Canonical texts, modern scholarship, and the institutions and people carrying each tradition forward.
Ancient Dharma is a free reference library and directory for studying the world's ancient religions, philosophies and civilizations. It brings together eight traditions — Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Confucianism and Taoism, Greece and Rome, the Near East and Persia, ancient civilizations, and art history — each organised the same way: primary texts, modern scholarship, institutions, research projects, and a community section covering jobs, fellowships, conferences and living organisations. Every text links out to its legitimate source — open archives, university repositories and publishers — and nothing is mirrored from unauthorized copies. Our aim is simple: help students, researchers and curious readers find reliable material quickly.
Each section covers its own canon, scholarship, institutions, projects and community.
Pāli, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese canons, institutions, scholarship and living communities.
The Vedas, Upaniṣads, epics and darśanas — canon, institutions, scholarship and fellowships.
The Āgamas, Jain philosophy, and the institutions preserving them.
The Analects, the Tao Te Ching, and the classical Chinese textual tradition.
Olympian religion and the philosophical schools — Platonism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Aristotelianism.
Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the religions of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Building now.
The Indus Valley, the Americas, and other cradles of early complex society. Building now.
Visual culture across the ancient and classical world, from prehistoric art onward. Building now.
Ancient