Though the Bhagavadgītā or Gītā is one of the important sourcebooks of Indian philosophy and religion, or rather of Hindu philosophy and religion, its date, authorship, textual formation, teaching, etc. are still debatable among the scholars—oriental and occidental. While supports in this regard can be garnered from both ancient and modern sources, they too seem to be inconclusive and contradictory. Thus, this paper, while analysing these debatable points regarding this text, taking into consideration both textual sources and modern scholars’ views, (...) concludes that, in order to have an unbiased attitude and its true import at large, the text is to be viewed and read scrupulously from its literary need and historicity. (shrink)

This paper announces the first critical edition of Abhinavagupta’s commentary on the Bhagavadgītā in its Kashmirian recension, based on one Kashmirian Devanāgarī and seven Śāradā manuscripts in addition to two existing non-critical editions. The volume will also include a new edition of the Kashmirian recension of the Bhagavadgītā and a full French translation. After a short presentation of Abhinavagupta’s commentary and a discussion of previous work on the subject, the manuscripts used are listed and briefly described. The question and importance (...) of the Kashmirian recension of the Bhagavadgītā and problems of its edition are discussed in detail, with several textual examples. In order to give a sample of the Gītārthasaṃgraha’s contents, some of Abhinavagupta’s remarkable interpretations are also highlighted, in particular tantric or esoteric ones. An Appendix deals with the closely related question of Bhāskara the Vedāntin, his date, his provenance and the Gītā recension he probably used for his commentary. (shrink)