The Devomsa Knowledge Hub
The stories behind the shrines
A plain-language library of the scriptures, epics and hymns that temple tradition draws upon.
Shruti
11 entries“That which was heard” — the four Vedas and the Upanishads.
The Vedas 5
The Four Vedas
Veda means knowledge, and the four Vedas are counted as shruti — that which was heard by the rishis rather than composed by them.
Read →Rigveda
The Rigveda gathers its hymns into ten mandalas, of which the family books are attributed to particular rishi lineages.
Read →Yajurveda
The Yajurveda carries the formulas spoken by the priest during yajna, so its verses are arranged for use in the rite rather than for recitation alone.
Read →Samaveda
The Samaveda sets its verses to melody, and the saman is the sung form in which they are offered.
Read →Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda takes its name from the Rishi Atharvan and turns toward the life close at hand — healing, the household, and the ordering of daily things.
Read →The Upanishads 6
The Upanishads
Upanishad carries the sense of sitting near a teacher, and these texts turn from the rite toward the questions behind it — what the self is, and what it is that does not change.
Read →Isha Upanishad
The Isha Upanishad belongs to the Shukla Yajurveda and runs to eighteen verses.
Read →Katha Upanishad
The Katha Upanishad tells of the boy Nachiketa, who comes to the house of Yama and asks what remains when a person dies.
Read →Mandukya Upanishad
The Mandukya Upanishad is set out in twelve verses and takes the syllable Om as its subject.
Read →Chandogya Upanishad
The Chandogya Upanishad belongs to the Samaveda, and in it Rishi Uddalaka instructs his son Shvetaketu through images drawn from ordinary things — a seed opened, salt dissolved in water — each returning to the same recognition.
Read →Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad belongs to the Shukla Yajurveda and is attached to the Shatapatha Brahmana.
Read →Itihasa & Gita
4 entriesThe Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Ramcharitmanas.
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is set within the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, in the moment before battle when Arjuna sets down his bow.
Read →Valmiki Ramayana
The Ramayana of Sage Valmiki is arranged in seven kandas and follows Rama from Ayodhya through the years of exile, the search for Sita, and the return.
Read →Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is attributed to Sage Veda Vyasa and is set out in eighteen parvas, following the Kuru lineage to the field of Kurukshetra and past it.
Read →Ramcharitmanas
Goswami Tulsidas composed the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi, setting the account of Rama into doha and chaupai so that it could be sung and heard rather than only read.
Read →Purana
6 entriesThe Puranas and the Devi Mahatmya.
The Puranas
The Puranas hold the accounts of creation and dissolution, of lineages divine and royal, and of the deeds by which the deities are known.
Read →Bhagavata Purana
The Bhagavata Purana is arranged in twelve skandhas and turns throughout toward bhakti as the path.
Read →Devi Mahatmya
The Devi Mahatmya sits within the Markandeya Purana and runs to seven hundred verses, which is why it is also called the Durga Saptashati.
Read →Shiva Purana
The Shiva Purana is counted among the Shaiva Mahapuranas and is arranged in samhitas, opening with the Vidyeshvara Samhita on the worship of the linga.
Read →Vishnu Purana
The Vishnu Purana is arranged in six amshas and is often cited as the clearest instance of the pancha-lakshana, the five marks by which a Purana is described.
Read →Skanda Purana
The Skanda Purana is told in khandas, each given over to a region and its sacred places, and takes its name from Skanda, known also as Kartikeya and as Murugan.
Read →Stotra & Bhakti
4 entriesHymns of praise and devotion.
Shiva Mahimna Stotra
The Shiva Mahimna Stotra runs to forty-three verses in praise of Shiva, and tradition holds that Pushpadanta composed it.
Read →Nalayira Divya Prabandham
The Nalayira Divya Prabandham gathers four thousand pasurams composed by the twelve Alvars in Tamil.
Read →Navagraha Stotra
The Navagraha Stotra addresses the nine grahas in turn — Surya, Chandra, Mangala, Budha, Guru, Shukra, Shani, Rahu, and Ketu — with a verse given to each.
Read →Hanuman Chalisa
The Hanuman Chalisa was composed by Goswami Tulsidas in Awadhi and takes its name from its forty chaupais, which are framed by two dohas at the opening and one at the close — forty-three verses in all.
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