed, must be earlier than the third century B.C., though it is altogether impossible to say at present how much earlier. This proposition, too, is supported by the cumulative strength of several independent lines of testimony.
Before closing this Introduction, it is desirable to add a word concerning the text of the Bhagavadgitâ. The religious care with which that text has been preserved is very worthy of note. Schlegel and Lassen' have both declared it as their opinion, that we have the text now almost exactly in the condition in which it was when it left the hands of the author. There are very few rcal various readings, and some of the very few that exist are noted by the commentators. Considering that the Mahabharata .must have been tampered with on numerous occasions, this preservation of the Gità is most interesting. It doubtless indicates that high veneration for it which is still felt, and has for long been felt, by the Hindus, and which is embodied in the expression used in the colophons of the MSS. describing the Gità as the 'Upanishad sung by God?' In view of the facts and deductions set forth in
· See the latter's edition of the Gità, Preface, p. xxvii.
la thc edition of the Gîtà published in Bombay in Saka 178a, there is a stanza which says that the Upanishads are the cows, Krishna the milkman, Arguna thc call, and the milk is the nectar-like Gita, which indicates the indi.
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