Description: 1890. The Sacred Books of the East series, comprising fifty volumes, has translations of key sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam. The series was edited by the famous linguist Max Muller, who also produced many of the translations and were the foundational documents for the new discipline known as the comparative science of religions. The Vedanta Sutras with the commentary by Sankarakarya Part I contain...
Description: This is an early 20th century translation of the Bhagavad Gita into readable modern English prose. Because it is a fairly close translation, the line numbering will correspond closely to the Sanskrit text. The original book includes the Sansk
Description: Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We h
Description: This is a versified translation of the Caurapancasika. This love poem of fifty stanzas was written by the Kasmiri poet Bilhana Kavi in the 11th century. The story runs that the Brahman Bilhana had a clandestine love affair with Princess Yaminipurnatilaka, the daughter of King Madanabhirama. He was discovered and Bilhana wrote this poem in prison before he learned whether he would be executed or banished. The historic outcome is unknown, which adds to the rea...
Description: This is an abridged verse translation of the two longest epic poems in world literature, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. This translation is surprisingly readable and very moving once you get used to the rhymed couplet format. This also serves
Description: The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It is an epic narrative of the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kauravas and the Pandava princes as well as containing philosophical and devotional material, such as
Description: This is part III of the Sacred Books of the East Satapatha Brahamana translation, containing Books V, VI and VII. This portion is notable for the description of the extended Vedic creation myth. This includes a mention of a 'cosmic egg,' a ke
Description: The Upanishads (Sanskrit: उपनिषद्, IAST: Upaniṣad, IPA: [upəniʂəd]) are a collection of philosophical texts which form the theoretical basis for the Hindu religion. They are also known as Vedanta (the end of the Veda). The Upanishads are co
Description: This is a translation of the Hindu law books written about the sixth century CE by Narada and Brihaspati. These are later works than the other legal writings in the Sacred Books of the East series, such as The Laws of Manu (SBE25), The Instit
Description: Let us beget offspring. Let us acquire many sons, and may they reach old age. Loving, bright, with genial minds may we see a hundred autumns, may we live a hundred autumns, may we hear a hundred autumns! --p. 282. This is part one of two of the Sacred Books of the East translation of the Grihya Sutras. The Grihya Sutras are a collection of late Vedic-era (ca. 500 BCE) household rituals and regulations, many reflecting much more ancient traditions. It is like...
Description: A collection of poems written by Tagore primarily to entertain children, The Crescent Moon moved many contemporary writers, including Andre Gide and Juan Jimenez. Tagore believed children were a symbol of hope and of the future and The Globe in its 1913 review, described these poems as 'a revelation more profound and more subtle than that in the Gitanjali'.
Description: The Santi Parva is a huge interpolation in the Mahabharata, in the genre known as 'wisdom literature.' The narrative progression is placed on hold almost from the first page. Instead we get a long and winding recapitulation of Brahmanic lore
Description: A Vedic Reader By Arthur Anthony Macdonell Containing Thirty Hymns Of The Rigveda In The Original Samhita And Pada Texts. About the Author: Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1854 - 1930), 7th of Lochgarry, was a noted Sanskrit scholar. Macdonell was born in India and educated at Gottingen University, then matriculated in 1876 at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, gaining a classical exhibition and three scholarships (for German, Sanskrit, and Chinese). He graduated...
Description: This is part II of the Sacred Books of the East Satapatha Brahamana translation, containing Books III and IV. This volume is concerned with the construction of the ceremonial space used in the Soma sacrifice. Every act, word and item used in
Description: There are four Vedas, the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. The Vedas are the primary texts of Hinduism. They also had a vast influence on Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Traditionally the text of the Vedas was coeval with the
Description:The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It is an epic narrative of the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kauravas and the Pandava princes as well as containing philosophical and devotional material, such as
Description: This is a version of the Ramayana in Sanskrit derived from files created by Prof. Muneo Tokunaga of Kyoto and edited by John D. Smith. This has parallel Devanagari and Romanization. We have not attempted to cross-reference this yet with the G
Description: This is a short review of the major schools of yoga, including Hindu, Buddhist and Sufi varieties. Wood, whose translation of the The Garuda Purana is also at this site, was a founding Theosophist and wrote extensively on Hinduism, and Yoga i