Text layers in the Gita (fwd)

[Dominik Wujastyk]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 21:30:10 -0000
From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vsundaresan at hotmail.com>

Subject: Text layers in the Gita

Hello Dominik,

I've temporarily unsubscribed from the Indology list, as I won't
be able to check my email regularly for now. Will rejoin later.
I just wanted to make a couple of points on the Gita thread,
which you could forward to the list, if you feel it's okay.

If the jnana-yoga and Samkhya related enumerations in the last
few chapters of the text are late additions to a text that reaches
its climax in Krishna's theophany, then the references to Samkhya
and jnana-yoga in all the earlier chapters should also be suspected.
On the other hand, verse 3 in chapter 3 clearly states that jnana-
yoga is for the Samkhyan, while karma-yoga is for the Yogin. This
theme occurs throughout chapters 2 and 3, which form Krishna's
immediate answer to Arjuna's quandary about the impending war.

This jnana vs. karma argument closely parallels the age-old tension
between monk and householder in Indian society. A reconciliation of
both ideals in the context of theistic bhakti is acknowledgedly a
historically late development in India. A strong textual, historical
and cultural argument can therefore be made that the chapters with a
high emphasis on Bhakti are late additions to the Gita. If so, the
theophany of Krishna can be seen as an insertion into an old text
that emphasized karma-yoga for the fighting Kshatriya and the courtly
Brahmin, reserving jnana for those who retire to the forest. This
would have been in the interests of upholding the social order.

Needless to say, I don't think this argument is very sound as far
as the text of the Gita is concerned. Numerous counter-arguments
can be raised to it, based on the internal structure of the text
itself. However, to think that the jnana-yoga and Samkhya related
chapters are "dull" and are therefore late additions to the text
would be equally unsound.

Finally, an argument about chronological layers in the Gita needs
to clearly state at what point of time the Gita came to be seen as
an independent text to be studied, instead of being merely a part
of the great epic. If it was surprising that nobody mentioned
Lamotte in this discussion, it is even more surprising that nobody
has yet mentioned van Buitenen's comments about the text and its
epic context. Could not the few additional verses in the Kashmiri
version be viewed as late additions to the 700-verse Gita?

Yours,
Vidyasankar
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