The Oldest Books in India

The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.

The Vedas

The Upanishads are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hinduism.

Upanishads

The Ramayana is a smriti text from ancient India. The epic, ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya.

Ramayana

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Smriti texts and Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succession between two groups of princely cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas.

Mahabharata

The Arthashastra is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy. Kautilya, also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is traditionally credited as the author of the text.

Arthashastra

Puranas are a vast genre of Hindu literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends and other traditional lore. The Puranas are known for the intricate layers of symbolism depicted within their stories.

Puranas

The Charaka Samhita is a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda. It is one of the two foundational texts of this field that have survived from ancient India. It is one of the three works that constitute the Brhat Trayi.

Charaka Samhita

The Sushruta Samhita is an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery, and one of the most important such treatises on this subject to survive from the ancient world. 

Sushruta Samhita