A_4_02 — The Norse Eddas: Cosmology, Ragnarök, and the World Tree

The Norse Eddas — the Poetic Edda (anonymous, compiled ~1270 CE from older oral sources) and the Prose Edda (written ~1220 CE by Snorri Sturluson) — preserve the most complete surviving mythology of the pre-Christian Ger

A_4_12 — Pali Canon (Tipitaka) — Earliest Buddhist Scriptures

The Pali Canon (Tipiṭaka, "Three Baskets") is the oldest complete collection of Buddhist scriptures, preserved in the Pali language by the Theravada tradition of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Transmitted orally for appro

A_4_00 — Asian Indigenous Eastern: Subfolder Summary

A_4_04 — The Kojiki: Japan's Record of Ancient Matters

The Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters"), completed in 712 CE, is the oldest surviving literary work in Japan and the primary source for Shinto mythology and the divine origin of the Japanese imperial line. Compiled by Ō

A_4_15 — Guru Granth Sahib as Primary Sacred Text

The Guru Granth Sahib (ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ) is the central sacred scripture and living spiritual authority ("eternal Guru") of Sikhism, compiled by the fifth Guru, Arjan Dev, in 1604 CE (the Adi Granth) and finalized by the

A_4_13 — Ramayana — India's Epic of Dharma, Exile, and Return

The Ramayana (रामायण, "Rama's Journey") is one of the two great Sanskrit epics of India, attributed to the poet Valmiki and composed in its earliest form during the 5th–4th century BCE, with later expansions through the

A_4_06 — Quranic Cosmology, Jinn, and Islamic Angelology

The Quran — Islam's primary sacred text (610–632 CE) — presents a rich cosmological framework that includes seven heavens and seven earths, a Throne of God (al-Arsh) upon the cosmic waters, a fully populated invisible re

A_4_08 — Bhagavata Purana — Naga and Avatar Sections

The Bhagavata Purana (also called Srimad Bhagavatam) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas ("Great Ancient Histories") of Hindu literature, composed in Sanskrit between approximately the 6th and 10th centuries CE. Its twelv

A_4_11 — Upanishads — Core Vedantic Philosophy

The Upanishads (उपनिषद्, "sitting near" a teacher) are the concluding philosophical sections of the Vedas and the foundational texts of Vedantic philosophy. Composed between approximately 800–200 BCE, the principal (mukh

A_4_03 — Popol Vuh: The Maya Book of Creation

The Popol Vuh ("Book of the Community" or "Book of Counsel") is the most important surviving mythological and historical text of the ancient Americas. A K'iche' Maya creation narrative, it was written down in the Latin a

A_4_17 — Aboriginal Australian Dreaming Narratives

The Dreaming (known by various language-specific names — Jukurrpa in Warlpiri, Tjukurpa in Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara, Wongar in Yolngu) is the central cosmological, legal, and ontological framework of Aboriginal Aus

A_4_10 — I Ching (Yijing) — The Classic of Changes

The I Ching (易經, Yìjīng, "Classic of Changes") is one of the oldest continuously used texts in human history, originating from Shang dynasty oracle bone divination (~1200 BCE) and formalized during the Western Zhou perio

A_4_07 — Tao Te Ching and Daoist Primary Texts

The Tao Te Ching (道德經, Daodejing) — attributed to Lao Tzu (Laozi, ~6th–4th century BCE) — is the foundational text of Daoist philosophy and one of the most translated works in human history. Its 81 brief chapters articul

A_4_01 — The Mahabharata: India's Epic of Cosmic War

The Mahabharata is the longest epic poem ever composed — at ~100,000 verses (1.8 million words), it is roughly 10 times the combined length of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Attributed to the sage Vyasa ("the compiler"), it

A_4_09 — Avestan Texts — Gathas, Vendidad, and Yasna

The Avesta is the primary scripture of Zoroastrianism, the religion founded by the prophet Zarathushtra (Greek: Zoroaster) in ancient Iran. The surviving Avesta — a fraction of a much larger corpus reportedly destroyed d

A_4_14 — Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas)

The Shan Hai Jing (山海經, "Classic of Mountains and Seas") is one of the most extraordinary texts of the ancient Chinese literary corpus — an encyclopedic compendium of mythological geography, zoology, mineralogy, and cosm

A_3_08 — Celtic Mythology and Druidic Tradition

Celtic mythology encompasses the religious narratives, cosmological concepts, and heroic legends of the Celtic-speaking peoples who dominated much of western and central Europe from the Hallstatt period (c. 800 BCE) thro

A_3_03 — Egyptian Book of the Dead and Funerary Literature

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Pert em Hru — "Coming Forth by Day") is a collection of ~200 magical spells, hymns, and instructions designed to guide the deceased through the Duat (underworld) and into eternal life in th

A_3_02 — The Egyptian Pyramid Texts: Oldest Religious Literature on Earth

The Pyramid Texts are the oldest substantial body of Egyptian funerary literature ever discovered and among the oldest substantial religious corpora of any civilization — inscribed on the interior walls of Old Kingdom py

A_3_14 — West African Oral Traditions

West African oral traditions constitute one of the world's richest and most extensively documented systems of non-written knowledge transmission. The griot (or djeli in Mande languages) tradition of the Manding, Wolof, F