Writings: HinduismFive Sharada Bhagavadgita manuscripts at BORI10 of 10

Writings: Hinduism

Five Sharada Bhagavadgita manuscripts at BORI

These are five Bhagavadgita manuscripts, each with a commentary, written in the Sharada script of Kashmir and held by the Bhandarkar Institute in Pune. The Gita is among the most widely read Hindu scriptures. The Institute dates the oldest of the five to 1376 CE, from a coded year in its closing verse, and the others to the 1700s CE.

Last reviewed:

Three dates, kept apart

  1. The text's date: the tradition's view

    about 3000 BCE, when Krishna spoke it on the eve of the war (ISKCON Educational Services, a Vaishnava source: the war came at the end of the Dvapara Yuga, and the Kali Yuga that followed began some 5,000 years ago, which is about 3000 BCE, computed here from 2026); Shankara's introduction gives no year

  2. The text's date: critical scholars' view

    about 300 to 100 BCE (Eliot Deutsch and Lee Siegel: probably incorporated into the epic in the 3rd century BCE; Alf Hiltebeitel: no later than the 1st or 2nd century BCE, and possibly earlier)

  3. This copy made

    1376 CE for the oldest of the five (BORI's calculation); the others about the 1700s CE

  4. This copy found

    1875 to 1884 (three manuscripts bought in Kashmir by Georg Buhler in 1875 to 1876, and two collected there by R. G. Bhandarkar in 1883 to 1884, for the Government of Bombay)

All four rows share one timeline. A row with no marker says why in words. How ancient texts are dated.

What it is

The Bhagavadgita, the Song of the Blessed Lord, is a Sanskrit scripture of 700 verses in 18 chapters, set inside the Mahabharata's book of Bhishma.123 Deutsch and Siegel call it perhaps the most widely read and beloved scripture in Indian religious literature, esteemed by Shaivas, who center on Shiva, and by Vaishnavas, who worship Vishnu and his incarnations, especially Krishna and Rama.245 In it Krishna, whom the text presents as God, instructs Arjuna on the eve of battle.2

The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune holds five manuscripts of it in Sharada, a script of Kashmir. Each joins the Gita with a commentary, a running explanation of its verses. Two carry the commentary called Sarvatobhadra, by Rajanaka Rama; the others carry those of Shridhara, Abhinavagupta, and Anandavardhana.3 BORI's nomination of the five for UNESCO's Memory of the World register is dated 11 July 2024.3 UNESCO's register page for a Bhagavadgita manuscript collection submitted by India (registration year 2025) links to this form and gives BORI's Pune address as the collection's location. Its own text does not describe the five manuscripts.1

How the copy was dated

BORI's nomination form dates the oldest, no. 425 of 1875-76, with Shridhara's commentary, to 1376 CE. It says Viswanath Shastri of BORI's Mahabharata department calculated the date from a verse at its end that writes the year in coded letters, which he reads as 1432 of the Vikramaditya era, or 1376 CE. The form cites P. K. Gode's placing of Shridhara between about 1350 and 1450 CE as a sign of its age.3 The sources used here hold no second reading of the code, so 1376 CE is BORI's calculation, not a settled date.

For the other four, the nomination says they are from about the early 1700s CE, with ages of 1737 to 1790 CE credited to the editor S. K. Belvalkar.3 His own pages give estimates, not colophon dates: 1754 CE for no. 424 and 1781 CE for no. 423, each only if a Laukika-era year is read a certain way. For no. 179 he gives 1680 CE as the date of its commentator, worked out from a verse at its end.6

The nomination's figures of about 1737 CE for no. 179 and about 1790 CE for no. 163 do not appear in the Belvalkar pages read here, which give 1737 only as a Samvat year in no. 179's closing verse and do not mention no. 163. For methods, see how ancient texts are dated.

The text: its date and authorship

The date strip marks the Gita itself, not these copies.

Vaishnava and Advaita Vedanta accounts

ISKCON Educational Services, a Vaishnava source, calls the Gita the best-known Hindu scripture in the world and holds that Krishna spoke it to Arjuna between two armies.7

Another page places that war at the end of the Dvapara Yuga and says the Kali Yuga that follows began some 5,000 years ago.8 Shankara, the major teacher of Advaita Vedanta, a school of nondualism, writes in his introduction (1897 English translation) that the Lord taught this religion to Arjuna and that Veda-Vyasa embodied it in seven hundred verses, an epitome of the essentials of the Vedic teaching.29 His introduction gives no year, and the sources used here include no statement on the Gita's date or authorship from a Shaiva tradition.

Scholars of the epic and the Gita

Eliot Deutsch and Lee Siegel write that the Gita was probably incorporated into the story of the great war during the third century BCE. They add that, as a book within the Mahabharata, it is formally smriti, "remembered" tradition, as against shruti, the "heard" revelation of the Veda, but that after the growth of devotional Hinduism it came to be accepted as revelation within the tradition.2

Alf Hiltebeitel writes that the Gita seems to be from no later than the first or second century BCE, because Badarayana's Vedanta Sutra cites it, and possibly from earlier. He dates the Vedanta Sutra to about 300 to 100 BCE.10 The scholarly accounts used here date from 1987.

How it was found

Georg Buhler toured Kashmir in 1875 to 1876 for the Government of Bombay and bought about 838 manuscripts. Four were of the Gita, nos. 422 to 425; no. 422 is in Devanagari, the others in Sharada. In 1883 to 1884 R. G. Bhandarkar collected two more of the five, nos. 163 and 179.311

The nomination says the manuscripts Buhler collected went first to Elphinstone College in Bombay, then to Deccan College in Pune, then to BORI, without giving the year each reached BORI.3

What it shows, and what it does not

It shows five copies of the Gita from Kashmir, with four commentaries, the oldest copied in 1376 CE by BORI's calculation. Belvalkar's 1947 critical edition of the Bhishma book names nos. 423, 424, and 179 among its manuscripts, though the nomination says it used all five.63 The nomination, citing F. Otto Schrader and J. A. B. van Buitenen, holds that these manuscripts' Kashmir form of the Gita preserves an older tradition than the form Shankara commented on, with better readings of some verses. It adds that the manuscripts read the Gita through Kashmir Shaiva metaphysics, showing how Shaiva philosophers read what it calls a fundamentally Vaishnava text.3

It does not show what the Gita said before 1376 CE, or how the Kashmir form differs from Shankara's, which this page did not compare. The sources used here include no reply to the nomination's view. On the scholars' dating, the oldest copy comes about 1,500 to 1,700 years after the Gita's composition, and at least about 1,400 years on Hiltebeitel's latest date. On the Vaishnava reckoning of Krishna speaking about 5,000 years ago, it comes about 4,400 years after (all computed here). The nomination and Buhler both call no. 425 complete, at 42 folios; this page did not check the text. The entry rests mostly on BORI's own filing.311

Sources

  1. UNESCO. Manuscript Collection of Bhagavadgita: Ancient Samgraha-grantha of Indian thought with World-wide Readership and Influence. UNESCO Memory of the World Register, 2025. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  2. Eliot Deutsch and Lee Siegel. Bhagavadgita. Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  3. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (nominator), for the Government of India. UNESCO International Memory of the World Register, Nomination Form: Bhagavadgita: Five Select Manuscripts in Sarada Script. UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, 2024, PDF pp. 5 to 8 (section 6.3, the five manuscripts), pp. 14 to 16 (history and provenance), and pp. 27 and 33 (the dates and the Kashmir recension). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  4. Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Dancing with Siva, Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism, sixth edition, "What Are Hinduism's Principal Sects?". Himalayan Academy, 2003, chapter 1, sloka 6. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  5. Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Dancing with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism, sixth edition: Sloka 9, What Is the Devotional Vaishnava Sect?. Himalayan Academy (web edition), 2003, Sloka 9, What Is the Devotional Vaishnava Sect?. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  6. S. K. Belvalkar. The Bhismaparvan (Introduction), in The Mahabharata for the first time critically edited. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1947, Introduction, pp. xiii to xv (the additional apparatus for the Bhagavadgita and for the Gitasara) and pp. lvii to lviii (the descriptions of the manuscripts numbered 424 and 423 of 1875-76 and 179 of 1883-84, and the account of the commentator Ananda). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  7. ISKCON Educational Services. Heart of Hinduism: Smriti: The Bhagavad-gita. ISKCON Educational Services. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  8. ISKCON Educational Services. Heart of Hinduism: The Tradition's Own Version. ISKCON Educational Services. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  9. Shankara (the commentary), translated by Alladi Mahadeva Sastry. The Bhagavad Gita with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya. Samata Books, Madras (first published 1897; seventh edition 1977), 1897, Introduction, p. 4 (the passage on the Lord's teaching, Veda-Vyasa's seven hundred verses, and the Gita-Shastra as an epitome of the whole Vedic teaching). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  10. Alf Hiltebeitel. Hinduism. Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  11. Georg Buhler. Detailed Report of a Tour in Search of Sanskrit Mss. made in Kasmir, Rajputana, and Central India (Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, extra number). Bombay, 1877, p. xxvii (table XII, Vedanta, manuscripts purchased in 1875-76, numbers 422 to 425). Accessed 2026-11-06.