To the uninitiated, Bhagvad-Gita was a discourse between Prince Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna, an avatar of Lord Vishnu, on the eve of the battle of Mahabharata, chronicled by Vyāsa through the medium of Sanjaya. In order to appreciate the Gita’s caste component, as opposed to its philosophical content, we must realize that whereas Arjuna was a Kshatriyā, perceived to be the second highest rung of the Hindu caste-ladder (below Brahmins but above Vaisyās), Krishna, Vyāsa as well as Sanjaya were Shudras, the supposedly low end of it. Given his belief in and concern for his caste purity, Arjuna could