Link to revised version of Sacred Texts
Maintained by Saundra Lipton (
lipton@ucalgary.ca)
Sacred and Historical Texts
It is impossible to provide a comprehensive list of electronic texts. The following links provide access to variety of sites for religious texts.
Portals / Ancient / Baha'i / Bible/ Buddhism / Christianity / Confucianism / Hinduism / Islam / Jainism / Judaism / New Religious Movements / / Shinto / Sikh / Taoism / Zoroastrianism / Other
Portals
Ancient Religions
Bahai
Bible
Buddhism - Tips for locating Tibetan texts
Collections
- Access to Insight: Readings in Theravada Buddhism - selected texts from the Pali Canon including Bodhi Leaves and Wheel Publications and English translations of selected texts from the Vinaya Pitaka, and Sutta Pittaka (including Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Samyutta Nikaya, Anguttara Nikaya and Khudaka Nikaya )
- Ancient Buddhist Texts Home Page - original text and translations - Grammar, biographical, nuns and women, doctrinal, meditation, Abhidhamma, post-canonial, chanting
- Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) - Kanjur, Tanjur and native Tibetan classics - use download options on left side of the screen
- Buddhist Scriptures (BuddhaNet) - Pali Tipitaka, The Dhammapada, Mhasatipatthana Sutta, Heart Sutra
- Chinese Cultural Studies : Texts - compiled by Paul Halsall - includes Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist texts
- The Collected Works of Shinran
- Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon
- Electronic Bodhidharma -International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism - links to Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit and Pali Scriptures including Taisho shinshu Daizokyo, Xuzangjing, Yongle Tripitaka, Dragon Sutra, Kanyur, Tengyur, Amitaabha Sutra, Vajraccedikaa-pranaapaaramitaa Sutra, Heart Sutra, Dighanikayo, Majjhimanikayo, Samyuttanikayo, Aguttaranikayo and Khuddakanikaye
- The International Dunhuang Project - text and images for manuscripts including Amitrabha Sutra, Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts, Chinese Manuscripts, Sanskrit Fragments and Saddharma Pundarika Sutra
- Pali Tipitaka (Vipassana Research Institute)
- Pali Canon Tipitaka - Outline and explanation of the canon and English translations of selected texts
- Paracanonical Pali Texts - excerpts from Milindapanha, Visuddhimagga, Atthakatha
- Religious Traditions of East Asia - good listing of links to Buddhist texts compiled by Paul Halsall - note last updated March 132007
- Resources for East Asian Language and Thought by Charles Muller - Diamond Sutra, Sutra of the Perfect Enlightenment, Analects of Confucius etc.
- Sanskrit Manuscripts from Cambridge Digital Library - the University of Cambridge has over 1600 doctrinal, exegetical, philosophical, scientific and ritual works in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali , Tamil and other ancient and medieval South Asian languages. A catalogue is being produced and a significant percentage of the titles will be digitized.
- SAT Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō Text Database - full text of 85 volumes
- The Tibetan Buddhist Canon from the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library - Dege Kangyur, Tengyur and Collected Tantras of the Ancients
- Tibetan Buddhist Resource Centre - extensive lists of texts ; many are available with a nominal fee
- Titus : Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text-Und Sprachmaterialien - Includes Buddhist Sanskrit texts as well as Pali texts such as Buddhacarita, Lankavatarasutra, Causparisatsutra Sardulakarnavadana, Udanavarga, Abhisamayalamkara and Mahavamsa.
Finding Translations
- Bibliography of Translations from the Chinese Buddhist Canon into Western Languages - good guide to where translations of specific texts can be found in books, theses and journal articles
- Bibliography of Jodo-Shinshu Scriptures in Western Language translations
Indexes to Texts
- Buddhist Canons Research Database - can search using Wylie, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan script - links to text in Tibetan Buddhist Resource Centre
Individual Texts
Christianity
Confucian
Collections:
- Chinese Cultural Studies : Texts - compiled by Paul Halsall - includes Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist texts
- Chinese Philosophical Etext Archive - compiled by Stephen Angle. Includes Analects, Mencius, Xunzi, Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean. Texts in Chinese.
- Chinese Text Project - open-access digital library of pre-modern Chinese works such as The Analects, Mengzi, Liji, Xunzi, Xiao Jing, Shuo Yan, ChunQiu Fan Lu, Han Shi Wai Zhuan, Da Dai Li Ji, Bai Hu Tong, Xin Shu, Xin Xu, Yangzi Fayan, Zhong Lun, Kongzi Jiayu, Quan Fu Lun, Lunheng, Tai Xuan Jing, Fengsu Tongyi, Kongcongzi, Shen Jian, Zhong Jing, Su Shu, Xin Yu, Du Duan, Cai Zhong Lang Ji. Includes English translation
- Confucianism section from Internet Sacred Text Archive . Translations by James Legge of: Confucian Analects (Lun Yo), Mencius(Meng-tzu), The Great Learning) Ta Hsuen, The Doctrine of the Mean (Chung Yung)
- Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist Etexts, Indexes and Bibliographies (compiled byCharles Muller) - Diamond Sutra, Sutra of the Perfect Enlightenment, Analects of Confucius etc.
Individual texts:
Analects
- 論語 - The Analects
- Analects of Confucius - Translated by Charles Muller
- The Analects of Confuicus - 2015 edition by Robert Eno includes commentary and Appendix I - Major disciples of Confucius
- Confucian Analects translated by James Legge (1893)
Others
- The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu translated by Burton Watson
- Great Learning - Translated by Charles Muller
- The Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean - Translation, commentary and notes by Robert Eno June 2016
- Doctrine of the Mean- Translated by Charles Muller
- I Ching on the Net - translation by Wilhelm and links to a variety of resources
- The I Ching translated by James Legge (1899) - from the Internet Sacred Text Archive
- Mencius -
Translated by Charles Muller
- Mencius -Translation, Commentary and Notes - by Robert Eno May 2016
Hinduism
Collections:
- Internet Sacred Text Archive - Hinduism - Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Laws of Manu, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Vendanta, Yoga Sutras, Kalidasa etc.
- Digital Corpus of Sanskrit - " is a searchable collection of lemmatized Sanskrit texts"
- Gita Supersite - Texts in Sanskrit
- Sanskrit Scriptures - Amitabha Sutras, Vajracchedika-prajnaparamita sutras, and Heart Sutra - from Digital Library of Buddhist Studies. Note need to select "Online Scriptures" from right side menu
- Sanskrit Manuscripts from Cambridge Digital Library - the University of Cambridge has over 1600 doctrinal, exegetical, philosophical, scientific and ritual works in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali , Tamil and other ancient and medieval South Asian languges. A catalogue is being produced and a significant percentage of the titles will be digitzed.
- Sanskrit Manuscripts at University of Pennsylvania - a number of the manuscripts have been digitized and are available at this site
- Tantrik texts - sanskrit texts in Devanagari with some English translations
- Vedic texts at the University of Frankfurt archives - include Rgveda-Samhita, Pada-Patha, Samhita-Patha Aitareya-Brahmana, Kausitaki-Brahmana, Aitareya-Upanisad and Manu-Smrti. Select "Text Database" under "Textus" this will lead to links to the Indic texts
Individual texts:
- Bhagavad Gita - translation by Sir Edwin Arnold
- Bhagavad Gita - translation by Edwin Arnold with concordance and word lists (alphabetical, frequency, inverse and length) - from Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText
- Bhagavad Gita by Sri Swami Sivananda - published by The Dviine Life Society
- Digital Shikshapatri
- Hymns of the Atharva-Veda - translated by Maurice Bloomfield with concordance and word lis
ts (alphabetical, frequency, inverse and length) - from Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText
- Hymns of the Samaveda - translated by Ralph T.H. Griffith with concordance and word lists (alphabetical, frequency, inverse and length) from Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText
- Mahabharata - overview and links to texts - James L. Fitzgerald at Brown University
- Mahabharata Resources - texts
- The Rig Veda - translated by Ralph R.H. Griffith with concordance and word lists (alphabe
tical, frequency, inverse and length) - from Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText. Also available from Internet Sacred Text Archive
- The Rig Veda transliterated Sanskrit with concordance and word lists (alphabetical, frequency, inverse and length) - from Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText
- The Upanishads - translated by F. Mac Muller with concordance and word Lists (alphabetical, frequency, inverse and length) - from Biblotheca Religiosa IntraText
- The Yajur Veda
- translated by A. Berriedale with concordance and word lists (alphabetica
l, frequency, inverse and length) from Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText
Islam
Qur'an
(Note Hathi Trust contains many editions of the Qu'ran)
The Holy Qur'an - Arabic Text, English text by A. Yusuf Ali
Koran - University of Michgan - (Shakir's translation) - can search for keywords and browse
Quran - translations into a number of languages - a number of versions including Pickthall, Asad, Ali, Arberry, Lings (selected verses) and Uthmani
The Quran (E.H. Palmer's translation)
The Quran (Pickthall's translation)
Qu'ran - transcribed by the Muslim Students Association of Oregon State University with concordance and word list (alphabetical, frequency, inverse and length) from the Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText
Unicode Qur'an
Qur'an in Dutch, German, Albanian, Swahili, Spanish and French with concordance and word list (alphabetical, frequency, length) searching from Bibliotheca Religiosa IntraText
Topical Index to the Quran
Quran Browser and Concordance - allows searching by passage, word or word part, searches Pickthall, Yusufali, Shakir, Ali and Khalifa
Other texts
Jainism
Judaism
Collections
- Cairo Genizah (Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection and the Jacques Mosseri Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library ) - over 12,000 manuscripts including letters, legal deeds, liturgical texts rescued from the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo provide a wealth of information on Jewish life in the Mediterranean.
- Cairo Genizah - Princeton Genizah Project site
- Cairo Genizah - Penn/Cambridge Genizah Fragment Project - "a collaborative effort to reunite the contents of the Cairo Genizah in a single online presentation"
- Database for the Analysis of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Texts of Antiquity" - includes Baruch, Enoth, Maccabees, Ezra Artapanus, Copper Scroll, Damascus Document, Ezekiel the Tragedian, Genesis Apocryphon, Jubilees, Judith, Letter of Aristeas, Lives of the Prophets, Mishnah Tamid, Sirach, Tagum Canticles, Targum Qohelet, Temple Scroll, Testament of Job, Testament of Reuben, Tobit, Visions of Ezekiel, War Scroll and Wisdom of Solomon
- Early Jewish Writings - links to the Tanakh, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Flavius Josephus
- Guide to Chabad Literature
- Hebrew Manuscripts from the Cambridge Digital Library - Bibles, commentaries, liturgical, philosophical, kabbalistic and scientific manuscripts
- Hebrewbooks.org - "Hebrewbooks.org was founded in order to preserve old American Hebrew books that are out of print and/or circulation. Many American Rabbis wrote seforim (Hebrew books) in the early part of the 20th century. They have long since passed away and in many instances so has their holy work. Currently our mission has expanded to include all Torah Seforim ever printed. At Hebrewbooks.org you will be able to view and print the entire Sefer online." - can search and browse by author and title. Note this also includes journals.
- Holy texts from Snunit (in Hebrew) - Tanakh, Mishnah, Tosefta, Babylonian Talmud, Mishneh Torah (Maimonides), Talmud Yerushalmi
- Hebrew Bible (Tanakh): various editions in Hebrew, the 1917 JPS in English, parallel Hebrew and English and parallel Hebrew and French and the Mishneh Torah in Hebrew
- Mikranet - Hebrew texts of the Tanakh
- The Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts (British Library)
- Rabat Genizah Project - approximately 2 thousand works from the Jewish community of 20th century Morroco including torah scrolls, prayer manuals, rabbinic commentries as well as community records and photographs from the collection housed at the Casablance Jewish Museum in Morocco
- Sacred Texts from Internet Sacred Text Archive
- Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts - in Hebrew and English - Parashah, Haggadah, Pirkei Avot, Midrash Rabbah, Shulchan Arukh
- Seforim Online - mostly Hebrew texts
Talmud
- Babylonian Talmud - Rodkinson's English translation of approximately 1/3 of the Talmud
- Full Hebrew text of the Tanach, Mishnah, Tosefta, Babylonian Talmud, Talmud Yerushalmi, Mishneh Torah le-Rambam
- Holy texts from Snunit (in Hebrew) - Tanach, Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, Mishneh Torah (Maimonides)
- Palestinian/Jerusalem Talmud - Leiden MS.
- Parallels to the Jerusalem Talmud - "sources and parallels to the Jersusalem Talmud, from the Bible, the Tannaitic Literature , the Yerushalmi itsef" - site is in Hebrew
- Primary Textual Witnesses to Tannaitic Literature - " The database is part of an extensive project under the directorship of Prof. Shamma Friedman, whose objective is to enable access online to an electronic searchable transcription of all the primary textual witnesses to Tannaitic Literature. This project is funded by the The Naftal - Yoffe Center for the Study and Dissemination of Oral Law, under the auspices of the Bar Ilan University - Faculty for Jewish Studies. Currently online are the Mekhilta Database and the Tosefta Database."
- Responsa Project - "The Global Jewish Database (the Responsa Project) contains the world's largest electronic collection of Jewish texts in Hebrew ever recorded, which embody thousands of years of Jewish learning. The database includes numerous works from the Responsa Literature - rabbinic case-law rulings which represent the historical-sociological milieu of real-life situations. In addition, the database includes the Bible, the Talmud and their principal commentaries; works about Jewish law and customs; major the codes of Jewish law, such as Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch with its principal commentaries; midrashim, Zohar, etc…
- Soncino English Bablyonian Talmud - translated into English by Dr. Epstein, reformatted by Reuven Brauner
- Talmud - images of various manuscript and printed editions of the Talmud - from Bayerische StaastBibliothek digital
- search "Talmud"
Talmudic Tools
- Talmud Guide - If you only have the title of the chapter of the Talmud, you can use this guide to determine which tractate the title is found in. Note the titles are listed in Hebrew.
- Talmud Tractates Abbreviations Guide
- Tosefta Online
- WebShas - Guide to the places in the Talmud where issues are discussed - can search by keyword or subject
New Religious Movements
Shintoism
Sikhism
Taoism
Collections
- The Daoist Canon - History, Schools, Organization, lists of Daoist texts - information only no actual texts.
- Chinese Cultural Studies : Texts - compiled by Paul Halsall - includes Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist texts
- Chinese Text Project - collection of open access texts including: Zhuangzi, Dao De Jing, He Guan Zi, Wenzi, Wen Shi Zhen Jing, Lie Xian Zhuan, Yuzi, Heshanggong. Includes English translations
- Daoist E-texts - index and pdf files for all available texts
- Daoist Texts in Translation - compiled by Louis Komjathy
- Electronic Scriptoral Texts for Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist Studies - Diamond Sutra, Sutra of the Perfect Enlightenment, Analects of Confucius etc.
- Taoism Depot - Contains 12 English translations of the Tao Te Ching as well as the original Chinese text
- Taoist Teachings: translated from the Book of Lieh-Tzu with introduction and notes by Lionel Giles
Taoist Texts (translated into English) - Tao Te Ching and a number of other texts
Zoroastrian
Other
- Chinese Text Project - includes open-access texts for Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism as well as for other schools, mathematics, Chinese medicine etc.
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since July 1 , 2000
Maintained by Saundra Lipton (
lipton@ucalgary.ca)