Browse by language

Start with the language you think and pray in, not the language the scripture was first written in. A Hindi reader gets the Hanuman Chalisa in Devanagari with a Hindi explanation of every verse. An English reader gets the same verses with a transliteration and a plain-English meaning for each one. The original text is always on the page, so nobody loses the words that are actually recited.

Each card shows the language's own name first, in its own script, with the English name underneath, so you can find Bengali as বাংলা or Hebrew as עברית. Below the names are the faiths whose texts are read in that language. Type a language or a faith into the search box to narrow the list. Searching for Jewish, for example, shows only the languages that carry Jewish texts.

A card with a link has finished pages you can read today. A card without a link is a language we plan to cover. It's listed so you can see where the collection is going, and it becomes a link once its first full pages have been written and checked.

Languages and faiths travel together in particular ways. Hebrew is the language of Jewish scripture and prayer, so the Hebrew collection holds Jewish texts. Bengali is spoken by Hindus, Muslims, and Christians in Bengal, so those three faiths are listed under it. Punjabi, written in the Gurmukhi script, is the language of Sikh scripture, and Japanese covers Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian texts. Pairing every faith with every language would create pages that no community actually reads, like a Jewish prayer explained in Bengali.

So each faith has a short list of languages, chosen from where its communities live and worship, and each language shows only the faiths on those lists. English is the one language that appears under all ten faiths. It's the shared second language of many communities living far from where their tradition began, and it's the language most people use when they're learning about a tradition they weren't raised in.

Every page is a full article, never a bare list of links. A text page opens with the original verses in their own script, names the edition the verses were checked against, and gives the date its explanation was written. English pages add a transliteration so the verses can be read aloud by people who don't read the script.

Each verse or stanza has its own explanation, followed by an article on what the text is, who composed it, how it's traditionally recited, and what its key words mean. Common questions are answered at the end, and the sources are listed with links so you can check every line yourself.

The page for each faith in each language lists the texts available, explains how they fit together, and links only to other pages in the same language and faith. A Hindi reader stays in Hindi and isn't sent to an English page by accident. When the same text exists in another language, a small switch near the top of the page offers it.

The original wording comes first because it's what people actually recite. Sanskrit and Awadhi verses are shown in Devanagari, Bengali readers see the same verses in Bengali script, and Hebrew passages are set right to left as they appear in a printed Hebrew Bible.

Translations are quoted only when they're in the public domain, such as Ralph Griffith's nineteenth-century English Ramayana and the Jewish Publication Society's English Bible of 1917. We don't copy modern translations that are still under copyright, and we don't invent or paraphrase lines of scripture. When a text can't be checked line by line against a reliable edition, it isn't published until it can be. The explanations are original writing by Ethical Tube.

Reading is free, with no account, no sign-up, and nothing to install. The pages are plain articles that work on a phone, load quickly on a slow connection, and can be printed or shared with a link.

We don't collect donations. If we ever invite gifts in the future, giving will be voluntary, it won't unlock any text, and the Terms will say so before anyone gives. You can read the current Terms from the link at the bottom of every page.

This is the full plan for the collection. Each faith keeps its original language on every page, and its explanations are written in the languages below. Languages without finished pages are still listed here, so you can see what's coming.