Traditional (attributed to Vyasa, part of the Mahabharata)

Biography

The Bhagavad Gita is traditionally attributed to Vyasa, the legendary compiler of the Vedas and author of the Mahabharata. Historical scholarship dates the text to approximately the 5th-2nd century BCE, a period of intense philosophical ferment in India when the Upanishads, early Buddhism, and Jainism were all competing for intellectual authority. The Gita is best understood not as the work of a single author but as a synthesis — possibly composed over several centuries — that absorbed and reconciled multiple philosophical and devotional traditions into a single dialogue. Its placement within the Mahabharata (the world's longest epic poem at roughly 1.8 million words) gives it a narrative context that pure philosophical treatises lack.

Traditional (attributed to Vyasa, part of the Mahabharata) at a glance