Sources and licences
The texts themselves are thousands of years old and belong to nobody. What carries a licence is a particular modern transcription of them, together with whatever editorial work was layered on top. Every source the library draws on is listed here with its full chain: the printed edition and its editor, then the digital edition, its maintainer and its terms.
Non-commercial dependencies
One source below is licensed for non-commercial use only. Material from it is used for cross-checking rather than as a primary reading, and is tagged as such on every unit it touches. Replacing it with a freely reusable edition is an open task.
Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā, GRETIL electronic text
gretil-rv-aufrecht
- Printed edition
- Theodor Aufrecht, Die Hymnen des Rigveda. Bonn, 1877
- Digital edition
- GRETIL, SUB Göttingen. Data entry: Barend A. van Nooten, Gary B. Holland, Detlef Eichler, Maximilian Mehner. Revision 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2026-08-20
- Location
- http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/corpustei/sa_Rgveda-edAufrecht.xml
- Licence
- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0non-commercial only
- Notes
- Used as an independent cross-check only, never as a primary reading, because the non-commercial restriction would otherwise constrain this project. The underlying Aufrecht 1877 edition is itself public domain; the claim covers GRETIL's transcription and the van Nooten and Holland metrically restored text behind it, which does involve real editorial judgement. Agreement between this edition and Sanskrit Wikisource is what produces the confirmed label on a verse.
The Bhagavad-Gita, or The Lord's Song
en-wikisource-besant-1922
- Printed edition
- Annie Besant, The Bhagavad-Gita, or The Lord's Song (4th edition). London and Benares, 1922
- Digital edition
- English Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bhagavad-Gita_(Besant_4th)
- Licence
- public domainfree to reuse
- Notes
- Besant died in 1933 and the edition is from 1922, so the translation is public domain worldwide. It is a translation of its period: readable, deliberately elevated in register, and carrying Theosophical assumptions that a reader should know about.
The Hymns of the Rigveda
en-wikisource-griffith-1896
- Printed edition
- Ralph T. H. Griffith, The Hymns of the Rigveda, translated with a popular commentary. Benares, 1896
- Digital edition
- English Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Hymns_of_the_Rigveda
- Licence
- public domainfree to reuse
- Notes
- Griffith died in 1906, so this is public domain worldwide. Ingestion is incomplete: only a small number of hymns have been transcribed on Wikisource so far, so most rcs in this library currently carry no English translation at all rather than a filled-in one. Griffith is also a Victorian reading, euphemistic in places and confident where the Sanskrit is not.
The Sacred Books of the East
en-wikisource-muller-sbe
- Printed edition
- The Upanishads. Oxford, 1879 and 1884
- Digital edition
- English Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sacred_Books_of_the_East
- Licence
- public domain (translation); CC BY-SA 4.0 (transcription)free to reuse
- Notes
- Max Muller died in 1900 and both volumes are public domain. Volume 1 carries the Isha under Muller's title Vagasaneyi-samhita-upanishad and the Kena as Talavakara-upanishad; volume 15 carries Katha, Mundaka and Prasna. Muller never translated the Mandukya, so no Muller English exists for it and none is invented.
ईशावास्योपनिषद्
sa-wikisource-isha-upanishad-alt
- Digital edition
- Sanskrit Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ईशावास्योपनिषद्
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0free to reuse
- Notes
- A second, independently typed copy of the same Kanva text on the same wiki. Used only as the cross check witness for the Isha Upanishad, never as the shipped reading.
ईशोपनिषत्
sa-wikisource-isha-upanishad
- Digital edition
- Sanskrit Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ईशोपनिषत्
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0free to reuse
- Notes
- Kanva recension, Vajasaneyi Samhita adhyaya 40, eighteen mantras. Unaccented. Primary text for the Isha Upanishad here.
ऋग्वेदः सूक्तानि, per-sukta headers
sa-wikisource-rigveda-suktas
- Digital edition
- Sanskrit Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेदः_सूक्तं_१.१
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0free to reuse
- Notes
- Source of the rsi, devata and chandas recorded per sukta. These attributions follow the Sarvanukramani tradition and are themselves subject to scholarly disagreement.
ऋग्वेद-पदपाठः
sa-wikisource-rigveda-padapatha
- Digital edition
- Sanskrit Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद-पदपाठः
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0free to reuse
- Notes
- The word-separated recitation text, in which sandhi is undone and each pada stands alone. This is what makes a translation checkable against the original rather than against another translation.
ऋग्वेदः, संहिता, सस्वरपाठः
sa-wikisource-rigveda-samhita
- Digital edition
- Sanskrit Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेदः/संहिता/सस्वरपाठः
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0free to reuse
- Notes
- The accented samhitapatha. The Rigveda itself is public domain and has been for three thousand years; the CC BY-SA claim covers this particular transcription and its markup, not the text. Chosen as the primary reading precisely because it is free for anyone to reuse, including commercially.
भगवद्गीता
sa-wikisource-bhagavad-gita
- Digital edition
- Sanskrit Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/भगवद्गीता
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0free to reuse
- Notes
- Devanagari text of the Gita. Unaccented, as the Gita is smrti rather than sruti and is not recited with svaras.
मुण्डकोपनिषत्
sa-wikisource-mundaka-upanishad
- Digital edition
- Sanskrit Wikisource contributors. Retrieved 2026-08-21
- Location
- https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/मुण्डकोपनिषद्
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0free to reuse
- Notes
- Three mundakas of two khandas each, 64 mantras, each closed by a full three part reference of the form 1.1.1. Unaccented. Only one copy of this text exists on the wiki, so every mantra is marked single-source; the per khanda counts do however match the standard division 9, 13, 10, 11, 10, 11 exactly, and Max Muller's translation divides identically, which is an independent check on the structure.
Our own terms
Everything this project adds on top, the structure, the apparatus, the cross-check results and any translation drafted here, is released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Take it, mirror it, build on it. Attribution and the same freedom passed on are the only conditions.