Bhagavad-Gítá or the sacred lay ; a colloquy between Krishna and Arjuna on divine matters : an episode from the Mahabharata

ADVERTISEMENT,

Tue present Edition of the Bhagavad-Gité has no pretension to entire novelty. The printed editions already existing are those of Calcutta, 1808, and of Bonn, 1823 and 1846. ‘The last of these, which the illustrious Lassen produced from the groundwork of the no less illustrious Schlegel, is calculated, I believe, to satisfy the most particular of pedants.

If, then, it be asked why another edition is now offered to the public, I can only reply that the expense of that of Bonn, like that, unfortunately, of most Oriental publications, is sufficient to warrant the production of a less costly work; while the translation of this poem, which I have just put forward, has induced me to think that several emendations and conjectures might be adopted even in the almost faultless work of such excellent scholars, with much advantage. Nay more. As will be seen in the followimg remarks, there are one or two alterations which are absolutely necessary to the right interpretation of this poem.

Thus, while I have almost universally retaimed Lassen’s readings