Who wrote the Bhagavad Gita?

Hindu tradition attributes the Bhagavad Gita to the sage Veda Vyasa (Krishna Dvaipayana), who compiled it as part of the Mahabharata epic. Within the text, the teaching is spoken by Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra and narrated to the blind king Dhritarashtra by his charioteer Sanjaya.

When was the Bhagavad Gita written?

Traditional accounts place Vyasa at the end of the Dvapara Yuga. Modern scholars generally date the composition of the Gita between roughly the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE, with the surrounding Mahabharata reaching its present form by the early centuries CE.

Is the Bhagavad Gita part of the Mahabharata?

Yes. The Bhagavad Gita is 700 verses across 18 chapters within the Bhishma Parva (Book 6) of the Mahabharata, specifically chapters 23–40 of that book.

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Veda Vyasa — the traditional author

Veda Vyasa (literally "the arranger of the Vedas") is the honorific title given to the sage Krishna Dvaipayana. Tradition credits him with dividing the single primordial Veda into the four Vedas — Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva — and with composing the Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad Gita is one section.

Vyasa is more than a scribe in the story: he is the grandfather of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas whose war frames the Gita, and he appears at pivotal moments throughout the epic. In the Puranas he is regarded as a partial descent (amsha-avatara) of Vishnu, tasked with preserving dharma for the Kali Yuga.

Four voices inside the text

Vyasa — the compiler

The author of the Mahabharata as a whole. He arranges the frame and gives Sanjaya the divine sight (divya-drishti) to witness the battle.

Dhritarashtra — the questioner

The blind king opens the Gita with its very first verse (1.1): dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ… — "On the field of dharma, on the field of the Kurus, gathered ready for battle…"

Sanjaya — the narrator

The charioteer-minister who reports the battlefield dialogue back to Dhritarashtra. Most Gita verses are prefixed sañjaya uvāca — "Sanjaya said."

Krishna & Arjuna — the dialogue

The actual teaching. Arjuna's crisis (arjuna uvāca) and Krishna's reply (śrī-bhagavān uvāca) form the 700-verse conversation the world calls the Bhagavad Gita.

Where the Gita sits in the Mahabharata

The Bhagavad Gita occupies chapters 23 through 40 of the Bhishma Parva — the sixth of the Mahabharata's eighteen books. That location is deliberate: the Gita is spoken just after both armies have taken the field at Kurukshetra and just before Bhishma falls. It is the still point at the center of the epic's storm.

Because it is embedded in the Mahabharata, the Gita's author, in the traditional view, cannot be separated from the author of the epic — both are Vyasa.

What does modern scholarship say?

Academic scholars typically date the Gita's composition to roughly the 5th to 2nd centuries BCE, with the wider Mahabharata reaching its received form by the early centuries CE. Many scholars — from early Indologists to contemporary Sanskritists — see the Gita as a carefully-integrated later insertion into the epic, synthesising Upanishadic, Samkhya, Yoga, and emerging Bhakti currents into a single teaching.

Tradition and scholarship are not always at odds. Both agree that the Gita belongs inside the Mahabharata, that it presents itself as a battlefield dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, and that it is transmitted through the lineage of Vyasa. They differ mainly on whether "Vyasa" names one historical sage or a tradition of compilers writing under that name.

Read the Gita itself

Ready to move from "who wrote it" to "what it says"? Continue with our chapter-by-chapter summary, or open a dialogue with Krishna in the app.

All 18 Chapters Verse Study: 4.7

Fun Spiritual Fact

Who Wrote the Bhagavad Gita?