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A more probable origin is, that it is composed of the initials of the three personifications of the triad of elements, which is a much more ancient Trinity than that of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The “ a ” would then represent Agni (or fire), the “ u ” Varuna (water), and the " m ” Marut (wind or air). The composition of the u Bhagavad-Gita ” is attributed to the Vyasa, the appellation of the same person who is said to have composed the Vedas and Puranas. As I have above remarked, a difficulty exists about its date. One, the great difficulty about the classical literature of India is the absence of all chronological data — all data, I mean, which may with any confidence be relied on. The subject is more conspicuous for philosophy than poetry, though it is not deficient in either. It is in form a dialogue; but Sanjaya has by far the greatest share of talk. He is the Suta (charioteer or bard) of the blind Dhritarashtra, the brother of P&ndu. These two brothers were the head members of a warrior family, a tribe called Kshatriya. To make the subject more intelligible, I will first shortly explain what caste or tribe in India means. The philosophical or true origin of caste is widely opposed to the popular notion of its origin. The philosophic minds of ancient India observed that mechanical contrivances for the convenience of man were generally modelled on portions of his own structure. Carrying out this idea, they considered man as a composite whole, made up of head, arms, belly, and feet; the first expressing knowledge ; the second, force ; the third, cultivation ; and the fourth, slavery. Health, they said, is maintained by the united action of these, which are indeed incapable, or less capable, of separate action. After this system of division in the human body, they divided INTRODUCTION. xxxi the social body into those well-known four divisions — viz., first, Brahmins (or priests), whose duty was the study and teaching of religion 5 second, Kshatriyas (or warriors), whose duty was govern- ment and the subjection of one’s enemies — in short, the protection, internal and external, of one’s country ; third, Yaisyas (or merchants), whose duty was commerce and agriculture; and fourth, Sudras (or slaves), whose duty was faithful service of their masters. The divi- sion into castes is as distinct in this Western country as in India, only here it is not openly acknowledged, and bears no name. Re- gard was paid in this division to the various tendencies of the body politic, and not to birth, as is generally now imagined. Indeed, common experience shows that persons of the same family have, by no means, always the same tendencies. The original sense, like the sense of other philosophy, has been perverted by the pride and ignorance of man ; and this perversion, like other perversions, has created wide con- fusion, and been the greatest and most enduring bar to social progress. Dhritar&shtra, the head of the elder- branch of the family, had one hundred sons, called “ Kuru,” or, in Mahratti, from espouser ; and Pandu, the head of the younger branch, had five sons, called “Pandavas.” The latter were banished from Hastinapura, the ancient Delhi, by their old blind uncle, Dhritarashtra, at the persuasion of his own son, Duryodhana (evil-disposed), the eldest of one hundred sons. In consequence of the banishment and the privation to which they were reduced, Krishna, their bosom friend, mediated between the two members of the family, and requested the elder branch to restore some portion of the sovereignty and income to the younger, oppressed and ill-treated. But the haughty and arrogant elder answered that not so much as might be contained in a needle’s eye should be allowed to his brothers. Krishna then advised the oppressed Pandavas to declare war, since he knew well that both parties were excellently trained in arms, and that the oppressed had made itself famous, as better skilled in that art than the other. Krishna was a common friend of the Kuru family, and believed to be divinely gifted, and held in high estimation by all its members. It is said in the Mahabharat that when the members, Dury- odhana and Aijuna, one of each branch, went to Krishna to ask his assistance, he was asleep ; then the son of the elder brother, Duryodhana, INTRODUCTION. chose a place at his head, as the more honourable, and also to be seen first ; and the son of the younger, Arjuna, at his feet. Krishna, however, awakening suddenly, naturally saw Arjuna first. Here he found himself for a short time in a difficulty, owing to his inability to act so as to satisfy both. He, however, soon devised a plan, by suggesting that he would divide himself thus : viz., his whole army on one side, and himself alone, without any armour, on the other, and they should take their choice. Whereupon Duryodhana preferred the army, and Aijuna accepted Krishna alone on his side. With this division, an open war took place. The hostile armies of the two brothers are met on the plain, Kuru Kshetra, ^pT, a strip of land between the Indus, the Ganges, and the Himalaya range. A certain Blnshma leads the band of the Kuru, while Bhima is the general on the other side. The scene of the poem, the battle-field, never changes. Blnshma gives the signal by blow- ing his shell, which salute is returned by Arjuna, for whom Krishna is filling the post of charioteer. The fight begins with a flight of arrows. Then Arjuna is brought by Krishna, at his own desire, into the place between the two armies. While he examines the lines of the enemy, he is suddenly struck with the number of friends and relatives he is about to do his best to destroy. He is overcome with a strange revulsion of feelings, and sits down on the bench of his chariot. Krishna exhorts him with the arguments which form the didactic and philosophical portion of this work, and endeavours to persuade him that he is mis- taken in his conceptions. Arjuna is eventually overruled ; the fight goes on, and he obtains a complete victory. The whole work has been divided into three sections, each of six chapters, the first purely practical, the second theological, and the third metaphysical. Now, all this beautiful poem is but an allegory, which I will at once endeavour to explain. It would have been impossible, without under- standing the literal sense, to arrive at a conception of the remote and foreign meaning. It was for this reason that I made some few pre- liminary remarks with regard to the literal signification of the poem. It is applied as an allegory to illustrate Theology, or the Philosophy of Religion, by fable, which equally attracts the uneducated and commends itself to the wise. Fables and parables — those favourite methods of INTRODUCTION. XXXiii communicating instruction at all times and in all countries — what are these but allegories? In these the mystical intention is called the moral ; an allegory too dark or intricate becomes the well-known enigma or riddle. In the allegory presented by the “Bhagavad-Gita” there is one uniform and consistent set of ideas; it does not “begin with a tempest and end with a fire ” — an expression of Quintillian, the noted Roman critic, for denoting that which is forced or unnatural in this species of figurative rhetoric. When the key is given, the allusion becomes at once plain an^ evident ; and, what is more, the key which I venture to present will, I think, unfasten every locked door in this poem which shuts out compre- hension. Allegories have indeed entered, I may Bay, into all religions. After all, may not religion itself be called an allegory ? What is reli- gion ? what prayer ? what worship ? asks a disciple. The philosopher replies, The true and the etymological signification of the word religion is “ that which binds back.” It is the sense of duty which man feels from the relation in which he stands to some superior power. It is not mere belief in certain dogmas and doctrines, at all times to be found in all nations of the world. Prayer means necessary labour to acquire spiritual knowledge ; for labour is the lot of man, and by it alone all sciences and arts arc cultivated, duties performed, and fulfilment of desires brought about. It is not a mere repetition of words and sen- tences ; for the discretionary quality of reason necessitates labour to dis- tinguish truth from falsehood, and virtue from vice. God has left nothing unsupplied to man. He is provided with reason within to guide him, and without with every necessary provision to support him and render him happy. It rests entirely *with himself to work out his own true end. Worship means unflinching mental culture in the experience gained or knowledge acquired in truth and virtue ; for how often does man forget and allow himself to be tempted to evil, by which he suffers, and at times resolves never to subject himself to it again ! The rise of such pure and unalloyed ideas in the mind of man is considered, in the Eastern philosophical language, the virgin birth, the incarnation of God ; Krishna, Christ, and others, as man in man. By the two families, Kurus and Pandavas, of one tribe, are to be understood those of Passion and Intelligence, of the one tribe of man- xxxiv INTRODUCTION. kind which is called Kshatriya, from being endowed with a warrior element, the spiritual essence Reason. The microscosm man, just as the larger world, is for ever the battle-field of vice and deceit against truth and virtue. Man is bom undeveloped ; vice and deceit obstruct the gates of Intelligence. The moral principle also is held in a state of siege. Aijuna represents mind, his chariot represents the body, his charioteer, Krishna, represents reason. The spot, I have already said, where the fight occurred, was called the sacred place (Kuru kshetra).