Overview and relationships
See the whole map before choosing one route through it.
Texts, recitation & commentary
Hindu scriptures: a guided library
Hindu scripture is a library, not a single book. Learn how text families relate, how communities use them, and where a beginner can start without being overwhelmed.
The category “Hindu scriptures” includes ancient liturgical and philosophical compositions, epic narratives, devotional and mythological collections, legal and ethical literature, ritual manuals, regional retellings, hymns, and lineage-specific works. Their authority and use are not identical.
A common distinction names shruti—“that which is heard,” especially the Vedas and Upanishads—and smriti—“that which is remembered,” a broad category that includes epics and Puranic literature. The distinction matters, but it does not by itself explain how a particular temple, family, philosophical school, or devotional lineage reads and values a text.
This hub combines literary orientation with practical reading advice. It explains genre, setting, structure, performance, commentary, translation, and the relationship between a passage and the larger work around it.
Featured guide
Bhagavad Gita in its Mahabharata setting
Read the dialogue as part of an epic dilemma rather than as isolated motivational quotations.
Scripture guide
Bhagavad Gita in its Mahabharata setting
Explore Krishna and Arjuna, the battlefield setting, the eighteen chapters, themes of action, knowledge, devotion, discipline, and the importance of comparing translations and commentaries.
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Find a useful way into Hindu scriptures
Text families overlap in quotation, retelling, commentary, and practice. These groupings are a starting map rather than a complete canon.
Shruti: Vedas and Upanishads
Learn about oral transmission, layered compositions, ritual contexts, and philosophical inquiry.
Epics and the Bhagavad Gita
Approach large narrative worlds through setting, recensions, characters, and dilemmas.
Puranas, reading, and translation
Understand retelling, sectarian devotion, modern editions, commentary, and copyright.
Related tool
See the library as a relationship map
Switch between beginner, detailed, topic, and first-reading views.
Scripture Map
Open tool →A visual and text-based guide to Shruti, Smriti, Vedas, Upanishads, Itihasa, the Gita, Puranas, and related literature.
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