Kashmiri Text of Gita

[Enrica Garzilli]

Ramkumar wrote:
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> I have heard that  there is a Kashmiri text of the Gita that has 744
> verses instead of the usual 700 or 701. Is there anyone in this group
> who can give me the details about the extra verses from this version
> that are not  found in the standard text.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Sowmya Ramkumar


_____________________________________________________________________________
(a.s.: diacr. omitted)
Abhinavagupta commented on, or better summarized the subject-matters of
the Kashmiri Bhagavadgita in his *Bhagavadgitarthasamgraha* (Srinagar
1933 or, included with other commentaries Bombay 1912). He of course
gave the saiva interpretation which he learnt from one of his teachers
Bhattenduraja.
He comments on a text which is different from the usual in several
verses, and he also commented on several verses which one cannot find in
the other redactions of the Gita, such as III, 40-45.

(In the Rajatarangini 5, 125 the historian Kalhana writes that
Avantivarman, a king of Kashmir who died in the 9th century A. D. (I
think), read the (Kashmiri) Bhagavadgita from the beginning to the end
during his death.)

Also the *Vasavi Tika* is a commentary on a longer Gita. It has been
ascribed to another great saiva Kashmiri author, Vasugupta (9th cent.).
Even though the complete ms. of the VT has not been discovered, a
Kashmiri scholar friend of mine told me last year in Delhi that the text
on which Vasugupta commented on is the Kashmiri
Gita which is longer. (BTW, he claims to have found the complete ms).

Enrica
--
Dr. Enrica Garzilli             University of Perugia (ITALY)
Istituto di Linguistica                  Piazza Morlacchi, 11
06100 Perugia               Tel/Fax: +39-75-585 3755 (office)
Editor-in-Chief,
Intl. Journal of Tantric Studies  (www.shore.net/~india/ijts/)
Journal of S. Asia Women Studies (www.shore.net/~india/jsaws/)
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