A comprehensive, academically-structured Obsidian vault for the comparative study of world religions, their scriptures, history, philosophy, and interconnections.
This repository contains full public-domain scriptures alongside analytical notes, thematic groupings, and cross-referenced story/figure libraries — all in plain Markdown, designed for local study with Obsidian.
📊 368 scripture files across 16 directories, plus hundreds of analytical notes, figure profiles, story narratives, and thematic groupings. All plain Markdown — readable on GitHub, navigable in Obsidian.
Note: This vault is designed to be opened in Obsidian to render wiki-links (
[[link]]), transclusions (![[page]]), and the full navigation experience. The plain Markdown files remain readable on GitHub.
Complete, plain-text public-domain translations of major world scriptures:
| Tradition | Texts | Files |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity | Bible (KJV) — 66 books (Genesis → Revelation) | 67 |
| Judaism — Tanakh | Tanakh (JPS 1917) — 24 books in 39 files (Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim) | 40 |
| Judaism — Mishnah | Mishnah — 63 tractates (6 orders: Zeraim, Moed, Nashim, Nezikin, Kodashim, Tohorot) | 64 |
| Judaism — Talmud | Babylonian Talmud — 16 tractates (Soncino translation) | 17 |
| Judaism — Apocrypha | Deuterocanon / Apocrypha — 14 books (1 Esdras → 2 Maccabees) | 15 |
| Islam — Qur'an | Qur'an (Pickthall) — 114 surahs, 6,236 verses | 115 |
| Islam — Hadith | 9 major collections (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Malik, Ahmad, Darimi) — ~41,000 narrations | 10 |
| Hinduism | Mahabharata (4 vols.), Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads (Part I) | 9 |
| Buddhism | Dhammapada, Gospel of Buddha | 2 |
| Sikhism | Sri Guru Granth Sahib — 1,430 angs (15 parts) | 16 |
| Daoism | Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi (Writings of Chuang Tzu) | 3 |
| Confucianism | The Analects of Confucius | 1 |
| Latter Day Saints | Book of Mormon | 1 |
| Ancient Egypt | Egyptian Book of the Dead (Budge translation) | 1 |
| Mesopotamia | 7 texts: Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, Enki and Ninmah, Enki and the World Order, Inanna's Descent, Epic of Gilgamesh (12 tablets), Epic of Gilgamesh — Anunnaki Passages | 8 |
| Norse | Prose Edda (Younger Edda, Snorri Sturluson) | 1 |
| Total scripture files | 368 |
- Comparative Religion — side-by-side study of beliefs, practices, and worldviews across Abrahamic, Dharmic, East Asian, and Indigenous traditions
- Philosophy & Theology — philosophy of religion, epistemology, arguments for/against God, problem of evil, ethics
- History of Religions — from prehistoric religion through the Axial Age to modernity, with tradition-specific deep-dives
- Sacred Texts & Connections — intertextual links, shared figures, and evidence-based cross-scripture comparisons
Systematic thematic organization across major traditions:
- Quran — 32 thematic groups connecting all 114 surahs
- Hadith — 32 thematic groups across 9 canonical collections
- Bible — thematic groups across Old & New Testaments
- Hindu Scriptures — 28 groups across Vedas, Upaniṣads, Itihāsa, Purāṇas
- Buddhist Scriptures — 25 groups across Pāli Canon, Mahāyāna sūtras, Vajrayāna tantras
- Jain Scriptures — 21 groups across Āgamas and post-canonical classics
- Sikh Scriptures — 20 groups across Guru Granth Sāhib, Dasam Granth, and Janam Sākhī traditions
Interlinked narrative and biographical notes:
- Islamic — 23 story notes, 20+ figures (prophets, companions)
- Biblical — 28 story notes, 20+ figures (Old & New Testament)
- Hindu — 20 story notes, 20+ figures (deities, epics, sages)
- Buddhist — 16+ story notes, 16+ figures
- Jain — 12 story notes, 12+ figures
- Sikh — 12 story notes, 12+ figures
- Mesopotamian — 8 story notes, 12+ figures (pantheon deities, epic heroes)
.
├── religion-study/ # Analytical notes (Map of Content hub)
│ ├── Religion Study MOC.md # 🏠 Start here
│ ├── comparative/ # Comparative religion notes (Abrahamic, Dharmic, East Asian, World Religions Overview)
│ ├── concepts/ # Cross-tradition concept notes (200+ files across Jewish, Zoroastrian, Daoist, Confucian, Sikh concepts)
│ ├── connections/ # Cross-scripture connections & shared figures
│ ├── figures/ # Figure MOCs + individual figures (Biblical, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Confucian, Daoist, Jewish, Mesopotamian)
│ ├── history/ # Historical surveys (Jewish history, Mughal Empire, History of Religions MOC)
│ ├── islamic-concepts/ # Islamic theological concepts
│ ├── philosophy-theology/ # Philosophy & theology notes (Problem of Hell, etc.)
│ ├── scriptures/ # Scripture-specific study notes (Tafsir, Asbab al-Nuzul, Hadith-Qur'an connections)
│ ├── stories/ # Story MOCs + individual stories (Biblical, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Jewish, Confucian, Daoist, Zoroastrian, Mesopotamian)
│ └── texts/ # Text-specific analytical notes
├── scriptures/ # Full scripture texts (368 files)
│ ├── Scriptures Library.md # 📚 Scripture index (start here)
│ ├── quran/ # Qur'an (Pickthall) — 114 surahs + index
│ ├── bible-kjv/ # King James Version — 66 books + index
│ ├── bible-apocrypha/ # Deuterocanon / Apocrypha — 14 books + index
│ ├── tanakh-jps1917/ # Hebrew Bible (JPS 1917) — 39 files + index
│ ├── judaism-mishnah/ # Mishnah — 63 tractates + index
│ ├── judaism-talmud/ # Babylonian Talmud (Soncino) — 16 tractates + index
│ ├── islam-hadith/ # 9 Hadith collections + index
│ ├── dharmic/ # Hindu texts (Mahabharata 4 vols., Ramayana, Gita, Upanishads)
│ ├── sikhism/ # Sri Guru Granth Sahib — 1,430 angs in 15 parts + index
│ ├── east-asian/ # Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi, Analects of Confucius
│ ├── ancient-egypt/ # Egyptian Book of the Dead (Budge)
│ ├── mesopotamian/ # 7 texts: Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, Enki and Ninmah, Enki and the World Order, Inanna's Descent, Epic of Gilgamesh (12 tablets), Anunnaki Passages
│ ├── norse/ # Prose Edda (Younger Edda)
│ └── latter-day-saints/ # Book of Mormon
└── README.md # This file
- Clone the repo and open the folder as an Obsidian vault.
- Start at [[religion-study/Religion Study MOC]] — the Map of Content hub.
- Browse the [[scriptures/Scriptures Library]] to read full texts.
- Use Obsidian's graph view to explore cross-links between figures, stories, and themes.
- Global-search any verse or concept — every text is plain Markdown.
- Navigate the folder tree directly — files are plain Markdown.
- Wiki-links (
[[link]]) will not render; use them as reference to the file paths.
All scripture texts are public domain or openly licensed, sourced from Project Gutenberg, Sacred-Texts.com, Sefaria, and similar repositories.
| Text | Translation | License |
|---|---|---|
| Bible (KJV) | King James Version | Public domain |
| Apocrypha | King James Version | Public domain |
| Tanakh (JPS 1917) | Jewish Publication Society | Public domain |
| Mishnah | William Davidson Edition | CC-BY-NC |
| Babylonian Talmud | Soncino Press | Public domain |
| Qur'an | Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall | Public domain |
| Hadith (9 collections) | Open Hadith / Sunnah.com | Various open licenses |
| Mahabharata (4 vols.) | Kisari Mohan Ganguli | Public domain |
| Ramayana | Ralph T. H. Griffith | Public domain |
| Bhagavad Gita | Sir Edwin Arnold | Public domain |
| Upanishads (Part I) | F. Max Müller | Public domain |
| Dhammapada | F. Max Müller | Public domain |
| Gospel of Buddha | Paul Carus | Public domain |
| Sri Guru Granth Sahib | Sant Singh Khalsa | Openly licensed |
| Tao Te Ching | James Legge | Public domain |
| Zhuangzi (Writings of Chuang Tzu) | James Legge | Public domain |
| The Analects of Confucius | James Legge | Public domain |
| Book of Mormon | 1830 original text | Public domain |
| Egyptian Book of the Dead | E. A. Wallis Budge | Public domain |
| Enuma Elish | L. W. King (1902) / various | Public domain |
| Atrahasis Epic | W. G. Lambert & A. R. Millard (1999) | Fair use / scholarly |
| Enki and Ninmah | ETCSL / public domain translations | Public domain |
| Enki and the World Order | ETCSL / public domain translations | Public domain |
| Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld | ETCSL / public domain translations | Public domain |
| Epic of Gilgamesh (12 tablets) | R. Campbell Thompson (1928) | Public domain |
| Prose Edda (Younger Edda) | Snorri Sturluson (trans. Arthur G. Brodeur) | Public domain |
See [[scriptures/Scriptures Library]] for detailed sourcing notes.
This project takes an academic religious studies approach — describing and analyzing traditions rather than adjudicating truth claims. Key disciplinary lenses include history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and textual/philological study.
Foundational scholars engaged: Eliade (sacred/profane), Durkheim (religion as social), Weber (religion & economy), James (religious experience), Jaspers (Axial Age), Wilfred Cantwell Smith (concept of religion).
Texts that may be added in future:
- Full Vedas (Rig, Sama, Yajur, Atharva)
- Additional Upanishads
- Jerusalem Talmud
- Buddhist Tripitaka / key Mahāyāna sūtras (Lotus, Diamond, Heart)
- Jaina Sutras
- Zend-Avesta (Zoroastrian)
- I Ching, Kojiki (Shinto)
- Bahá'í scriptures
- Greek and Roman religious texts
Created for structured, self-directed study of the world's religious traditions. Contributions, corrections, and additions are welcome — open an issue or submit a PR.
Maintainer: @tonmoy007