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Gavin Flood and Charles Martin, The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 167 pages.
Ithamar Theodor, Exploring the Bhagavad G(t: Philosophy, Structure and Meaning. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2010. 160 pages.
Jeaneane Fowler, The Bhagavad Gita: A Text and Commentary for Students. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2012. 360 pages.
Since its first translation into English by Charles Wilkins in 1785, the stream of English translations of the Bhagavad G(t has shown no sign of ceasing. Indeed, if anything it has begun to flow even more rapidly over the past decade. Some may wonder if the flow is in danger of becoming a flood, but there can be no doubt about its fertilizing power in the field of Hindu Studies. The translation by Gavin Flood, in association with Charles Martin, has the special merit of trying to capture the cadence of the Sanskrit meter, an especially alluring feature of the book. This highly readable translation, however, renders the word santana (1.40) as eternal, which creates the contradiction of eternal laws being subject to perishing, a contradiction which perhaps could be avoided by translating it as immemorial rather than eternal. Similarly, the key expression vsudeva sarvamiti (7.19) is perhaps rendered more appealingly, and also more powerfully, for Western audiences, as God is all there is, especially as
International Journal of Hindu Studies 18, 2: 265272 2014 Springer
DOI 10.1007/s11407-014-9160-z
Three New Books on the Bhagavad G t
Arvind Sharma
266 / Arvind Sharma
in the Introduction, K~a is identified with God (Flood and Martin 2012: xxiii). These suggestions, however, are not in the least meant to detract from the high quality of the translation throughout the book, which also contains a helpful Introduction and useful Notes on the chapters.
That being said, two points touched upon in the book call for serious discussion. The first has to do with verse number 10 of Chapter One. One must begin by acknowledging that it poses a problem, as many have noticed, because a quick reading creates the impression that the forces of the Kauravas under Bh?ma were less than the forces of the P~ avas (referred to in this verse as under Bh?ma), whereas the fact was that their numbers were greater. This...