On prahasann iva. Bhagavadgita 2.10 in the Light of Traditional Commentaries

In this paper an attempt has been made to give a brief sketch of the Bhagavadgītā’s (BG) commentarial tradition, starting with its commentary by Śaṅkara to the other major commentaries available up to the 15th–16th centuries, mainly focusing on prahasann iva, an evocative portion of BG 2.10. While each of these commentaries finds support in the text for their respective philosophical doctrines, an impartial evaluation, with support of modern scholars, shows that none of the commentaries can claim to represent faithfully the true intent of the text (i.e. the BG), and that its purport can only be had if the text is judged from its literary and historical point of view, as well as from combining some conclusions of the glosses.