The Rhetoric of the Bhagavad Gita: Unpacking Persuasive Strategies from a Non-Western Perspective

ABSTRACT

The Bhagavad Gita—an acclaimed and venerated ancient sacred religious and philosophical text integral to the Hindu faith—shows several rhetorical strategies. To figure out these strategies, in this essay I analyze the Gita using the Nyayasutras method—a systematic guide to rhetorical analysis of Hindu philosophy. Rhetorical scrutiny is applied to the dialog between two main characters of this sacred text: Bhagavan Krishna and Arjuna. I first introduce the Gita and its significance for rhetorical scholarship. In what follows, I present briefly the Nyayasutra method and discuss three types of rhetorical strategies found in the text: Astikya/bhava (ontological) strategy, jnapaka (revelatory) strategy, and tattva/nyaya (axiological) strategy. I also discuss very briefly some counter-arguments that are offered in the rhetoric of the Gita. My rhetorical analysis contributes to the rich ongoing academic discussion of Hindu rhetorical traditions and deepens existing English-medium scholarly discussion about rhetorical strategies employed in the text.

KEYWORDS:

• The Bhagavad Gita
• non-Western rhetoric
• the Nyayasutra method
• rhetorical strategies

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The Mahabharata is the Sanskrit epic poem about two rival clans who waged a great war in the name of controlling their father’s property and a kingdom in northern India. The war is called “Mahabharata” because all the kings and empires throughout the Indian subcontinent took part in the war.

² In the Hindu religion, to be Bhagavan, one should be full of six opulences: complete wealth, complete strength, complete fame, complete knowledge, complete beauty, and complete renunciation. Because Krishna displayed all these attributes he is considered as Bhagavan—Supreme Personality as Godhead.

³ Advocates of the Hindu religion argue that varna is the social and labor division of people in Hindu communities. In ancient times, people’s varna would be determined as per their inherent qualities (Gunas born of nature) and the work in which they would be involved. According to the varnashrama system, people are divided into four varnas: the Brahmins (considered the “intellectual,” those who had to serve as the priests, gurus, and teachers); the Kshatriyas (those who had to serve as the army, police, and administrators), the Vaishyas (those who had to serve as the merchants, farmers, and business people), and the Sudras (those who had to serve as the artisans and workers).

⁴ Scholars (e.g., Matilal, ”Introducing”) argue that in an honest discussion both sides, proponent and opponent, seek the truth in a peaceful way through the means of cognition and the source of knowledge, intending to establish the right view. There is no matter of cheating and fouling from both sides; instead, they engage in the discussion on an issue to clarify and make each other understand the issue.

⁵ The dharma/duty that people are required to discharge as per their inherent qualities (Gunas born of nature) is called varnashramic duty. In ancient times in Hindu communities, people’s duty would be determined based on the natural talent or ability they would bring along with their birth and the work in which they would involve.

⁶ Some scholars have labeled Nyayasutra as the “Indian rhetoric.” I would like to make clear, as a Nepali rhetoric scholar, that the Nyayasutra is not only the rhetoric of India, it is the rhetoric of Nepal too. In fact, it is the rhetoric of all the ancient Hindu communities, including the countries Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, and so forth. My discontent is that in far too many scholarly texts only the name of India is used to talk about the Hindu rhetoric. I argue that it would be wrong to give the name “Indian rhetoric” to the whole Hindu rhetoric that goes beyond the territories of India. Here my point is that rather than understanding India in a narrow sense limited to the political and geographical map of the country, it should be understood as a broader cultural and religious spectrum of the Hindu communities, which is often called “Bharatvarsha.”

⁷ Doxographical exercises are “indicative of a peculiar religious attitude to plurality, and locate these ‘exercises’ within a known form of ‘yoga’ dedicated to the cultivation of ‘knowledge’ or ‘gnosis’ (jñāna)” (Bouthillette I).