Generations of Hindus have turn- ed to the Gita for the solution of their religious difficulties, and its perennial popularity is due in large part to the fact that in the person of Krishna it presents the worshipper with a visible object of devotion while Arjuna represents the average good man.

W. D. P. Hill’s translation, first published by the Oxford University Press in 1928, is here reissued in a slightly abridged and more accessible form. The Sanskrit text is not reprinted. but the English translation is accompanied by annotations, an Introduction and an Index of Subjects.

Among many friends, Indian and English, who have helped me in this work, a special debt of gratitude is due to Dr J. N. Farquhar, who first encouraged me to study the Bhagavadgitéa; to Professor Sir Ralph Turner, who read my manuscript and improved it, and to Pandit Ambika Datta Upadhyaya, m.a., and Sarhkhyayogasgastri of Benares, with whom I read the tika of Sridhara Svamin, and discussed many ancient interpretations of the Gita text.