Translations
14public-domain translations of classical Indian texts, presented side-by-side with the original Sanskrit, Pali, or Tamil where available. Where modern scholarly translations exist, we cite them and link to the publishers — we don’t reproduce in-copyright work.
Multiple Vedic ṛṣis (oral tradition) · tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1896 · Public domain
The earliest of the four Vedas, composed in archaic Sanskrit roughly between 1500 and 1000 BCE. A collection of 1,028 hymns to deities and natural forces, organized into ten maṇḍalas. Griffith's late-19th-century translation is accessible but has been superseded on philology by Jamison & Brereton (Oxford, 2014).
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Multiple Vedic ṛṣis (oral tradition) · tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1893 · Public domain
The Veda of melodies and chants. Most of its verses are drawn from the Rigveda but arranged for liturgical singing in the Soma sacrifice. Important for Indian musical theory and the history of liturgical performance.
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Multiple Vedic ṛṣis (oral tradition) · tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1899 · Public domain
The Veda of sacrificial formulas. The 'White' (Śukla) recension of the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā contains mantras and prose passages used in Vedic ritual. The Black (Kṛṣṇa) Yajurveda — a separate recension with interspersed commentary — is not included in this translation.
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Attributed to Atharvan and Aṅgiras · tr. William Dwight Whitney (revised by Charles R. Lanman), 1905 · Public domain
The fourth Veda, covering charms, healing rites, household practices, and philosophical hymns. Closer to popular religion than the other three. Whitney's Harvard Oriental Series edition is rigorous and remains the reference English translation despite its age.
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Various (oral tradition, attributed to multiple ṛṣis) · tr. Robert Ernest Hume, 1921 · Public domain
Hume's translation of thirteen of the major Upanishads — including the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chāndogya, Aitareya, Taittirīya, Kena, Kaṭha, Īśā, Muṇḍaka, Praśna, Māṇḍūkya, Śvetāśvatara, Maitrī, and Kauṣītaki. The Upanishads sit at the close of the Vedic corpus and are the foundational texts of Vedānta philosophy.
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Vyāsa (traditional attribution) · tr. Kisari Mohan Ganguli, 1896 · Public domain
The longer of the two great Sanskrit epics — roughly 100,000 verses across 18 parvas (books), treating dharma, kingship, and the great war between the Kaurava and Pāṇḍava cousins. Ganguli's translation, published serially 1883–1896, remains the only complete public-domain English version. Often misattributed to P. C. Roy, who was the publisher and Ganguli's anonymous patron.
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Vālmīki (traditional attribution) · tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1874 · Public domain
The shorter of the two great Sanskrit epics — roughly 24,000 verses across seven kāṇḍas, narrating the life of Rāma. Griffith's verse translation in five volumes (1870–1874) is the most readable public-domain English version. Treats dharma, kingship, and exile through a more compact narrative arc than the Mahabharata.
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Vyāsa (traditional attribution) — embedded in the Bhīṣma Parva of the Mahabharata · tr. Sir Edwin Arnold, 1885 · Public domain
A 700-verse philosophical dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa as charioteer, on the eve of the Mahabharata war. Embedded within the Bhīṣma Parva but treated as a freestanding philosophical work. Arnold's verse translation, *The Song Celestial* (1885), is the most widely-read English public-domain version; modern translations (van Buitenen, Stoler Miller) are more philologically careful.
Attributed to Manu · tr. Georg Bühler, 1886 · Public domain
The most widely-cited of the Dharmaśāstra texts on ritual, social, and legal practice. Conventionally dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE. A historically influential and ideologically loaded text — its rules on caste, gender, and punishment have been read in radically different ways across time. Modern translations (Olivelle 2005) include critical apparatus and historical context Bühler's predates; we cite Olivelle in commentary, link to the publisher, and host only the public-domain Bühler.
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Patañjali · tr. Various (public domain), 1900 · Public domain
A foundational text of yoga philosophy in 196 short sūtras across four pādas. Conventionally dated to between the 2nd century BCE and the 4th century CE. Multiple public-domain English translations exist, including those of Manilal Dvivedi, Charles Johnston, and Swami Vivekananda; modern critical translations (Bryant, Maas) build on these.
Kauṭilya (also called Cāṇakya) · tr. R. Shamasastry, 1915 · Public domain
A treatise on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy, attributed to Kauṭilya, advisor to Chandragupta Maurya. Covers the duties of a king, ministerial appointment, espionage, taxation, jurisprudence, and foreign policy. The first complete English translation, by R. Shamasastry, was published in 1915 and is in the public domain.
Anonymous (multiple recensions, conventionally pre-500 CE) · tr. Ebenezer Burgess, 1860 · Public domain
An early Sanskrit treatise on astronomical computation — planetary positions, eclipses, time-cycles, geographical coordinates. Burgess's 1860 translation, originally published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, remains the most accessible English version. The mathematical and astronomical content makes this an unusually concrete window into pre-modern Indian science.
Tiruvaḷḷuvar · tr. G. U. Pope, 1886 · Public domain
A Tamil classic of 1,330 short couplets (kuṟaḷ) on virtue (aṟam), wealth and statecraft (poruḷ), and love (kāmam). Conventionally dated between the 3rd century BCE and the 5th century CE. G. U. Pope's English translation is one of the most widely-cited; multiple Tamil commentarial traditions exist alongside it.
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Attributed to the Buddha (compiled in the Pali Canon) · tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 · Public domain
A collection of 423 short verses from the Pali Canon, organized into 26 chapters. One of the most widely-translated Buddhist texts. Müller's translation appeared in volume 10 of the Sacred Books of the East series. Modern translations (Norman, Easwaran) update the language but Müller's remains a useful reference.