The German Gita: The reception of Hindu religious texts within German Romanticism (1790--1830) (Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel)

This dissertation investigates the initial reception of the Bhagavad Gītā in German intellectual circles, focusing in particular on the ways that the German Romantics who translated and anthologized the text constituted it as an object of European knowledge. By examining the intellectual debates and textual practices at play in early nineteenth century representations of Indian religious culture, this project contributes to the contemporary debate about Orientalism, which often lacks focus because of inattention to historical context. In addition, by bringing this under-investigated topic to light, the dissertation adds an important chapter to the history of the study of religion and offers historical perspective on the comparative philosophy of religion.; The works of Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and G. W. F. Hegel provide the matrix of this project. With these writings a German discourse on India took shape. Local intellectual preoccupations guided the Romantic presentation of the Gītā, permeated its translations, and were thus enlisted to accommodate its difference. These preoccupations (grappling with revived Spinozism and pantheism; debates about Classical and Hebraic models of ancient, authoritative texts; and the developing study of comparative linguistics) were thematized first in Herder's experimentations and then gained clarity in the work of the Schlegel brothers. Later exchanges between von Humboldt and Hegel illustrate the way that these preoccupations were reinterpreted after early Romantic enthusiasm had dissipated and conventions of academic discipline had evolved.; The dissertation concludes by asserting that Romanticism leaves a legacy wherein broad cultural “myths” can dominate the “logos” of scholarship on India and Hindu religious sources. Reflection on the history of cross-cultural inquiry draws attention to such “myths” and thus enhances the self-consciousness of future scholarship.