Hindu Philosophy

Pillar I. Śruti

Śruti is the heard foundation. It holds the four Vedas and the Upaniṣads that close them. The narrative guides are the sāra of that landscape. Three of the Upaniṣads are already sat, one mantra at a time, on the verse shelf.

• श्रुति · ŚrutiThe portal maps the four layers and the twelve Upaniṣads in one sitting.
• चतुर्वेद · The four VedasThe page names saṃhitā, Brāhmaṇa, Āraṇyaka, and Upaniṣad, and then it sits the four saṃhitās across ten sittings.
• मुख्योपनिषद् · The twelve UpaniṣadsThe list runs from the Īśā to the Kauṣītaki and the Maitrī. Śaṅkara's famous set is ten. This list holds twelve titles.
• उपनिषद् · The verse shelfThe Māṇḍūkya, the Īśāvāsya, and the Kaṭha are sat mantra by mantra.

Pillar II. Darśana and śāstra

Systematic philosophy. A shelf here is a book of lines. Finish the line you opened. The groups below are the classical map. The old reading order is kept, folded at the end of this pillar.

The six schools

The ṣaḍ-darśana (षड्दर्शन) are six. Haṭha is the later manual of seats beside Patañjali, not a seventh school. Three Upaniṣads are sat in this pillar, mantra by mantra. The narrative of the Vedas and of all twelve is the Śruti portal. The Gītā is the poem of this yoga, and it is crowned again under Itihāsa.

• सांख्यकारिका · Sāṅkhya KārikāThe kārikā holds seventy-two verses. Puruṣa and prakṛti are the map the Yoga Sūtra assumes.
• योगसूत्र · Yoga SūtraPatañjali's book holds 195 lines. It is the short book of the mind.
• हठयोगप्रदीपिका · Haṭha Yoga PradīpikāSvātmārāma's manual holds four chapters. It names the shapes of the seat that Yoga Sūtra 2.46 leaves unnamed.
• भगवद्गीता · Bhagvad GītāThe Gītā is the poem of that yoga. It is also the crown of the Mahābhārata.
• भक्तिसूत्र · Nārada Bhakti SūtrasThe book holds eighty-four sūtras on divine love. Read them beside Gītā chapter 12.
• न्यायसूत्र · Nyāya SūtraThe sūtra shows how a claim is proved.
• वैशेषिकसूत्र · Vaiśeṣika SūtraThe sūtra names what exists to be proved. It is the pair of Nyāya.
• मीमांसासूत्र · Mīmāṃsā SūtraThe sūtra shows how to read the Veda as what is to be done.
• उपनिषद् · The UpaniṣadsThe Māṇḍūkya, the Īśāvāsya, and the Kaṭha are sat mantra by mantra. The narrative of the twelve is the Śruti portal.
• ब्रह्मसूत्र · Brahma SūtraThe sūtra asks what is to be known. It is the pair of Mīmāṃsā, on the other side.
• उपदेशसाहस्री · UpadeśasāhasrīThese are Śaṅkara's own verses. They teach Advaita, inside Vedānta.
• अष्टावक्रगीता · Aṣṭāvakra GītāAṣṭāvakra teaches Janaka. The book holds twenty chapters and 298 verses on the same Advaita shelf.
• अवधूतगीता · Avadhūta GītāAttributed to Dattātreya. Eight chapters. A map. The speaker says there is only the self, so bondage and liberation fall away together. The lines are not sat.
• ऋभुगीता · Ribhu GītāThe sixth aṃśa of the Śiva Rahasya. Ribhu teaches Nidāgha until the sentence is his own. A map. The lines are not sat.
• विशिष्टाद्वैत · द्वैत · Theistic VedāntaRāmānuja and Madhva stand beside Śaṅkara. The page is a primer. No commentary is sat. The twenty-six shelves stay the folded order.

Epistemology and language

• प्रमाण · The pramāṇasThe page asks what counts as knowing. Read it before the long sūtra books.
• तर्कसंग्रह · Tarka-SaṃgrahaThis is Annambhaṭṭa's primer. It sets out seven categories and the four means before the Nyāya Sūtra.
• वाक्यपदीय · Speech and soundBhartṛhari asks what a word is. The same shelf sits Śārṅgadeva on nāda.
• माहेश्वरसूत्राणि · Māheśvara sūtrasThe page gives Śiva's fourteen drumbeats. They build the alphabet and the pratyāhāras.

Tantra and Kashmir Śaivism

• शिवसूत्र · Śiva SūtraThe sūtra holds seventy-seven lines. It treats consciousness, and a world that is its own power.
• विज्ञानभैरव · Vijñāna BhairavaBhairava answers the Goddess. The book holds 162 verses.
• प्रत्यभिज्ञाहृदयम् · PratyabhijñāhṛdayamKṣemarāja wrote twenty sūtras on the heart of recognition.

Aesthetics and sound

• नाट्यशास्त्र · NāṭyaśāstraBharata's chapters treat rasa and bhāva. They ask what the spectator tastes.
• गान्धर्व · GāndharvaThe shelf tells how celestial gāndharva came down into earthly deśī. It is the lore of the music, beside the practice.
• सङ्गीतरत्नाकर · Nāda, on the speech shelfŚārṅgadeva on nāda lives with Bhartṛhari, in Speech and sound. One shelf holds two mouths.

Nāstika

The schools that do not take the Veda as a pramāṇa. They are sat here because the orthodox books argue with them.

• मूलमध्यमककारिका · MadhyamakaThe kārikā is Nāgārjuna's.
• विंशतिका · ViṃśatikāVasubandhu wrote twenty verses. What appears, he says, is cognition.
• तत्त्वार्थसूत्र · Tattvārtha SūtraThe sūtra sets the Jain path: right seeing, right knowing, and right conduct.
• चार्वाक · CārvākaThe school keeps perception, the four elements, and the good of this life.
• आजीविक · ĀjīvikaThe page reports niyati, the fixed course of a life, as the other schools tell it.

Pillar III. Itihāsa

The two epics. A hub names the books of the poem. The chronicles walk the story, fifty sittings each. The philosophical companions are the teachings the poems carry. The line-by-line shelf of the Gītā is already sat. The other companions are the map, until a line is sat.

• रामायण सारसंग्रह · Rāmāyaṇa chronicleThe chronicle takes fifty sittings through the seven kāṇḍas, from the crane to the Sarayū.
• महाभारत सारसंग्रह · Mahābhārata chronicleThe chronicle takes fifty sittings through the eighteen parvas, from the river vow to the last road.
• रामायण · RāmāyaṇaVālmīki's poem holds seven kāṇḍas, from Bāla to Uttara.
• योगवासिष्ठ · Yoga VāsiṣṭhaVasiṣṭha teaches Rāma. The book is a later composition in the Rāma frame, and it stands outside the seven kāṇḍas.
• ब्रह्मगीता · Brahma GītāThe crest of the Nirvāṇa prakaraṇa. The stories have done their work, and what remains is spoken in Brahmā's voice. A map.
• रामगीता · Rāma GītāThe close of the Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa. Rāma teaches Lakṣmaṇa. A neighbor of the Brahmāṇḍa, and a different poem from Vālmīki. A map.
• महाभारत · MahābhārataVyāsa's poem holds eighteen parvas.
• भगवद्गीता · Bhagvad GītāThe poem sits in the Bhīṣma-parva. It is the crown, and it holds eighteen chapters, one verse at a time.
• सनत्सुजातीय · SanatsujātīyaThe teaching sits in the Udyoga-parva. Sanatsujāta speaks on death in the vulgate chapters 41–46.
• मोक्षधर्म · MokṣadharmaThe teaching sits in the Śānti-parva. Bhīṣma speaks on liberation from the bed of arrows.
• व्याधगीता · Vyādha GītāThe teaching sits in the Vana-parva. A butcher of Mithilā teaches the brāhmaṇa Kauśika. A map.
• यक्षप्रश्न · The Yakṣa's questionsThe questions sit in the Vana-parva. Yudhiṣṭhira stands at the lake.
• विष्णुसहस्रनाम · Viṣṇu SahasranāmaThe hymn sits in the Anuśāsana-parva. It gives the thousand names in the vulgate chapter 149.
• अनुगीता · AnugītāThe discourse sits in the Āśvamedhika-parva. Arjuna has forgotten the Gītā, and Kṛṣṇa teaches again. A map.

Pillar IV. Purāṇa

A purāṇa is marked by five topics: sarga (सर्ग), creation; pratisarga (प्रतिसर्ग), the dissolution and the creation that follows; vaṃśa (वंश), the lineages; manvantara (मन्वन्तर), the ages of the Manus; vaṃśānucarita (वंशानुचरित), the deeds of those lines. The compendium profiles all eighteen Mahāpurāṇas. The Padma list's sattva, rajas, and tamas sorting is printed there as that book's ranking. Inside the Bhāgavata, the Catuḥślokī and the Uddhava Gītā are the summits opened past a profile. The other gītās named below are maps. A line is sat only where a line is already sat.

• अठार महापुराण · The eighteenThe page profiles each Mahāpurāṇa. The counts are the traditional round numbers. The guṇa list is the Padma Purāṇa's own ranking.
• भागवत · Bhāgavata PurāṇaThe purāṇa holds twelve skandhas. They carry cosmology, the avatāras, and bhakti.
• चतुःश्लोकी · CatuḥślokīThese are the four seed verses Brahmā heard. They are sat in full, with the words split.
• कपिलगीता · Kapila GītāThe third skandha. Kapila, son of Kardama and Devahūti, teaches his mother a Sāṅkhya joined to devotion. A map.
• वेणुगीता · Veṇu GītāBhāgavata 10.21, the song of the flute. Six of the twenty verses are sat on the music shelf. This page is the door.
• गोपीगीता · Gopī GītāBhāgavata 10.31. The gopīs sing to Kṛṣṇa after he has left the rāsa. The song is named. The dance is not staged.
• उद्धवगीता · Uddhava GītāThe talk sits in the eleventh skandha. It is Kṛṣṇa's last talk with Uddhava, and it includes the twenty-four teachers.
• हंसगीता · Haṃsa GītāBhāgavata 11.13, inside that talk. Viṣṇu as a swan teaches the four Kumāras that the mind binds and the mind frees.
• भिक्षुगीता · Bhikṣu GītāBhāgavata 11.23, still inside that talk. A brāhmaṇa of Avanti sings that the mind is the friend and the enemy.
• देवीमाहात्म्य · Devī MāhātmyaThe hymn sits inside the Mārkaṇḍeya, often printed as chapters 81–93. The refrain is sat. The seven hundred verses remain the profile.
• देवीगीता · Devī GītāThe Devī Bhāgavata, often printed as chapters 31–40 of the seventh skandha. The Goddess teaches Himālaya. A different book from the Māhātmya.
• विष्णुपुराण · Viṣṇu PurāṇaThe purāṇa holds six aṃśas. Parāśara teaches Maitreya. The five topics stay in a clean order.
• शिवपुराण · Śiva PurāṇaThe printed text holds seven saṃhitās. They move from the liṅga through the marriage to the doctrinal close.
• गुरुगीता · Guru GītāŚiva teaches Pārvatī about the teacher. It travels under the name of the Skanda Purāṇa. The page gives the claim, and no chant.
• ईश्वरगीता · Īśvara GītāIt opens the Uparibhāga of the Kūrma Purāṇa. Śiva teaches the sages. A map.
• शिवगीता · Śiva GītāIt travels with the Padma Purāṇa. Śiva teaches Rāma. A different book from the seven saṃhitās, and a different chair from the Rāma Gītā.
• गणेशगीता · Gaṇeśa GītāThe Krīḍā-khaṇḍa of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, an upapurāṇa. Gaṇeśa teaches King Vareṇya, in the Gītā's shape.