Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant)
English translation of the Bhagavad Gītā by Winthrop Sargeant
The Bhagavad Gita is the title of Winthrop Sargeant's translation, first published in 1979, of the Bhagavad Gītā
(Sanskrit: भगवद्गीता, "Song of God"), an important Hindu scripture. Among Western English translations of the Gita, Sargeant's is unusual in providing a word-by-word translation with parsing and grammatical explanation, along with Sanskrit and English renderings. The original edition was published in 1979 with the lengthy subtitle An interlinear translation from the Sanskrit, with word-for-word transliteration and translation, and complete grammatical commentary, as well as a readable prose translation and page-by-page vocabularies. The subtitle was omitted from the 2nd edition (1984) and the 3rd edition (2009), which were edited by Christopher Chapple. Huston Smith wrote a foreword to the 3rd edition. Sargeant's translation has been described in The New York Times, and reviewed in professional journals.
Topics covered
The book consists of more than 700 pages, including about 30 pages of introductory material. The translation itself consists of 701 pages, each devoted to a single verse. Each page is divided into two major columns. The first column containing the Sanskrit is given in both Devanāgarī and romanized transliteration, followed by two English renderings.
“Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant)” enters the record as english translation of the Bhagavad Gītā by Winthrop Sargeant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bhagavad, Gita and Sargeant can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bhagavad, Gita and Sargeant provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4900614. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1984 and 2009.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant) primary sources, Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant) archive and Bhagavad research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bhagavad Gita (Sargeant)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.