How the scriptures fit together
The Vedas, the Upaniṣads, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and the Bhagavad Gītā are often named in one breath, but they are very different kinds of text. This guide is a map of the whole library.
Two broad families: heard and remembered
Indian tradition sorts its sacred literature into two families. Śruti, “what was heard”, is the Veda: texts held to have been perceived by ancient seers (ṛṣis) rather than composed by an author, and handed down word for word.
Smṛti, “what is remembered”, covers later works with known or legendary authors: the two great epics, the Purāṇas, law books and more. They draw on the Veda but retell, explain and apply it.
The four Vedas
There are four Vedas: the Ṛgveda (hymns of praise), the Sāmaveda (the same kind of verses set to melody), the Yajurveda (formulas for the ritual) and the Atharvaveda (hymns for healing, home and daily life).
Each Veda grew in layers. The Saṃhitā is the core collection of hymns or formulas. The Brāhmaṇas explain the ritual in prose. The Āraṇyakas, “forest books”, reflect on what the ritual means. The Upaniṣads, the last layer, turn to questions about the self and ultimate reality.
The Upaniṣads
Because they close the Veda, the Upaniṣads are also called Vedānta, “the end of the Veda”. Thirteen of them are usually counted as the principal Upaniṣads. Their dialogues, such as Naciketas questioning Death in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, shaped almost every later school of Indian philosophy.
The epics: Itihāsa
The Rāmāyaṇa, attributed to Vālmīki, tells of Rāma’s exile, the abduction of Sītā and the war that brings her back. The Mahābhārata, attributed to Vyāsa, tells of the long feud between two branches of the Bharata family that ends in the war at Kurukṣetra. Tradition calls them Itihāsa, “so it was”.
Both epics exist in many manuscript versions. Scholars have produced critical editions that compare them; Vedyatra marks well-known episodes that are not in those editions as popular retellings.
Where the Bhagavad Gītā sits
The Bhagavad Gītā is not a separate book but eighteen chapters inside the Mahābhārata, in its sixth book (the Bhīṣma Parva). Just before the battle, Arjuna loses heart, and Kṛṣṇa, his charioteer, answers him. Because it gathers ideas from the Upaniṣads into a single conversation, the Gītā is often read on its own.
How Vedyatra is organised
The Library shows every text and how much of it can be read today. Read takes you verse by verse through any published text, with the Sanskrit, a transliteration, word meanings and a translation in your language. Storyteller retells key episodes as illustrated stories, each linked to the verses behind it.