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The canon, in full

Śruti ("what is heard") and smṛti ("what is remembered") — the revealed and traditional literature of Hindu thought.

Primary sources

1. The Vedas

Śruti — the revealed word

The four Vedas, each with its own Saṃhitā (hymns), Brāhmaṇas (ritual texts), Āraṇyakas (forest texts) and Upaniṣads (philosophical texts).

The four Saṃhitās

Ṛgveda — free translation (Ralph Griffith), sacred-texts.com, public domain Sāmaveda — free translation, sacred-texts.com, public domain Yajurveda — free translation, sacred-texts.com, public domain Atharvaveda — free translation, sacred-texts.com, public domain GRETIL — Sanskrit source texts of all four Vedas

The Principal Upaniṣads

The Upanishads — free translation (Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East), public domain The thirteen principal Upaniṣads — read online, Wisdom Library GRETIL — Sanskrit text of the principal Upaniṣads

2. The Itihāsas

The great epics

The two national epics of India, including the Bhagavad Gītā embedded within the Mahābhārata.

The Rāmāyaṇa — free translation (Griffith), sacred-texts.com, public domain The Mahābhārata — free translation (Kisari Mohan Ganguli), sacred-texts.com, public domain The Bhagavad Gītā — free translation (Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East), public domain Gita Press, Gorakhpur — original-language texts and free/low-cost editions

3. The Purāṇas

The eighteen Mahāpurāṇas

Encyclopaedic texts of cosmology, mythology, genealogy and devotion — including the Bhāgavata, Viṣṇu, Śiva and Devī Purāṇas.

Selected Purāṇas — free translations, sacred-texts.com, public domain Bhāgavata Purāṇa — read online, Wisdom Library Gita Press, Gorakhpur — Sanskrit & Hindi editions of the Purāṇas

4. Dharma Śāstra & the Six Darśanas

Law and philosophy

The codes of conduct, and the six orthodox schools: Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta.

Manusmṛti (The Laws of Manu) — free translation, sacred-texts.com, public domain GRETIL — Sanskrit texts across all six darśanas The Sanskrit Library — searchable philosophical & grammatical texts Sanskrit Documents — free e-texts across traditions

This page is deliberately structured, not exhaustive — the Āgamas and Tantras, and regional devotional literature, are natural next additions.