The Arsha Drishti Virtual Library is a modest initiative to aggregate and make easily available public-domain texts pertaining to Advaita Vedanta, Sanskrit and related disciplines drawing from a variety of sources. Although initiative is a work in progress, there are currently over 10,000 documents available. Primary Vedānta-prasthāna-traya, Sanātana-dharma and Sanskrit texts have been posted as well as grammar texts and dictionaries. Better curation is pending.
Vedānta and Sanskrit Texts
* = Primary Vedānta Texts
इतिहासः Itihāsaḥ Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata
* उपनिषद् Upaniṣad Śruti Vedānta Sourcebook
उपवेदः Upavedaḥ Āyurveda, etc
कथा Kathā Stories
काव्यम् Kāvyam Poetry
तन्त्रम् Tantram Kashmir Śaivism, etc
दक्षिणामूर्तिः Dakṣiṇāmūrtiḥ Lord as Teacher
दिग्विजयः Digvijayaḥ Śaṃkara Biographies
नामास्तोत्रम्/नामावलिः Nāmastotram/Nāmāvaliḥ Names of Gods
पुराणम् Purāṇam Celestial Stories
पूजा / होमः Pūjā / Homaḥ Ritual
* प्रकरणग्रन्थःPrakaraṇagranthaḥ Traditional Secondary Vedanta Texts
बौद्धः Baudhaḥ Buddhism
* ब्रह्मसूत्रम् Brahmasūtram Nyaya Vedanta Sourcebook
भक्तिः Bhaktiḥ Devotional Texts
* भगवद्गीता Bhagavadgītā Smṛti Vedānta Sourcebook
योगः Yogaḥ Yoga Sūtra-s
रुद्रम् चमकम् Rudram Camakam
वेदः Vedaḥ Saṃhitā, Brāhmaṇa, Āraṇyaka
वेदाङ्गम् Vedāṅgam Śikṣā (Phonetics), Kalpa (Ritual) etc
शंकराचार्य Śaṃkarācārya Collected Works
षड्-दर्शनम् Ṣaḍ-darśanam Pūrvamīmāṃsā, Nyāya etc
सन्ध्यावन्दनम् Sandhyāvandanam Twilight Rituals
सांख्यः Sāṃkhyaḥ Sāṃkhya Kārikā etc
सुप्रभातम् Suprabhātam Morning Hymns
सुभाषितम् Subhāṣitam Good Sayings
सूक्तम् Sūktam Vedic Hymns
सूत्रम् Sūtram Misc Sūtras
स्तोत्रम् Stotram Hymns and Prayers
स्मृतिः Smṛitḥ Manu Smṛti etc
हठयोगः Haṭhayogaḥ Āsana-s etc
Misc reference
शब्दकोशः Dictionaries
- See Sanskrit Tools page for recommendations.
- All Dictionaries
व्याकरणम् – Grammar texts
- Public domain primers, पाणिनि’s अष्टाध्यायी, and miscellaneous reference materials.
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Naming Conventions
Many texts (but not all yet) are tagged to quickly identify the type of content according to the following:
- *: Asterisked texts are the best first-looks
- skt / dvng: Sanskrit language in Devanagari script
- xlit: Sanskrit language transliterated into Roman (English) script
- xlat: Translated into English language
- eng: English prose
- svr: Chanting tones indicated
- wfw: word-for-word gloss
- BW / Color: Black and white / color (sometimes one is easier to read than the other)
- 2-up / 3-up: 2 column / 3 column format
Document Formats
Most texts are in .pdf format, some are in .rtf, .doc, or .txt. A number of larger texts are in .djvu format which is a lighter weight format than .pdf that makes scrolling through the larger texts such as dictionaries much more pleasant. Download .djvu readers here.
Updates
Content will be updated periodically. We intend to post no copyrighted material. If you would like to get update notifications follow Arsha-Drishti on Twitter or Facebook or sign up for the newsletter.
Please contact swamiji@arshadrishti.org if have trouble accessing the library, or would like to contribute.
History
- v 0.4 Nov 6, 2019 Added grammar texts
- v 0.3.1 May 21, 2019 Fixed broken links
- v 0.3 Sep 2 2014
- Added English & links directly into library
- Added शब्दकोशाः – Dictionaries
- v 0.2 May 14 2014 Initial Web release – Vedanta texts
- v 0.1 Oct 16 2013 Initial preliminary (disk) release