Reading list
Indian classics to read in English
Three thousand years of Indian writing, in English, free. Some of these were written in English by Indians, like Gandhi's autobiography (translated from his Gujarati) or Tagore's own versions of his songs; others are the old Sanskrit and Tamil texts in the translations that first carried them abroad.
15 books, all free to read
They are ranked for a reader starting out: the short and essential first, then the stories, then the longer lives and arguments.
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1. The Song Celestial, or Bhagavad-Gita
by Edwin Arnold
Krishna's counsel to a warrior who will not fight, in Edwin Arnold's verse translation, the one Gandhi first read in London.
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2. The Upanishads
by Swami Paramananda
The oldest questions about the self, in short, clear passages. About two hours, and worth reading slowly.
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3. Gitanjali
by Rabindranath Tagore
The songs that won Tagore the Nobel Prize in 1913, in his own English. Each one fits on a single screen.
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4. The Story of My Experiments with Truth
by Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi tells his life up to 1921 as a series of experiments, failures included. Frank about the failures, and very readable.
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5. The Panchatantra
by Vishnu Sharma
Animal fables written to teach princes how to rule, nested inside each other. Wiser and funnier than Aesop.
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6. The Kural
by Thiruvalluvar
Thirteen hundred Tamil couplets on virtue, wealth and love. Two lines each, so perfect for a few minutes at a time.
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7. Vikram and the Vampire
by Richard F. Burton
A king carries a corpse that keeps telling him riddles. The Vetala tales, in Richard Burton's lively version.
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8. The Home and the World
by Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore's novel of the Swadeshi movement: a wife, her husband and the firebrand who comes between them.
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9. Autobiography of a Yogi
by Paramahansa Yogananda
A yogi's life from a Bengal childhood to California, full of saints and miracles. Steve Jobs re-read it every year.
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10. Indian Home Rule
by Mahatma Gandhi
Hind Swaraj: Gandhi's short, radical case against modern civilisation, written on a ship in ten days.
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11. Nationalism
by Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore's lectures of 1917 warning against nationalism, India's included. Short and still argued over.
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12. Sadhana, the Realisation of Life
by Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore's talks on the Upanishads and the spiritual life, given at Harvard. A gentle way into Indian philosophy.
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13. Gay-Neck
by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
A carrier pigeon in Calcutta and the Himalayas, which won the American Newbery Medal in 1928. A children's book adults enjoy.
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14. Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit
by S. M. Mitra
Old Sanskrit stories retold for English readers: kings, sages and clever animals in short tales.
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15. My Reminiscences
by Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore remembers his childhood in a great Calcutta house. Charming, and full of the city he grew up in.
Read it as a path: Indian classics in English
Three thousand years of India, from the Gita to Gandhi.
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Read them free
Every book on this list is free in Doomreader: open one and it reads as short posts you scroll, with your place kept and its best pages a tap away. You can listen to any of them free too, read aloud by your device.