https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66388/66388-h/66388-h.htm http://www.payer.de/quellenkunde/quellen1102.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(Megasthenes)
I think there is a lot of value in having a close relationship with primary sources: in checking PS for any claim you see, and precisely citing them for any claim you make. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of people just endlessly citing each other: at best, the entire discipline becomes a giant game of telephone; at worst, it becomes circular.
This post is a catalogue of ancient Indian literature (plus relevant foreign literature) with online full texts where available. Let me know if I missed anything important. As usual, I focus on the period prior to the 12th century. This also serves as a canonical referencing protocol for primary sources, indicated in the titles, e.g. /in/phil/canon//gita#abhinavagupta (where / indicates a closed class, // indicates an open class and # indicates commentaries) that I will use throughout my writings.
Something I’d quite like to see is a fully functional and complete portal of digitized Indian manuscripts. See end of post for a list of desiderata for such a portal, if anyone’s interested in working on such a thing.
/in Extant Indian literature of note/veda Vedic corpus/samhita Saṃhitā texts (1500—900 BC), i.e. the basic, earliest layer of the Vedas: full Skt audio from vedicheritage.gov.in. Each Veda has multiple Śākhās (schools) which follow slightly different Saṃhitās, as listed below. Tree of Śākhās from Stack Exchange; a fuller bibiliography of texts and translations is available from Arundhati Basu (2006), Vedic Texts English Translations Of The Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, And Upanisads (archive.org).
/rg r̥g Veda:
//sakala Śākala Saṃhitā — full text from sacred-texts.com, wisdomlib.org/suklayajur Śukla Yajur Veda
//vajasaneyi Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā — full text from sacred-texts.com/krsnayajur Kr̥ṣṇa Yajur Veda
//taittiriya Taittirīya Saṃhitā — full text from sacred-texts.com//maitrayani Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā — full Skt from archive.org, uni-goettingen.de//kathaka Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā — full Skt from archive.org/sama Sāma Veda
//ranayaniya Rāṇāyanīya Saṃhitā — full text from sacred-texts.com//kauthuma Kauthuma Saṃhitā — full Skt from sanskritdocuments.org (html, pdf)//jaiminiya Jaiminīya Saṃhitā — full Skt from archive.org/atharva Atharva Veda
//saunaka Śaunaka Saṃhitā — full text from sacred-texts.com/upanisad Upaniṣad texts (800—100 BC)
//brhadaranyaka etc. 108 known, 12 principal full texts from sacred-texts.com (principal — vols I, II; 30 minor Upaniṣads), wisdomlib.org (30 minor Upaniṣads)/brahmana Brāhmaṇa texts (c. 800 BC, 20 known):
//satapatha, //jaiminiyaupanisad, //devatadhyayasamhitaupanisad etc. Aitareya + Kauṣītaki from archive.org; Śatapatha from sacred-texts.com, wisdomlib.org; Taittirīya Skt from uni-frankfurt.de, buy text (Kashyap’s translation); Pañcaviṃśa from archive.org; Ṣaḍviṃṡa + Sāmavidhāna + Ārṣeya + Devatādhyāya Saṃhita Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa + Jaiminīya Ārṣeya Brāhmaṇa buy Skt (Vedagranthamala); Mantra Skt from uni-frankfrut.de; Vaṃśa Skt from uni-frankfurt.de; Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa Skt from vedicheritage.gov.in, vedicreserve.miu.edu partial text from archive.org; Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa from uni-frankfurt.de; Gopatha Skt from uni-frankfurt.de/aranyaka Āraṇyaka texts (c. 700 BC):
//kausitaki etc. 7 known; included in the Upaniṣad collection above/sutra/grhya, /sutra/dharma, /sutra/srauta (Kalpa-)sūtra texts: Gr̥hyasūtras (c. 800—500 BC) + Dharmasūtras (600—200 BC) + Śrautasūtras (800—200 BC) + Śulbasūtras (appendices of Śrautasūtras)
/pol Classical socio-political literature (i.e. Artha, Nīti, and Dharmaśāstra)/artha Artha texts
//kautilya Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra (c. 300 BC). Full text & Skt from wisdomlib.org (Shamashastry)//kamandaki Kāmandakī’s Nītisāra (c. 300 BC). Full texts from archive.org (Manmatha Nath Dutt, Rajendralala Mitra)//sukra Śukranītisāra (c. 300). Full texts from archive.org (BK Sarkar — partial translation, Gustav Oppert — SS); full Skt from archive.org (primary)//vaisampayana Vaiśampāyana’s Nītiprakāśikā (c. 180 BC). Full text & Skt from wisdomlib.org (Critical Ed)/smrti Dharmaśāstra (Smr̥ti texts) — full Skts from the Smr̥ti Sandarbha (archive.org, astrojyoti.com); English translations available for the popular ones:
/phil Philosophy and religion/vedanga Vedāṅga (linguistics, pre-Hellenic astronomy, theology)
/phonetics Śikṣā:
/pratisakhya /rg, /krsnayajur//taittiriya, etc. Prātiśākhya (c. 800 BC): RV (archive.org — vol I, II, III), KYV-T (archive.org, sanskritweb.net), AV (shaivam.org), SV (archive.org)/siksa Śikṣā: //panini Pāṇinīya — archive.org/etymology Nirukta:
//yaska Yāska’s Nirukta (c. 600 BC). Full Skt+text from archive.org, critical survey from ignca.gov.in/prosody Chanda:
//pingala Piṅgala’s Chandaḥśāstra (c. 300 BC). Full Skt from ancient-buddhist-texts.com/grammar Vyākaraṇa:
//panini Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (c. 300 BC). Full texts from archive.org (Śrīśa Candra Vāsu & Roger Black, vols 1-8), SanskritDictionary.com (with commentaries in Skt)//patanjali Patañjali’s Mahābhāṣya (c. 180 BC). Full text from archive.org (Kielhorn — vols I, II, III)//bhratrhari Bhartr̥hari’s Trikāṇḍī aka Vākyapadiya (c. 500). Full text from archive.org (Pillai)/astrology Jyotiṣa
//lagadha Lagadha’s Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa (c. 700 BC). Full text & Skt from archive.org, new.dli.ernet.in/theo Theology:
//saunaka, //katyayana Anukramaṇī of Śaunaka (c. 900 BC) and Kātyāyana (c. 200 BC). Full text & Skt from archive.org.//brhaddevata Br̥haddevatā (c. 500 BC), a collection of stories of Vedic gods. Full text & Skt from archive.org./canon Epistemological canon
//nyaya Nyāya Sūtra (compiled 600—180 BC). Full text & Skt from archive.org.//vaisesika Vaiśeṣika Sūtra (compiled 600—180 BC). Full text & Skt from archive.org.//samkhyakarika Sāṁkhya Kārikā (c. 350). Full text & Skt from archive.org.//yoga Yoga Sūtra (180 BC). Full text & Skt from archive.org, wisdomlib.org.//yogayajnavalkya Yoga-Yājñavalkya (c. 100 BC). Full Skt from archive.org.//mimamsa Mīmāṁsā Sūtra (600—180 BC). Full text & Skt from archive.org.//vedanta Brahma (or Vedānta) Sūtras (600—180 BC). Full text & Skt from archive.org.//gita Bhagavad Gītā (320 or 180 BC). Full text & Skt from wisdomlib.org, primary.//carvaka Cārvāka sūtras (compiled 600—200 BC), surviving fragments from RK Bhattacharya. Library access from JSTOR; Full texts & Skt from academia.edu, researchgate.net./post Post-Canonical literature
Philosophical literature of traditions besides the standard Brāhmaṇical one is listed under their respective cultures under “Worldy and religious” as they have their own traditional taxonomies for their literature.
/math Mathematics and astronomySiribhoovalaya
/med Medicine and chemistrysusruta, caraka, stuff those are based on
navanitakam
bhela samhita
hastyayurveda of palakapya
/art Arts/kama//vatsyayana Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra (c. 200). Full text from sacred-texts.com (Richard Burton)/silpa//manasara Mānasāra Śilpaśāstra (c. 500). Full text from wisdomlib.org (PK Acharya)/natya//bharata Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra (c. 180 BC). Full text from wisdomlib.org (Manomohan Ghosh)/sec Worldly and religious traditions/bauddha Buddhist
/thera Pāli Canon/Theravāda Tipiṭaka (500—250 BC): /vp3, /sp1.34, /ap7 etc. 15 texts (Vinaya Piṭakka: 3 + Sutta Piṭaka: 5 + Abhidamma Piṭaka: 7). Full texts from suttacentral.net./jaina Jain
/sveta Jain Śvētāmbara canon (500—100 BC): /a12, /u12, /ch6, /m4, /c2 etc. 36 texts (Aṅga: 12, Upāṅga:12, Cheda: 6, Mūlas: 4, Cūlika: 2). Full Gujaratis from jainaagam.org; English work-in-progress by Manas Madrecha (github); also perhaps useful: Jain eLibrary; English [/a1, /ch2, /m2, /a2] from sacred-texts.com./diga Jain Digambara canon: //kasayapahuda Kāsāyapahuḍa c. 100 (full Pkt from archive.org), //sakthanda Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama c. 200 (Full Pkt from archive.org)/painna Paiṇṇa texts (100—500) //causarana, //mahapaccakkhana, //angavijja, //angaculiya etc. 10 of these are often included in the Śvētāmbara canon bringing its number to 46 while the remaining are regarded as supernumerary; however we will classify them all separately. For details see p. 46 of: Hiralal Rasikdas Kapadia (1941), “A History Of Canonical Literature Of the Jainas”, full text from archive.org./anuyoga Anuyoga genre (c. 100—1200)
/epic Prathamānuyoga (Epic literature): //vasudevahindi Saṅghadāsa’s Vasudevahiṇḍī (473), the Jain Br̥hatkathā; //padmapurana Ravisena’s Padma-Purāṇa (678), the Jain Rāmāyaṇa; //harivamsapurana Jinasena-I’s Harivaṃśa-Purāṇa (783), the Jain Mahābhārata; //mahapurana Jinasena-II’s Mahāpurāṇa (850), the Jain cosmology/sci Karaṇānuyoga (Technical literature): //tiloyapannatti Yativr̥ṣabha’s Tiloya-paṇṇatti (6th cen); //gommatsara Nemicandra’s Gommatsāra (975); //lokavibhaga Sarvanandi’s Lokavibhāga (458)/moral Caraṇānuyoga (Moral literature): //mulacara Vaṭṭakera’s Mūlācāra (2nd cen); //aradhana Śivarāya’s Bhagavatī Ārādhanā (2nd cen); //samayasara; Kundakunda’s Samayasāra (2nd cen); //pancastikayasara; Kundakunda’s Pañcastikayasara (2nd cen); //niyamasara; Kundakunda’s Niyamasara (2nd cen): //sravakacara; Samantabhadra’s Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra (5th cen)/phil Dravyānuyoga (Philosophical literature): //tattvarthasutra Umāsvāmin’s Tattvārtha-sūtra (2nd cen); //pravacanasara Kundakunda’s Pravacanasāra (2nd cen); //aptamimamsa Samantabhadra’s Āptamīmāṁsā (2nd cen); //pramanasangraha etc. Akalaṅka’s many works (8th cen); //dravyasangraha Nemicandra’s Dravyasaṅgraha (10th cen); //jnanarnava Shubhacandra’s Jñānārṇāva (11th cen)/post Post-canonical literature, e.g. //sanmatitarka //dvadasaranayacakra //yogadrstisamuccaya //yogasastra //karmagrantha etc.Tamil
Purāṇa
Itihāsa, Mahākāvya
Storytelling
Storytelling — Panchatantra, Jataka, Brihatkatha, hitopadesha, plays, Charita, vadana
Plays of Dandin, Kalidasa, Mudrarakshasa, Sudraka, etc. https://sreenivasaraos.com/2017/12/17/concerning-the-dasarupa-of-dhananjaya-part-six/
Ashvagosha
Sectarian Āgamas
Encyclopedic texts
Aphorisms
subhashita, chanakya niti, satakatraya
Something I’d quite like to see is a fully functional and complete portal of digitized Indian manuscripts. Desiderata for a comprehensive portal of Indian and Indian-relevant literature.
I think this should currently be possible without too much manual effort, with some PDF scraping and machine translation (there are transformer models that get LaTeX documents from scanned PDFs with math equations, so scanning PDF documents to MarkDown or something should be possible). But I’m occupied with other projects, and have way too large a backlog to be working on this, at least alone. If you’re interested, get in touch.
Some useful general resources regarding the scope and size of Indian literature.