All Indians love the learning we get from the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (श्रीमद् भगवद् गीता), a historical classic text of Hinduism that carries in its womb the essence of life, karma, death, re-birth, detachment and dispassionate action.
Many curious minds find it a very mysterious text, full of newer learning each time we read it.
While researching on it, a very interesting fact I discovered was that the massive popularity that the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (श्रीमद् भगवद् गीता) enjoys in the India of today is, strangely, courtesy the biggest colonial looters of India 'The British East India Company' (BEIC)!
Sir Charles Wilkins, born at Frome in Somerset (1749), came to India in 1770 serving the BEIC as a printer and writer. He was a great learner of languages and picked up Bengali and Persian, designed the first type for printing Bengali, and earned respect from the first de-facto Governer General of India Warren Hastings himself.
Wilkins then learned Sanskrit from a Brahmin at Varanasi, and his version of the Gita, published in 1785 as Bhagvat-geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoonchanged the way it was seen by Indian elite (many of whom did not know Sanskrit). Though Wilkins wrongly assumed that Gita was written to wean Hindus away from polytheism and towards monotheism (as the presence of only one supreme Godhead - Krishna - makes it appear). His translations became very famous, and were further translated into French and German.
Without him, perhaps the modern perception of many Hindus would have been a different mix. Since most Indians, except the hard-core Brahmins, never knew Sanskrit, the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (श्रीमद् भगवद् गीता)would have remained a forlorn mystery for us for many more generations. So a big thanks to Wilkins for doing what we ourselves could not.
Jai Shri Krishna!
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15 comments:
thanks for sharing such interesting concept about THE SHRIMAD BHAGWAT GEETA
Very true, today Hindu literature and culture is being misinterpreted
Nice gyaan Sandeep Ji. Charles Wilkins also translated Hitopdesh of Pt. Vishnu Sharma.
Very interesting fact
Nice info sir ..Thanks
Thank you 4 sharing
Our very own Indian Saint & Poet Dnyaneshwar from Maharashtra have also written the commentry of Bhagvad Gita consisting of 700 shlokas into around 9999 Marathi verses(ovis),Bhavarth Deepika popularly called as "The Dnyneshwari" in the 13th century,so that the knowledge from within the Geeta is made accessible to the comman people who have less command to sanskrit.
Our very own Indian Saint & Poet Dnyaneshwar from Maharashtra have also written the commentry of Bhagvad Gita consisting of 700 shlokas into around 9999 Marathi verses(ovis),Bhavarth Deepika popularly called as "The Dnyneshwari" in the 13th century,so that the knowledge from within the Geeta is made accessible to the comman people who have less command to sanskrit.
wow gr8
its really nice initiative
but actually this is my humble request please read the bhagwat gita as it is [version] for actuall understanding of krsna's teachings
ty
like Aryan, It is also a false consciousness that BEIC spread all this
Every spiritual text in India is misinterpreted due to their complex language which was Known by a small group of people in the society. Each literature of India consist those things which the West discover in the 20th and 21st century and We Indians think they are brilliant. If we start research on our texts we will find a lot about nature and the human beings.
Amazing !!!
The translation pf bhagvadgita from sanskrit into english came as blessing in disguise for indian intellectuals who had became the sycophant of english language during that time,but after knowing about their proud text and Indian philosophy,they must have connected themselves to the root.
India had everything sir....to conquer the world.But our ancestors were filled with so much pride, and the condition of India currently, in nothing but the price of that pride.
so, Bringing western education to India by BEIC also impacted our religion hugely,both positively and negatively. One of the most amazing positive thing they did is taking our most holy religious thoughts and learnings to us from a height where majority of us actually dont want to struggle even today.
Thanks to Wilkins.
and a very big thanks to Sandeep Sir.
We just Love You Sir.
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