The Afterlives of the Bhagavad Gita Readings in Translation

This volume stems from the understanding that historiographical analyses of the Gita's reception overlook the element of its translation. It begins with this recognition and posits translation as fundamental to any understanding of the Gita's reception. It examines in depth and compares how translations of the Gita do not seek the same aims in all places and at all times and recognizes that translation theories and methodologies are not uniform across nations and eras. Therefore, this volume looks at insolites (unusual, strange) readings of the Gita and how they seek to fill the hermeneutical gap between readings tied to its canonical and scriptural status and those that are distant from the text's tradition.

1 - Translation Theories
2 - Translation and Mystification: Wilkins
3 - European Linguists, Philosophers, and Intellectual Rabble-Rousers
4 - Brahman as the Cosmic Translator and the Gita's Potentiality in American Transcendentalism
5 - Nationalism, Sedition, and Mysticism
6 - Gandhi's Convenient Text
7 - Ambedkar's Counter-Revolutionary Gita: Historical and Political Context
8 - The Nazi Ksatriya Ethos
9 - Is This What Krishna Meant?
10 - What Becomes of Dharma in a Conquered Country?
11 - The Beats, the Monk, and Multicultural Artists

Dorothy M. Figueira is a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia, USA. Her scholarly interests include religion and literature, translation theory, exoticism, myth theory, and travel narratives. She has served as the Editor of 'The Comparatist' (2008-2011) and as Editor of 'Recherche litteraire'/'Literary Research'. Figueira is an Honorary President of the International Comparative Literature Association. She has held fellowships from the American Institute for Indian Studies and Fulbright.