PHILIPPE SWENNEN
Liège University Philippe.Swennen@uliege.be
A NEW MESSAGE IN AN OLD SETTING
The Bhagavadgītā is perhaps the most important text in Indian history. Better than any other, it sets out the vision of a regenerated Brahmanic world, which has turned the page on the Vedic period without forgetting its foundations. Whilst there may once have been doubts about the place of this text within the great Indian Epic of the Mahābhārata, it now seems that it sheds essential light on the meaning of that immense sacrifice which is the Battle of Kurukṣetra. Is this sacrificial context fully understood? Is this dialogue between Indra’s son and the avatar of Viṣṇu accurately contextualised? I have come to the conclusion that not everything has been said by studying the place of Viṣṇu in the Vedic Agniṣṭoma rite, and I would like to show how this research allows us to describe in a different light the bridge that links the Vedic rite and the Bhagavadgītā, even if the intention is certainly to place a radically new message within an apparently eternal framework.