The first European translation of the Bhagavad Gita, a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna, appeared in English in 1785. Strangely, this classic of Indian spirituality, which is much concerned with liberation, was prefaced with talk of conquest, rightful dominion and chains of subjection.
The translation had been produced under the auspices of the English East India Company, then in the process of claiming for itself ever-larger swaths of territory in India. The first edition incorporated a letter written by the governor-general in Calcutta, Warren Hastings, in which he compared the Gita with Homer and Milton. He also noted its usefulness as a source of intelligence on a newly subject people and the potential for English interest in the Gita to soften Indians’ hearts towards their rulers.
Jones’s ground-breaking argument in favour of ‘Asiatic poetry’ was soon in the hands of Goethe
Hastings even hoped that some of the young men going out to India to earn some fast money as Company traders might read the Bhagavad Gita and be drawn away from what he rather diplomatically described as ‘meaner occupations’.
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