The Hindu religion is likely the oldest religion still practiced today. It’s mythology is vast and full of exciting stories, and the sheer amount of literature is staggaring. This is the Hindu Mythology, Literature, and Sacred Text timeline.
What’s on the Hindu Mythology and Literature timeline?
The amount of Hindu literature is absolutely massive, so this is not a comprehensive timeline. There are certain categories that are perhaps more important, and we’ve tried to include those here. However, there is much that we’ve missed. If there’s a specific text or adaptation that is important to you, please reach out to us and let us know so we can add it to this timeline. Primarily, this timeline includes the following:
- Primary sacred texts such as the Vedas.
- Various ancient texts that are important sources of Hindu mythology, such as the Puranas and Epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
- Various hymns, sutras, and philosophical texts.
- Adaptations of various mythological stories. There are literally thousands of modern stories that adapt or are inspired by Hindu mythology and religion, especially thanks to Bollywood. It’s impossible to list it all here. I’ve included several key adaptations of the more popular texts, but if there’s something you would recommend that is missing, please let us know and we’ll add it.
We hope you enjoy this Hindu mythology, literature, and sacred text timeline. If you do, you might enjoy some of our other mythology timelines. Thanks for stopping by!
A note on sorting dates: For complicated sorting reasons, I’ve had to list dates that exist before the common era (BCE) in a unique fashion. I’ve added “00-” to the front, then subtracted the BCE date from 5000. So 1000 BCE would actually be listed as 00-4000. This may seem unnecessarily complicated, but it was the only way I could sort it in the proper order. The BCE dates are listed in the normal way if you click on the item.