IIHADRINATH', a t. of Gurhwal, in the lieut -wovernorship of the North-western Provinces, India, situated in a valley of the Himalaya, 25 m. to• the s. of the Manah pass, which leads into Thibet. Lat. 30' 44' n., bong. 79° 32' e. Its highest point is 10,2Ji ft. above the level of the sea; while, about 12 in. to the w., there is a group of summits, called the Bhadrinath peaks, having the respective elevations • of 23,441, 23,230, 22,934, -22,754, 22.550, and 21.895 ft.; the e. also, and the s.w., presenting detached mountains of similar magnitude. B. is situated on the right bank of the Vish nugunga, a feeder of the A luknunda, which itself again unites with the Bhageeretteo to form the Gauges. The chief attraction of the place is its temple, which, though the actually existing edifice is modern, is said to by an establishment of great antiquity: This temple overhangs a tank of about 30 ft. square, which is supplied, by a subter ranean passage, front a thermal spring in the neighborhood. As ablution in these waters is held to cleanse from all past sins, B. is a grand resort of pilgrims, every year bringing large numbers, hut every twelfth year, when it periodical festival is celebrated, collecting fully 50.000. From 1\ ov. to April, the temple and its deity are abandoned even by the attendant Brahmins, ou account of the cold.
BHAGAVAD-GiTii. (i.e.. Revelations from the Deity) is the title of a religious meta physical poem, interwoven as an episode in the great Indian epic poem of the Mahab Unita (q.v.) Two hostile armies, the nearly related Kurus and Pilndus, are drawn lip in opposition, ready for haute; the trumpets sound the opening of the combat; and the much' Ardshuna mounts his chariot, which is guided by the Deity himself, as charioteer, in the human form of Krishna. But when Ardshuna perceives in the hostile army his relatives, the friends of his youth, and his teachers, lie hesitates to em inence the struggle, held back by the doubt whether it were lawful for him, for the sake of the earthlv gain of reconquering his father's kingdom, to transgress the approved ordinances for the government of the state. Upon this, Krishna sets forth, in
it series of eighteen poetic lectures, the necessity of proceeding, unconcerned as to the consequences. In the progress of his long ascourse, a complete system of Iudian relig ions philosophy is developed, in which the highest problems of the human mind are treated with as much clearness of thought as elegance of language. It is impossible to determine exactly :%vhen and by whom the work was composed. It is not, however, one of the first attempts of Indian philosophy, for it is rather of an eclectic nature; and before it could have been composed, there must have been a period of long-continued intellectual cultivation in many philosophic schools. It is not unlikely that it was writ• ten in the 1st c. after Christ. The work is looked upon with great reverence in India, and it has accordingly been made the subject of numerous commentaries (the best is that of Srldhara-Svanim, published in Calcutta in 1832). and it has likewise been translated into various Indian dialects. Five different metrical versions in Hindi appeared in Bom bay in 1842; a translation into the Telugu dialect in Madras. 1840; into the Canarese, Banrealore, 1840, etc. The best critical edition of the Sanskrit text is that of A. W. von Schlegel (2d ed., Bonn, 1846). to which is added a Latin translation. Among the other translations may be mentioned that into English by Wilkins (Land. 1783), who had the Credit of first making the work known in Europe; that into German, by Peiper (Leip. 1834); and the Greek translation by Galanos (Athens, 1848). W. von Humboldt's trea tise, Upon the Eptvorles of the YoMbhdrata, known vinkr the Name of the Blatgavad-Gild (Berlin, 1827), contains an admirable exposition of the philosophy of the poem.