Rig Veda. Griffith’s translations of these Vedic hymns have had an enduring appeal.

Satapatha Brahmana, an important later Vedic work (c. 900 B.C.E.) that bridges the abstraction of Vedic hymns with the ritual, cosmological, and philosophical underpinning of the Upanishads that follow.

From the Upanishads by Charles Johnston.

The Vishnu Purana translated by Horace Hayman Wilson (1840). A fine example of Puranic literature, and the preface includes a good overview of each of the other major puranas.

The Bhagavad Gita translated by the International Gita Society.

Shankara’s Crest Jewel of Discrimination or Vivekachudamani. A key source on Vedanta philosophy that was composed sometime during the eighth century.

The Transmigration of the Seven Brahmans: A Translation from the Harivansa of Langois by Henry David Thoreau. An important Hindu source that also demonstrates the importance of early translations of Hindu works in inspiring the Transcendentalist movement in nineteenth-century America.



Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic by W. J. Wilkins (1900). An excellent array of myths from different eras that help map the development of Hinduism from the Vedic to medieval periods.

Hymns of the Tamil Saivite Saints by Kingsbury and Phillips (1921). Bhakti hymns translated from Tamil of the early Shaiva Siddhanta saints.

Hindu poets. Great links to contemporary translations of bhakti poets from many different eras and sectarian dispositions.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna edited by Swami Abhedananda. The life story of one of the most influential of the nineteenth-century Hindu saints.

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