Dharma & Dao

Which Bhagavad Gita translation should you read?

The Bhagavad Gita has been translated into English more than three hundred times. The good news is that the differences between the major translations are large enough to matter and small enough not to mislead. The bad news is that choosing wrong can cost you the book — a stiff, leaden Gita can persuade you that you don’t care about it.

Here is a short opinionated guide.

The public-domain options

Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885) — what we host on this site. A Victorian English poet in his prime, writing the Gita as blank verse. This is the translation Gandhi carried in his pocket; it is the one that introduced the text to the West. It is not the most literal version — Arnold tightens, smooths, sometimes paraphrases — but it is the only public-domain version that reads as a genuine English poem. If you only ever read one Gita and you want to feel why people love it, read Arnold.

Kashinath Trimbak Telang (1882) — the Sacred Books of the East scholar’s edition, prose, scrupulously literal, dense with brackets and footnotes. Useful as a reference. Hard to read straight through.

Eknath Easwaran (1985, Nilgiri Press) — the most-recommended starter Gita of the last forty years. A modern Indian teacher rendering it in clear, contemporary English, with chapter-by-chapter commentary aimed at a Western reader. If you want to understand the Gita and you are reading it for the first time, this is the version to buy.

Barbara Stoler Miller, The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War (1986) — a Sanskrit scholar’s verse translation, taut and uncompromising. Pairs beautifully with Arnold: Miller for what the text means, Arnold for what it feels like.

Stephen Mitchell (2000) — a fluent, beautiful free rendering. Mitchell does not read Sanskrit; he works from existing translations. His Gita is the most readable English Gita in print, and the one Sanskrit scholars complain about most loudly. Read it second or third, knowing what it is.

Laurie L. Patton (2008, Penguin) — the current scholarly standard for a general reader. Literal, fresh, well-introduced.

  1. Read Arnold here, free, in two sittings — Chapters 2, 11, 6, then 1, 3–5, 7–10, 12–18 in order.
  2. If it grips you, buy Easwaran’s edition and read it slowly with his commentary.
  3. If you find yourself returning to specific verses, get Miller for side-by-side comparison.

The Gita is short enough — about 700 verses, two hours of reading — that you can afford to read it in two or three versions over a year. The differences between translations are part of the experience.

→ Read the Bhagavad Gita on this site (Arnold, 1885)