The Bhagavadgîtâ, with the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ — SBE Vol. 8 (trans. K. T. Telang, 1882)
The translator’s English as printed (K. T. Telang). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
The next branch of that evidence brings us to the character of the versification of the Gita. Here, again, a survey of Sanskrit verse generally, and the verse of the Gita in particular, leads us to a conclusion regarding the position of the Gita in Sanskrit literature, which is in strict accord with the conclusions we have already drawn. In the verse of the Vedic Samhitds, there is almost nothing like a rigidly fixed scheme of versification, no particular collocation of long and short syllables is absolutely necessary. If we attempt to chant them in the mode in which classical Sanskrit verse is chanted, we invariably come across lines where the chanting cannot be smooth. If we come next to the versification of the Upanishads, we observe some progress made towards such fixity of scheme as we have alluded to above. Though there are still numerous lines, which cannot be smoothly chanted, there are, on the other hand, a not altogether inconsiderable number which can be smoothly chanted. In the Bhagavadgita a still further advance, though a slight one, may, I think, be marked. A visibly larger proportion of the stanzas in the Gita conform to the metrical schemes as laid down by the writers on prosody, though there are still sundry verses which do not so conform, and cannot, accordingly, be chanted in the regular way. Lastly, we come to the Kâvyas and Natakas—the classical literature. And here in practice we find everywhere a most inflexible rigidity of scheme, while the theory is laid down in a rule which says, that ‘even mâsha may be changed to masha, but a break of metre should be avoided.’ This survey of Sanskrit verse may, I think, be fairly treated as showing, that adhesion to the metrical schemes is one test of the chronological position of a work—the later the work, the more undeviating is such adhesion. I need not stay here to point out, how this view receives corroboration from the rules given on this subject in the standard work of Pingala on the Khandas Sastra. I will only conclude this point by saying, that the argument from the versification of the Gita, so far as it goes, indicates its position as being prior to the classical literature, and nearly contemporaneous with the Upanishad literature.
The next branch of that evidence concerns the character of the versification of the Gita. Here again, a survey of Sanskrit verse generally, and of the Gita's verse in particular, leads us to a conclusion about the Gita's place in Sanskrit literature that is in strict accord with the conclusions already drawn. In the verse of the Vedic Samhitds, there is almost nothing resembling a rigidly fixed scheme of versification; no particular arrangement of long and short syllables is absolutely required. If we try to chant them in the manner in which classical Sanskrit verse is chanted, we invariably encounter lines where the chanting cannot flow smoothly. Moving on to the versification of the Upanishads, we observe some progress toward the kind of fixed scheme mentioned above. Although there are still numerous lines that cannot be chanted smoothly, there is, on the other hand, a not altogether inconsiderable number that can be. In the Bhagavadgita a still further advance may, I think, be detected, though a slight one. A visibly larger proportion of the stanzas in the Gita conform to the metrical schemes as laid down by writers on prosody, though there are still sundry verses that do not so conform and therefore cannot be chanted in the regular way. Finally we come to the Kâvyas and Natakas—the classical literature. Here in practice we find everywhere the most inflexible rigidity of scheme, while the theory is set out in a rule declaring that even mâsha may be changed to masha, but a break of metre should be avoided. This survey of Sanskrit verse may, I think, fairly be taken as showing that adherence to the metrical schemes is one test of a work's chronological position—the later the work, the more undeviating that adherence. I need not pause here to show how this view receives corroboration from the rules given on this subject in the standard work of Pingala on the Khandas Sastra. I will only conclude this point by saying that the argument from the versification of the Gita, so far as it goes, places the Gita prior to the classical literature and nearly contemporaneous with the Upanishad literature.