Translations
Public-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 Griffith's late-19th-century translation is accessible but has been superseded on philology by Jamison & Brereton (Oxford, 2014).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. **Partial coverage at launch**: Wikisource has cleanly proofread Bāla Kāṇḍa (Book I), Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa (Book II), and the opening of Araṇya Kāṇḍa (Book III, cantos 1–24). The rest of Book III and Books IV–VII (Kiṣkindhā, Sundara, Yuddha, Uttara) exist only as scan-backed OCR and are not yet included; the project plans to add them as the upstream proofreading completes.
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.
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Vyāsa) · tr. Manmatha Nath Dutt (drawing on H. H. Wilson), 1894 · Public domain
One of the eighteen Mahapuranas, regarded in the textual tradition as the canonical 'first' Purana. Six books (aṃśas) totalling 126 sections covering cosmology, the genealogies of gods and kings, the dynasties of the solar and lunar lines, the life of Krishna, and the cycle of yugas. Dutt's prose translation builds on Wilson's earlier 1840 verse rendering and is the most accessible complete public-domain English version.
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.
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.
Kālidāsa · tr. Arthur W. Ryder, 1912 · Public domain
Kalidasa's most celebrated drama — a seven-act play (3rd–5th century CE) on the love between King Dushyanta and the forest-raised Shakuntala, their separation through a sage's curse, and their eventual reunion. The play's discovery in the late 18th century (William Jones's 1789 translation) marked European recognition of Sanskrit literary tradition. Ryder's 1912 verse translation preserves the play's alternation of prose dialogue with lyrical verse interludes.
Kālidāsa · tr. Arthur W. Ryder, 1912 · Public domain
Kalidasa's lyric poem in 115 stanzas — a banished yaksha begs a passing cloud to carry a message of love to his distant wife in the Himalayan city of Alaka. Two cantos: the Purvamegha (Former Cloud) traces the cloud's northward journey across the Indian subcontinent; the Uttaramegha (Latter Cloud) describes Alaka and the message. The model for the dūta-kāvya (messenger-poem) genre.
Kālidāsa · tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1853 · Public domain
Kalidasa's epic poem on the marriage of Shiva and Parvati and the birth of Skanda, the god of war who will defeat the demon Taraka. Griffith's verse translation covers cantos 1–7 — the portion uniformly attributed to Kalidasa. Cantos 8–17 of the received text are widely considered a later addition and were not translated.
Śūdraka (attributed) · tr. Arthur W. Ryder, 1905 · Public domain
A ten-act prakaraṇa drama, considered the most acclaimed Sanskrit play in the social-realist register. The impoverished Brahmin Charudatta and the courtesan Vasantasena's love story unfolds against political intrigue, a violent rival, and a wrongful trial. Ryder's translation is published in the Harvard Oriental Series.
Jayadeva · tr. Sir Edwin Arnold, 1875 · Public domain
A 12th-century devotional lyric poem in eleven sargas on the love of Krishna and Radha. A foundational work of Vaishnava bhakti literature and a model for vernacular devotional poetry across South Asia. Arnold rendered the eleven cantos as 'The Indian Song of Songs'; the twelfth canto of the Sanskrit original is omitted from his translation.
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Viṣṇuśarman) · tr. Arthur W. Ryder, 1925 · Public domain
An ancient collection of interlinked animal fables organised into five books on the conduct of life — the loss and winning of friends, the wars and peace of kings, and the consequences of ill-considered action. Composed in Sanskrit by the 3rd century CE; travelled west through Pahlavi, Arabic, and European translations to become a major source for European fable tradition (Aesop, Reineke Fuchs). Ryder's 1925 translation entered the public domain on 2021-01-01.
Nārāyaṇa · tr. Sir Edwin Arnold, 1861 · Public domain
A 12th-century Sanskrit retelling and condensation of the Panchatantra, organised in four books — winning friends, parting friends, war, and peace. Composed by Nārāyaṇa, probably for a Bengal prince, and widely used as a primer for young royalty in pre-modern India. Arnold's prose-and-verse translation is the most widely-read English public-domain version.
Cīttalai Cāttaṉār · tr. Muriel M. Morrow and John Bateman, 1928 · Public domain
One of the Five Great Tamil Epics (Aimperumkappiyangal), composed in the 6th century CE. A sequel to the Silappatikaram, following Manimekalai — the daughter of Kovalan and the courtesan Madhavi — as she rejects the courtesan's life and embraces Buddhist teaching. The poem is a major source on Buddhist doctrine in Tamil literary tradition. Morrow & Bateman's 1928 English prose retelling, published by The Indian Publishing House (Madras), entered US public domain on 2024-01-01.
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.
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.