Hinduism’s Sacred Texts

The Yoga Yajnavalkya is an ancient text that describes a combination of jnana-yoga, karma-yoga, bhakti-yoga techniques as well as pranayama and asanas as a means to self-knowledge.

Yoga Yajnavalkya

Yoga Yajnavalkya The Yoga Yajnavalkya (योगयाज्ञवल्क्य, Yoga-Yājñavalkya) is a classical Hindu yoga text in the Sanskrit language. The text is written in the form of a male-female dialogue between the sage Yajnavalkya and Gargi. The text consists of 12 chapters and contains 504 verses. Of all works consisting of sacrifices, or rituals, or control of conduct, or harmlessness, or liberality,...

Parts of the Nihsvasatattvasamhita manuscript from Nepal, reproduced in 1912 from a palm-leaf original, linking Shaiva Agama to esoteric Tantra.

Agama In Hinduism

Agama In Hinduism The Agamas (आगम, āgama) are a collection of scriptures of several Hindu devotional schools. The term literally means tradition or “that which has come down”, and the Agama texts describe cosmology, epistemology, philosophical doctrines, precepts on meditation and practices, four kinds of yoga, mantras, temple construction, deity worship...

The Chandogya Upanishad verses 1.1.1-1.1.9 (Sanskrit, Devanagari script)

Smriti

Smriti Smriti (स्मृति, Smṛti), literally “that which is remembered” are a body of Hindu texts usually attributed to an author, traditionally written down, in contrast to Śrutis (the Vedic literature) considered authorless, that were transmitted verbally across the generations and fixed. Smriti is a derivative secondary work and is considered less authoritative than Sruti in Hinduism, except...

A Panchatantra manuscript page

Panchatantra

Panchatantra The Panchatantra (Pañcatantra, पञ्चतन्त्र, “Five Treatises”) is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story. The surviving work is dated to roughly 200 BCE, based on older oral tradition. The text’s author is unknown, but has been attributed to Vishnusharma in some recensions and...

A tantric form of the Hindu Goddess Kali.

Tantras in Hinduism

Tantras In Hinduism Tantras (“Looms” or “Weavings“) refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. The religious culture of the Tantras is essentially Hindu, and Buddhist Tantric material can be shown to have been derived from Hindu sources. And although Hindu and Buddhist...

Rama and the Vanara chiefs

Indian Literature

Indian Literature Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages. The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted. Sanskrit literature begins with the oral literature of the Rig Veda a collection of literature dating to the...

Brahmanda - Hindu material universe. Each brahmanda appears after Mahavishnu's breathing out and when Garbhodakashayi Vishnu gives birth to Brahma on a Satyaloka's lotus. Brahma, creator of our universe lives 311,040,000,000,000 human years, and during his lifetimes, 504 000 Manus (Vedic Adams, first men are changing). Brahma creates 14 planetary systems which can be roughly compared to Seven heavens and seven earthes described in Abrahamic scriptures thought Vedic records are earlier to Abrahamic counterpart

List Of Numbers In Hindu Scriptures

List Of Numbers In Hindu Scriptures The Hindu scriptures contain many numerical descriptions concerning distances, durations and numbers of items in the universe as seen from the perspective of Hindu cosmology. See also: Hinduism List Property Number or measurement Distance from Satyaloka to Vishnuloka (Brahmaloka-sanatana, abode of Brahma) 26,200,000 yojanas (209,600,000 miles) Distance from Dhruvaloka (the pole star)...

Statue of Kapila Maharshi, Nashik

Kapila

Kapila Kapila (कपिल) is a given name of different individuals in ancient and medieval Indian texts, of which the most well-known is the founder of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. Kapila of Samkhya fame is considered a Vedic sage, estimated to have lived in the 6th-century BCE, or the 7th-century BCE. Rishi Kapila...

A page of Isha Upanishad manuscript

Upanishads – The Secret Wisdom

Upanishads – The Secret Wisdom This article covers Upanishads (The Secret Wisdom). A history of pantheism and scientific pantheism by Paul Harrison. Thou art the dark-blue bird and the green parrot with red eyes, Thou hast the lightning as thy child. Thou art the seasons and the seas. [Svetasvatara 4.2.4]...

Body, Mind and Spirit

Upanishads And Yoga

Upanishads And Yoga This article covers the relationship between Upanishads and Yoga, written by By Sanderson Beck. The wise soul is not born nor does it die. This one has not come from anywhere nor has it become anyone. Unborn, eternal, constant, primal, this one is not killed when the...

Krishna teaching Arjuna, from Bhagavata Gita, House decoration in Bishnupur, West Bengal, India.

Bhagavad Gita Passages

Bhagavad Gita Passages Here are some Bhagavad Gita Passages. The undisciplined person eats too much, or doesn’t eat enough. The undisciplined person sleeps too much, or doesn’t sleep enough… The spiritual discipline that destroys suffering goes to the person who eats the proper amount of food, does the proper amount...

A Sanskrit manuscript page of Lotus Sutra (Buddhism) from South Turkestan in Brahmi script

Sutra

What is Sutra? Sutra (sūtra सूत्र “string” or “thread”. sutta) in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a condensed manual or text. Sutras are a genre of ancient and medieval Indian texts found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism....

16th century Vedas palm leaf manuscript, Malayalam Script, Sanskrit, Kerala

Vedanga

What Is Vedanga? The Vedanga (वेदाङ्ग, vedāṅga, “limbs of the Veda”) are six auxiliary disciplines in Hinduism that developed in ancient times, and have been connected with the study of the Vedas. These are: Shiksha (śikṣā): phonetics, phonology, pronunciation. This auxiliary discipline has focussed on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, accent, quantity, stress,...

c. 1700 watercolour from Mewar depicts the Pandava and Kaurava armies arrayed against each other.

Itihasa

What Is Itihasa? Itihasa, meaning history in Sanskrit, consists of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana (sometimes the Puranas too, are included). The Mahabharata includes the story of the Kurukshetra War and also preserves the traditions of the Lunar dynasty in the form of embedded tales. The Puranas narrate the universal history as...

The Battle at Lanka, Ramyana by Sahibdin. It depicts the monkey army of the protagonist Rama (top left, blue figure) fighting Ravana—the demon-king of the Lanka—to save Ram's kidnapped wife, Sita. The painting depicts multiple events in the battle against the three-headed demon general Trishira, in bottom left. Trishira is beheaded by Hanuman, the monkey-companion of Rama.

Ramayana

What Is Ramayana? Ramayana (रामायणम्, Rāmāyaṇam) is an ancient Indian epic poem which narrates the struggle of the divine prince Rama to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. Along with the Mahabharata, it forms the Hindu Itihasa. The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Hindu Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, the legendary prince...

The Pandavas and Krishna in an act of the Javanese wayang wong performance

Mahabharata

What Is Mahabharata? The Mahabharata or Mahābhārata (महाभारतम्, Mahābhāratam) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. The title may be translated as “the great tale of the Bhārata dynasty”. The Mahābhārata is an epic legendary narrative of the Kurukṣetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the...

Purana Manuscripts from 15th- to 18th-century

List Of Hindu Texts

List Of Hindu Texts Hinduism is an ancient religion with diverse traditions such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and others. Each tradition has a long list of Hindu texts, with subgenre based on syncretization of ideas from Samkhya, Nyaya, Yoga, Vedanta and other schools of Hindu philosophy. Of these some called Sruti are broadly considered...

Two folios from a palm leaf manuscript of the Kamasutra text (Sanskrit, Devanagari script).

Kama Sutra

What Is Kama Sutra? The Kama sutra (कामसूत्र, Kāmasūtra) is an ancient Indian Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment in life. Attributed to Vātsyāyana, the Kama Sutra is neither exclusively nor predominantly a sex manual on sex positions, but written as a guide to the “art-of-living” well, the nature of love, finding...

A page from the Taittiriya Samhita, a layer of text within the Yajurveda

Shastra

What Is Shastra? Shastra (शास्त्र) is a Sanskrit word that means “precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise” in a general sense. The word is generally used as a suffix in the Indian literature context, for technical or specialized knowledge in a defined area of practice. Shastra has a similar meaning to English -logy, e.g. ecology, psychology,...

Modern depiction of Vyasa narrating the Mahābhārata to Ganeshaat the Murudeshwara temple, Karnataka.

Indian Epic Poetry

Indian Epic Poetry Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya (or Kāvya; काव्य, kāvyá). The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which were originally composed in Sanskrit and later translated into many other Indian languages, and The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature and Sangam literature are...