The Antiquity of the Bhagavad Gita: As Old As The Hills. Literally.

A layman’s discovery of why it is most profound and has practical relevance

KS Muralidharan

How old is the Bhagavad Gita? As old as the hills. Literally. And therein lies something little known or little appreciated by the world in general and the Hindus themselves in particular.

In fact, if you do a dipstick poll among the Hindus to find out how many of them know the historical age of their religious text, it is highly likely that you will draw a blank. Worse, even many of those who are religiously inclined may reveal their ignorance of how old is the Gita.

To repeat, the Bhagavad Gita is as old as the hills” meaning an entirety, immeasurable by time as we know today.

Let’s begin at the beginning. The Bhagavad Gita is commonly believed to be revealed during the Mahabharata war. According to archaeological evidence and estimates by archaeological experts such as for example the great German writer, Erik von Daniken, in his iconic book, The Chariots of the Gods, the Mahabharata war is believed to have happened sometime around 3000 B.C.

By this analogy, the Bhagavad Gita can be traced back to around 3000 B.C., which makes it the oldest religious text in the world. It is and it isn’t merely that. Let’s know why and how.

Spoiler alert: The Gita is as old as the history of Man!

Contrary to the common belief that the Bhagavad Gita was first spoken around 5000 years ago during the Mahabharata war, the authoritative exposition by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON, in Bhagavad-gita As It Is (English Translation) — Chapter 4, Text 1, page 233) establishes that the Gita is, in fact, at least two million years old in the context of human society. This assertion is derived from a direct statement in Chapter 4, Text 1, where Lord Krishna declares: “I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun god, Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikshvaku.”

The purport elaborates that this transmission marks a royal and divine lineage, beginning from the sun god (Vivasvan), proceeding to Manu, the progenitor of humanity, and then to Maharaja Ikshvaku, a king of earthly lineage and forefather of Lord Ramachandra. According to this chronology, the Gita was spoken to the sun-god Vivasvan long before it was imparted to Arjuna.

Swami Prabhupada notes in his seminal and most authoritative work on the Gita that this occurred in the early Tretä-yuga, placing the first dissemination of the Gita in human society approximately 2,005,000 years ago!

Further, the text situates this ancient origin within the broader framework of Vedic time cycles. The present Kali-yuga is said to have begun roughly 5,000 years ago and will last a total of 432,000 years. Preceding it were Dvapara-yuga (800,000 years), Tretä-yuga (1,200,000 years), and Satya-yuga (1,728,000 years). The age of the current Manu is estimated at 305,300,000 years, of which 120,400,000 years have passed. Accepting that Krishna spoke to sun-god Vivasvan before Manu’s birth, the Gita’s cosmic age extends to at least 120 million years. However, in human society, its presence is confidently traced back to two million years through the lineage from Manu to Ikshvaku.

This long historical continuity underscores the timeless relevance and divine origin of the Bhagavad Gita. It is not a philosophical text confined to one historical event or culture but a universal and eternal spiritual science.

Its repetition to Arjuna was a revival rather than a first-time revelation, necessitated by the fading of the tradition through loss of disciple succession. Thus, the Bhagavad Gita, as per the ISKCON founder’s authoritative translation and commentary, is not merely 5,000 years old but has been extant in the human realm for at least two million years and in the cosmos for much longer.

Now, when you juxtapose the history and timeline of 300,000 years of the advent of Man (Homo sapiens) with the history and timeline of 2 million years of the Bhagawad Gita as stated by Swami Prabhupada in his book, it seems totally irreconcilable and also most far-fetched and beyond any stretch of imagination. However, we have to keep in mind that the Vedic timelines are symbolic and metaphysical, not strictly historical. They imply spiritual evolution more than biological evolution. It’s not meant to be read as literal in the modern scientific sense, but as an indicator of the timeless and cyclically re-taught nature of Dharma. It should perhaps be understood and appreciated more as a reference to its eternality and periodic revival of spiritual wisdom, not the physical text.

The religionist and the rationalist are like two opposite paths but leading to the same goal, namely, a deeper, truer and holistic understanding of life, earth and the cosmos. While the latter swears by logic and reason-based belief, the former is moored in spirituality and faith. But modern science is discovering that faith leads to reason-based belief in course of time, and the contradiction between the two is more due to a lack of knowledge and a difference in approach. When the distance and divergence between faith and reason is fast depleting, it need not be so incredulous to have a double whammy leap of faith to believe that the Bhagavad Gita is not just 5000 years old but millions of years old.

Having said so, this can be true and applicable only for the believers and maybe even the agnostic at a stretch, but not for the non-believers, for they may not even be willing to put their faith on a new religion which has been discovered or invented in their lifetime.

Why is this extraordinary and unimaginable antiquity of the Bhagavad Gita so profound and has a practical relevance for the Hindu, despite being beyond mind-boggling? Because what you have in your hand is not merely a religious text but a spiritual truth revealed millions of years ago. There cannot be a better reason to read the Gita, when you know this and grasp its humongous magnitude to the power of humongous magnitude. And of course, no better and greater reason to be proud of being a Hindu.