Bhagavad-gita - Hardcover

The "Gita" is one of the most precious fruits of India...Professor Edgerton has a deep familiarity with that sacred text--he has read it word by word with many generations of students. It is a real pleasure to read 'India's favorite Bible' in this beautiful and very convenient edition...Edgerton analyzes the doctrines of the "Gita" with clearness and acuteness, and his expos e is full of well-chosen quotations and suggestive remarks. -- P.E. Dumont "Journal of the American Oriental Society" As a revelation of divine incarnation and an attempt to harmonize the rival spiritual paths of action, knowledge and devotion, the Sanskrit poem Bhagavad Gita, "Song of the Lord," itself incarnates all that is typically Hindu. Probably the most revered scripture outside the sacred vedas themselves, and certainly more influential than the latter in popular Hindu piety, the Gita--a self-contained fraction of the vast epic Mahabharata--has been translated innumerable times into many languages east and west....Edgerton's translation remains a solid piece of scholarship which no serious student of the Gita can afford to ignore. The same can be said of his chapters analyzing the historical setting and doctrinal content of the poem, which still constitute one of the best overall studies of the "Gita" ever published. -- Peter Moore "Times Higher Education Supplement"

To most good Vishnuites, and to most Hindus, the Bhagavad Gita is what the New Testament is to good Christians. It is their chief devotional book, and has been for centuries the principal source of religious inspiretion for many millions of Indian. In this two-volume edition, Volume I contains on facing pages a transliteration of original Sanskirt and the autor's close translation. Volume II is Mr. Edgerton's interpretation in which he makes clear the historical setting of the poem and analyzes its influence on later literature and its place in Indian philosophy. Sir Edwin Arnold's beautiful translation, The Song Celestial, is also includes in the second volume. Mr. Edgerton is the author of many books and articles in the fields of Egyptology and Oriental languages and literature. He is an editor of the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature.