Religion: Other World Religions

The Vedas are the oldest scriptures in Hinduism. The Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda are the four canonical Vedas. The first three consist primarily of hymns and formulas for recitation. In addition to hymns, the fourth also contains spells and incantations. The texts provided on this site are not searchable.

More than 200 philosophical texts make up the Upanishads. Foundational to Hinduism, the oldest of these are refered to as the principal or old Upanishads. Buddhist influences can be discerned in later Upanishads. This edition, translated by Max Müller into English in 1897, contains a dozen of the most notable Upanishads.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib is the chief sacred text within Sikhism. Comprised mostly of hymns, it was compiled during the period of the Sikh gurus from the mid-fifteenth century to the early eighteenth century. Here the reader will find a browsable index to the full-text of the Khalsa Consensus English translation of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

Regarded as the most influential of Taoist texts, the Tao Te Ching is also central to Daoism and Chinese Buddhism. This site contains the 1891 English translation by James Legge.

There are a large number of disparate texts referred to by Buddhists. This site provides access to texts within southern and northern Buddhism, as well as several key texts from the twentieth century.

Although there is no book or collection of sacred texts analogous to the Christian Bible or the Islamic Qu'ran in Shinto, this site provides access to a set of core texts in history and lore that substantiate Shinto belief and practice.