SV: "Bagger Vance" & Doniger on the Gita

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

Prof. Raman wrote:
>3. By the way, there have been Hindu thinkers who have criticized the Gita
too.
>Personally, I did not like what Doniger wrote, and I published a strongly
>worded rebuttal to her.

Is this "strongly worded rebuttal" available in this list or in the cyberspace?

Yes, highly regarded Sanskritists from India also tell their
observations about Gita. Experts have simialr views as those
of eminent Indologists like Wendy Doniger.

Regards,
SM


<<<
Indira Vishvanathan Peterson, Prof. of Sanskrit,
 The Norton Anthology, World Masterpieces, p. 958, 1995:
 "There is reason to believe that the Gita, originally
 an independent philosophical dialogue similar to earlier
 and contemporary texts such as the Upanishads and the
 Buddhist scriptures, was deliberately placed in the popular
 MBh. epic.., This new configuration of elements fortified a
 view that was at once revolutionary for its time (ca. first
 century AD) and designed to preserve the Hindu social
 hierarchy.

  By the end of the first century BC, the Buddhist and Jain
 religions had gained a considerable following among the Indian
 masses and among kings and merchants as well. Focusing
 on the problem of karma - the belief that all actions involve
 inevitable consequences that must be suffered thru' many lives-
 Buddhism in particular offered people from all walks of life
 a religious path on which ethical action could be combined with
 contemplative spiritual practices, eventually leading to liberation
 from the burden of karma.In the Hindu social order, on the other
 hand, rigid and hierarchical correlations between birth and
 occupation locked people into existential situations that held no
 such prospect of ultimate freedom.

 .. The Gita appears to have been the response of brahman thinkers
 who stood to lose the most from the potential disintegration of
 the Hindu social system. Thru' Krishna's teachings, the anonymous
 author of the Gita articulates a new doctrine that will justify
 the hierarchies of class and social duty (he uses the word
 lokasaMgraha, social solidarity) at the same time that it offers
 universal access to the ultimate goal of emancipation.

 .. The text synthesizes the contemplative vision of the Buddhists
 and the sages of the Upanishads..."
>>>



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