Hindu Sacred Texts: Vedas, Upanishads, Gita and Where to Read Them

Hinduism has no single holy book. Its sacred texts fall into two classes. Shruti, meaning "what is heard," covers the revealed Vedas, including the Upanishads. Smriti, meaning "what is remembered," covers the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, the Puranas, and the law books. Most can be read free online in reputable translations.

What Is the Difference Between Shruti and Smriti?

The distinction between shruti and smriti is the key to understanding how Hindu scriptures relate to one another. According to Wikipedia's overview of Hindu texts, shruti, "that which is heard," refers to texts regarded as eternal knowledge transmitted by the ancient sages, or rishis, and these are considered the most authoritative. Smriti, "that which is remembered," refers to texts attributed to an author and considered less authoritative than shruti.

In practice the line is not always so neat. The Bhagavad Gita is technically smriti, yet it is revered almost as highly as shruti and is one of the three foundational texts of Vedanta philosophy. Different Hindu communities also give special weight to different texts, so a Vaishnava household, a Shaiva temple, and a philosophy student may each have a different answer to the question of which book matters most.

These texts were also oral long before they were written. Hindu texts were composed orally, memorized, and transmitted by recitation for more than a millennium before they were set down in manuscripts.

What Are the Four Vedas?

The Vedas are the oldest and most authoritative layer of Hindu scripture. There are four: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the Atharvaveda.

The Rigveda is the oldest, a collection of 1,028 hymns and about 10,600 verses organized into ten books. Scholars generally date its composition to roughly 1500 to 1200 BCE, with the other three Vedas following around 1200 to 900 BCE, according to Wikipedia's article on the Vedas. Its hymns address Agni, Indra, Soma, and other deities.

The Yajurveda is a compilation of prose ritual formulas spoken by a priest during ritual actions, such as offerings before the sacred fire. The Samaveda consists almost entirely of verses taken from the Rigveda, arranged as a liturgical repertoire for singing priests. The Atharvaveda has about 760 hymns, roughly 160 of them shared with the Rigveda.

Each Veda has four layers. The Samhitas are the core collections of mantras and hymns. The Brahmanas explain rituals and ceremonies. The Aranyakas discuss rituals and their symbolic meaning. The Upanishads, the final layer, turn to meditation, philosophy, and spiritual knowledge.

Many Hindus regard the Vedas as apaurusheya, meaning "not of human origin" or authorless. That belief helps explain the extraordinary care taken to preserve them. Vedic reciters used elaborate memory techniques, including learning the same text in eleven different modes of recitation, so that no syllable would be lost or changed. UNESCO recognized the tradition of Vedic chanting as intangible cultural heritage, proclaimed in 2003 and inscribed in 2008, citing the techniques Brahmin priests have used to preserve the texts intact over thousands of years.

What Are the Upanishads?

The Upanishads are the philosophical culmination of the Vedas, which is why their teaching is called Vedanta, "the end of the Veda." The word upanishad is often explained as "sitting near," evoking a student seated close to a teacher.

More than 200 Upanishads are known. The Muktika canon lists 108, and around a dozen are counted as the principal, or mukhya, Upanishads, among them the Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isha, Kena, Katha, Mundaka, and Mandukya. The Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya are among the oldest, likely composed around the seventh to sixth centuries BCE, according to Wikipedia's article on the Upanishads.

Their central concerns are Brahman, the ultimate reality, and Atman, the inner self. How the two relate is one of the great questions of Indian philosophy. Some schools of Vedanta read the Upanishads as teaching that Atman and Brahman are identical, while others hold that they are distinct. The Upanishads themselves are not a single systematic treatise. They are dialogues, teachings, and images, which is part of why they have supported so many interpretations.

Where Does the Bhagavad Gita Fit?

The Bhagavad Gita, "the Song of God," is a dialogue of 700 verses in 18 chapters between the warrior Arjuna and Krishna, who serves as his charioteer on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It sits inside the sixth book of the Mahabharata, the Bhishma Parva, and is generally dated to the second or first century BCE, though scholars debate the date, according to Wikipedia's article on the Bhagavad Gita.

Formally the Gita is smriti, but it holds a status close to shruti. Together with the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras it forms the Prasthanatrayi, the three foundational sources of Vedanta. Its teaching weaves together dharma, or duty, bhakti, or devotion, and yoga. For a closer look at what the Gita actually says, see What Is the Bhagavad Gita?

What Are the Ramayana and Mahabharata?

The two great epics are known as the Itihasa. They are smriti, but for many Hindus they are the most familiar scriptures of all, learned through recitation, performance, and festival.

The Mahabharata is immense, with over 100,000 verses, or shlokas, in 18 books, or parvas. Traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa, it was probably compiled between the third century BCE and the third century CE, according to Wikipedia's article on the Mahabharata. Its 18 books run to roughly 1.8 million words, and the text reached its final form by the early Gupta period, around the fourth century CE. It tells of the war between two branches of a royal family, and within Indian tradition it is sometimes called the fifth Veda.

The Ramayana contains nearly 24,000 verses in seven books, or kandas, and is traditionally attributed to the poet Valmiki, which is why it is also called the Valmiki Ramayana. Scholars place its main composition between roughly the eighth and fifth centuries BCE, with later additions as late as the third century CE, according to Wikipedia's article on the Ramayana. It tells the story of Prince Rama, his exile, the abduction of his wife Sita, and her rescue. Rama's return to Ayodhya is among the events many Hindus remember at Diwali.

What Are the Puranas and Dharmashastras?

Beyond the epics lies a vast body of smriti literature. The Puranas are encyclopedic collections of myth, genealogy, cosmology, and devotion. Tradition counts 18 Maha Puranas, or Great Puranas, composed between roughly the third century BCE and 1000 CE.

The Dharmashastras are Sanskrit treatises on dharma: conduct, duty, law, and the responsibilities of a person within family and society. Estimates of their number range from 18 to over 100, and the best known today is the Manusmriti, according to Wikipedia's article on the Dharmashastra. They discuss the stages of life, the goals of a good life, personal virtues such as nonviolence, and the rules of just war, and they organize much of this material under headings for proper conduct (acara), judicial procedure (vyavahara), and penance (prayascitta). These texts have been read in many ways over the centuries, and their authority varies widely across communities.

Where Can You Read Hindu Sacred Texts for Free?

Reputable free translations of nearly every major text are available online. A few sources stand out.

Gita Supersite. Originally hosted at IIT Kanpur, the Gita Supersite presents the original Sanskrit alongside classical commentaries and translations in eleven Indian languages. Beyond the Bhagavad Gita, it includes the Valmiki Ramayana, the Upanishads with commentaries, the Brahma Sutras with Shankara's commentary, and the Yoga Sutras. It is the best place to compare the Sanskrit with traditional interpretations.

Wikisource. Ralph T. H. Griffith's nineteenth century English translation of the Rigveda is freely available on Wikisource, hymn by hymn.

Project Gutenberg. Several classic public domain translations are free to read and download: The Upanishads translated by Swami Paramananda, beginning with the Isha Upanishad; Sir Edwin Arnold's verse rendering of the Gita, The Song Celestial; Kisari Mohan Ganguli's prose translation of the Mahabharata, issued in several volumes; and Griffith's verse translation of the Ramayana.

U-God's library. The Hinduism library presents all 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, verse by verse, with Sanskrit and English.

Public domain translations are free because they are old. Their English can feel stiff, and their notes reflect the scholarship and assumptions of their time. Many readers use them alongside a modern translation, and with a commentary from the tradition the reader is most interested in.

Which Hindu Text Should You Read First?

There is no required order, and Hindus themselves come to the scriptures by very different paths. For a newcomer, the Bhagavad Gita is the most common starting point. It is short, self contained, and touches nearly every major theme of Hindu thought, from duty and devotion to the nature of the self.

From there, readers drawn to philosophy usually move to the principal Upanishads, starting with the short Isha and Katha. Those drawn to story often turn to the Ramayana, or to an abridged Mahabharata before attempting the full epic. The Rigveda rewards readers with an interest in the earliest layers of religious poetry, ideally with notes in hand. Whichever text comes first, it helps to remember that these books were made to be heard, recited, and lived as much as read silently.