Hindu texts

Hindu texts are broadly considered Hindu scriptures. These include the Puranas, Itihasa and Vedas. Scholars hesitate in defining the term "Hindu scriptures" given the diverse nature of Hinduism, but many list the Bhagavad Gita and the Agamas as Hindu scriptures, and Dominic Goodall includes Bhagavata Purana and Yajnavalkya Smriti in the list of Hindu scriptures as well.

• The Indologists had for so long told themselves that Indians lacked access to the “true” meaning of their texts that they no longer considered it a prejudice but a methodological principle and a necessary one at that.
  • Adluri, V. Against Occidentalism. The New School Research Matters. (2017); crary-and-vishwa-adluri-on-the-nay-science-2/ quoted in Kak, S. Racism, Eurocentrism, and Indology.

• [Hindu lore, like the Mahābhārata, ] must have already been current in some form (…) as many have realized, the Vedic texts relate only a small part of the culture of the Vedic period. But it is much less recognized how much comparison can do to fill out the picture, and identify the material that bypassed the Vedas.
  • Nick Allen: “Why the Telemachy? Vyasa’s answer”, Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée, 2016) as quoted in [1]

• One of the most enriching yet frustrating aspects of the study of Hinduism is its huge body of religious writing. The fledgling scholar is confronted by a vast array of sacred literature that presents confusing and often conflicting ideas. Because Hinduism is such an ancient religion, its textual heritage has been compiled over considerable time. Most importantly, the sacred books of the Hindus do not replace each other but instead have built up into an extensive mass of sacred knowledge.
  • Stuart Abbott, in Hindu Goddesses : Beliefs and Practices (2009), p. 44

• The Upanishads supply the basis of later Hindu philosophy; they alone of the Vedic corpus are widely known and quoted by most well-educated Hindus, and their central ideas have also become a part of the spiritual arsenal of rank-and-file Hindus.
  • Wendy Doniger, Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, 1st ed. (University of Chicago Press, 1990), pp. 2–3

• It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgement used at preparatory schools in England.
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, Minute on Indian Education (2 February 1835)

• But in the first place, Sanskrit literature alone is a very big mass. Although, perhaps, three-fourths of it has been destroyed and lost through successive invasions, yet, I think, the sum total of the amount of literature in Sanskrit would outbalance any three or four European languages taken together, in number of books. No one knows how many books are there yet and where they are, because it is the most ancient of all these Aryan languages. And that branch of the Aryan race which spoke the Sanskrit language was the first to become civilized and the first to begin to write books and literature. So they went on for thousands of years. How many thousands of years they wrote no one knows. There are various guesses - from 3000 B.C. to 8000 B.C. - but all of these dates are more or less uncertain.
  • Swami Vivekananda, "History of the aryan race", A Jnâna-Yoga class delivered in London, England, on Thursday morning, May 7, 1896, and recorded by Mr. Josiah J. Goodwin. , Complete Works, vol. 9

• Almost the largest portion of the Vedas has been lost. The priests who carried it down to posterity were divided into so many families; and, accordingly, the Vedas were divided into so many parts. Each part was allotted to a family. The rituals, the ceremonies, the customs, the worship of that family were to be obtained from that [respective] portion of the Vedas. They preserved it and performed all the ceremonies according to that. In course of time, [some of] these families became extinct; and with them, their portion of the Vedas was lost, if these old accounts be true.
  • Swami Vivekananda, "History of the aryan race", A Jnâna-Yoga class delivered in London, England, on Thursday morning, May 7, 1896, and recorded by Mr. Josiah J. Goodwin. , Complete Works, vol. 9

• Some of you know that the Vedas are divided into four parts. One is called the Rig-Veda, another Yajur-Veda, another Sâma-Veda, and the fourth Atharva-Veda. Each one of these, again, was divided into many branches. For instance, the Sama-Veda had one thousand branches, of which only about five or six remain; the rest are all lost. So with the others. The Rig-Veda had 108, of which only one remains; and the rest are all lost.
  • Swami Vivekananda, "History of the aryan race", A Jnâna-Yoga class delivered in London, England, on Thursday morning, May 7, 1896, and recorded by Mr. Josiah J. Goodwin. , Complete Works, vol. 9

• Then [there were] these various invasions. India has been the one country to which every nation that has become strong wants to go and conquer - it being reputed to be very rich. The wealth of the people had become a fable, even in the most ancient history. [Many foreign invaders] rushed to become wealthy in India and conquered the country. Every one of these invasions destroyed one or more of these families, burned many libraries and houses. And when that was so, much literature was lost. It is only within the last few years that ideas have begun to spring up about the retention of these various religions and books. Before that, mankind had to suffer all this pillaging and breaking down. Most stupendous creations of art were lost forever. Wonderful buildings - where, from a few bits of remnants now in India, it can be imagined how wonderful they were - are completely gone. . . .
  • Swami Vivekananda, "History of the aryan race", A Jnâna-Yoga class delivered in London, England, on Thursday morning, May 7, 1896, and recorded by Mr. Josiah J. Goodwin. , Complete Works, vol. 9

• Bhagavad Gita
• Puranas
• Ramayana
• Vedas