अम्बुदः

The Upanishads are the portion of the Vedas that deal with the nature of self and reality. Due to their profound influence in Indian thought, the Upanishads are widely considered among the most influential texts in human history.

The mukhya or primary Upanishads are among the most authoritative texts in modern Hindu dharma and are the source of many of its mantras and popular expressions. The muktikā Upanishads, a set of 108 Upanishads that includes the mukhya Upanishads, are less influential but accepted to varying extents by different traditions. Other Upanishads are extremely rare and of marginal influence.

Vedānta, roughly translated as the “end” or “culmination” of the Vedas, is one of the six darśanas or philosophical systems in Hindu dharma. It is the most prominent and influential darśana in Hindu dharma today.

The authoritative texts of Vedanta are called the Prasthānatrayī, which comprises the Upanishads, the Brahma Sūtras, and the Bhagavad Gītā. It is customary to read these texts under a teacher’s instruction and with the help of one or more commentaries, usually after reading several introductory texts that are easier for beginners to grasp.

Key themes within Vedanta include the relation between ātmā and brahma, or self and reality; the relation jīvātmā and paramātmā, or the conventional self and the divine; the relation between pravṛtti and nivṛtti, or engagement with the world and withdrawal from it; and the relative priority and efficacy of different methods of realization.

Our collection currently focuses mainly on the Advaita Vedānta tradition but will soon expand.

The Itihāsas are ancient narratives that form the foundational cultural memory of Indian civilization. Nearly every Indian tradition has adapted them in some form or another.

Our current collection presents the critical editions of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata.

Kāvya is any literature that evokes rasa or aesthetic sentiment. It is in kāvya that Sanskrit takes its most beautiful and dazzling form.

Stotras are hymns of praise usually dedicated to a specific deity. They are the most popular form of Sanskrit literature today, and they are chanted and sung throughout India and the Indian diaspora.

Our stotra collection is still quite small, but it contains most of the stotras composed by Adi Shankara as well as some popular stotras like the Veṅkaṭasuprabhātam.

The texts in this collection do not have a clear category or have not yet been categorized.