The Sacred Books of the East is an enormous  project undertaken by Max Müller and various authors from 1879 and 1910. The groups work was published by Oxford University Press and to this day many of the translations are the only ones existing or the most precise. It is not possible to buy the complete set of these works, but Google Books and Microsoft has done an effort to scan them all from library sources, since they are now in the Public Domain. Please keep in mind that these volumes are huge, some of the files are more than 50 MB and has up to 3.000 pages.

Download them here as PDF-files:

1. The Upanishads, Part 1 of 2. Chandogya Upanishad. Talavakara (Kena) Upanishad. Aitareya Upanishad. Kausitaki Upanishad. Vajasaneyi (Isa) Upanishad.

2. The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, vol. 1 of 2. The sacred laws of the Aryas as taught in the school of Apastamba, Gautama, Vâsishtha, and Baudhâyana. pt. I. Apastamba and Gautama. (The Dharma Sutras).

3. The Sacred Books of China, vol. 1 of 6. Part I of The Texts of Confucianism. The Shû king (Classic of History). The religions portions of the Shih king (Classic of Poetry). The Hsiâo king (Xiao Jing).

4. The Zend-Avesta, vol. 1 of 3. The Vendîdâd.

5. Pahlavi Texts, vol. 1 of 5. The Bundahis, Bahman Yast, and Shayast La-Shayast.

6. The Qur’an, vol. 1 of 2.

7. The Institutes of Visnu.

8. The Bhagavadgita With the Sanatsugâtiya and the Anugitâ.

9. The Qur’an, vol. 2 of 2.

10. The Dhammapada and The Sutta-Nipâta, a collection of discourses; being one of the canonical books of the Buddhists, translated from Pāli; and The Dhammapada, a collection of verses, translated from Pāli.

11. Buddhist Suttas. The Mahâ-parinibbâna Suttanta, The Dhamma-kakka-ppavattana Sutta, The Tevigga Sutta’anta, The Âkankheyya Sutta’a, The Ketokhila Sutta’a, The Mahâ-Sudassana Sutta’anta, The Sabbâsava Sutta’a.

12. The Satapatha Brahmana according to the text of the Mâdhyandina school, vol. 1 of 5.

13. Vinaya Texts, vol. 1 of 3. The Patimokkha. The Mahavagga, I-IV.

14. The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, vol. 2 of 2. The sacred laws of the Aryas as taught in the school of Apastamba, Gautama, Vâsishtha, and Baudhâyana. pt. II. Vâsishtha and Baudhâyana.

15. The Upanishads, part 2 of 2. Katha Upanishad. Mundaka Upanishad. Taittiriya Upanishad. Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. Svetasvatara Upanishad. Prasña Upanishad. Maitrayani Upanishad.

16. The Sacred Books of China, vol. 2 of 6. Part II of The Texts of Confucianism. The Yi King: (I Ching).

17. Vinaya Texts, vol. 2 of 3. The Mahavagga, V-X, the Kullavagga I-II.

18. Pahlavi Texts, vol. 2 of 5. The Dâdistân-î Dinik and the Epistles of Mânûskîhar.

19. The Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king, a life of Buddha, by Ashvaghosha, Bodhisattva; translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Dharmaraksha, A. D. 420.

20. Vinaya Texts, vol. 3 of 3. The Kullavagga, IV-XII.

21. The Saddharma-Pundarika or The Lotus of the True Law.

22. Jaina Sûtras, vol. 1 of 2, translated from the Prâkrit. The Âkârânga sûtra. The Kalpa sûtra.

23. The Zend-Avesta, vol. 2 of 3. The Sîrôzahs, Yasts, and Nyâyis.

24. Pahlavi Texts, vol. 3 of 5. Dinai Mainög-i khirad, Sikand-Gümanik Vigar, Sad Dar.

25. The Laws of Manu. Translated, with extracts from seven commentaries.

26. The Satapatha Brahmana according to the text of the Mâdhyandina school, vol. 2 of 5, Books III-IV

27. The Sacred Books of China, vol. 3 of 6. Part III of the texts of Confucianism. The Lî Kî (Book of Rites), part 1 of 2.

28. The Sacred Books of China, vol. 4 of 6. Part IV of the texts of Confucianism. The Lî Kî (Book of Rites), part 2 of 2.

29. The Grihya-sutras; rules of Vedic domestic ceremonies. vol. 1 of 2. Sankhyayana-Grihya-sutra. Asvalayana-Grihya-sutra. Paraskara-Grihya-sutra. Khadia-Grihya-sutra.

30. The Grihya-sutras; rules of Vedic domestic ceremonies. vol. 2 of 2. Gobhila, Hiranyakesin, Apastamba (Olderberg); Yajña Paribhashasutras (Müller).

31. The Zend-Avesta, vol. 3 of 3. The Yasna, Visparad, Afrînagân, Gâhs, and miscellaneous fragments.

32. Vedic Hymns, vol. 1 of 2. Hymns to the Maruts, Rudra, Vâyu, and Vâta., with a bibliographical list of the more important publications on the Rig-veda.

33. The Minor Law-Books: Brihaspati. (Part 1 of 1).

34. The Vedanta-Sutras, vol. 1 of 3. Commentary by Sankaracharya, part 1 of 2. Adhyâya I-II (Pâda I-II).

35. The Questions of King Milinda, vol. 1 of 2. Milindapañha.

36. The Questions of King Milinda, vol. 2 of 2. Milindapañha.

37. Pahlavi Texts, vol. 4 of 5. Contents of the Nasks.

38. The Vedanta-Sutras, vol. 2 of 3, commentary by Sankaracharya, part 1 of 2. Adhyâya II (Pâda III-IV) -IV.

39. The Texts of Taoism, Part 1 of 2. The Sacred Books of China, vol. 5 of 6. Also: The Tâo the king (Tao te Ching): The writings of Kwang-tze, books I-XVII.

40. The Texts of Taoism, Part 2 of 2. Includes The Writings of Kwang Tse, books XVII-XXXIII, The Thâi-shang tractate of actions and their retributions, other Taoist texts, and the Index to vols. 39 and 40.

41. The Satapatha Brahmana according to the text of the Mâdhyandina school, vol. 3 of 5. Books V, VI, VII.

42. Hymns of the Atharvaveda, Together With Extracts From the Ritual Books and the Commentaries.

43. The Satapatha Brahmana according to the text of the Mâdhyandina school, vol. 4 of 5, Books VII, IX, X.

44. The Satapatha Brahmana according to the text of the Mâdhyandina school, vol. 5 of 5, Books XI, XII, XIII, XIV.

45. Jaina Sûtras, vol. 2 of 2, translated from Prâkrit. The Uttarâdhyayana Sûtra, The Sûtrakritânga Sûtra.

46. Vedic Hymns, vol. 2 of 2. Hymns to Agni (Mandalas I-V).

47. Pahlavi Texts, vol. 5 of 5. Marvels of Zoroastrianism.

48. The Vedanta-Sutras, vol. 3 of 3, with the commentary of Râmânuja.

49. Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts. Part 1. The Buddha-karita of Asvaghosha, translated from the Sanskrit by E. B. Cowell. Part 2. The larger Sukhâvatî-vyûha, the smaller Sukhâvatî-vyûha, the Vagrakkedikâ, the larger Pragñâ-pâramitâ-hridaya-sûtra, the smaller Pragñâ-pâramitâ-hridaya-sûtra, translated by F. Max Müller. The Amitâyur dhyâna-sûtra, translated by J. Takakusu.

50. General index to the names and subject-matter of the sacred books of the East.

15 Responses to “The Sacred Books of the East – all 50 volumes”

1. james
   January 3rd, 2012 @ 12:44 am

   great job I love your work thanks
   the link number 39 doesn’t work is the some as the number 40.bye

2. admin
   January 3rd, 2012 @ 11:36 am

   Thanks James, I will fix that.
   Admin

3. William Benton
   January 3rd, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

   Thanks much for the Sacred Books of the East. Been wanting them for some time. Just to let you know; Vol’s 10, 13, 15, 38, 41 and 42 are missing the pdf extension and don’t download properly.

   Thanks for all your work!
   William

4. admin
   January 3rd, 2012 @ 6:12 pm

   Thanks, all issues have been corrected.

   Admin

5. AVD
   January 10th, 2012 @ 6:08 pm

   The file linked to Vol 2 is incorrect (The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, vol. 1 of 2. The sacred laws of the Aryas as taught in the school of Apastamba, Gautama, Vâsishtha, and Baudhâyana. pt. I. Apastamba and Gautama. (The Dharma Sutras)). Can you kindly correct this link?

6. Russell
   January 11th, 2012 @ 8:13 am

   i just have to say that this website is the best page on the whole internet. if only all books were public domain, this site would be the ultimate library. still, if everyone could know of this site, and study these texts as i do, there would be no wars. just eternal peace. and i thank you for incorporating all religions into your page, for those of us who do not have one religion, but instead have them all. keep up the great work, and ill keep trying to download them all. btw, it would be easier for people like me, if you had a bulk download option, so we can download all books of a certain religion, or for me, i can DL them all.

7. admin
   January 11th, 2012 @ 4:34 pm

   Thanks for you comment Russel, I agree with you.
   I could create zip-files with entire parts of the library, but there would be two disadvantages: The site would loose visitors, if everything could be downloaded at once. I like people to stop by every now and then and also check out new books. Another thing is that the server could not handle it if many huge zip-files where downloade at the same time.
   If each book is downloaded people will also read about the book, and thereby have a better chance of downloading the book that is just right.
   I think most people here only download one book at the time, because they know they always can come back for more.

   Admin

8. Geodesic
   January 12th, 2012 @ 9:42 pm

   Great work. Can Understand that juggling 50 books can be difficult. FYI
   Vol 2 actually links to Vol 4
   Vol 3 actually links to Vol 10

   The rest check out. I ran my copies through Adobe Acrobat’s OCR to make them searchable. Triples the size, but much more useful.

9. William
   January 14th, 2012 @ 4:28 am

   Hello,
   There does seem to be some confusion here, or am I mistaken? The link to Vol. 2 does not appear to contain the Dharma Sutras as described, but instead contains Vol. 1 of the Zend-Avesta, which is repeated again in link 4, -which also seems to contain the Pahlavi texts of link 5! Am I not reading carefully enough or does this need sorting out?

   William

10. Geodesic
    January 14th, 2012 @ 10:52 pm

    My last comments were never posted, but I have decided to continue explaining how to make this complex 50 set perfect.

    The problem lies with the first 3 volumes which erroneously linked several volumes together. I have verified that the other 47 are fine. Thus the current…

    vol 1 consists of vol 1 (pg 1) & vol 3 (pg 832).

    vol 2 consists of vol 4 (pg 1), vol 5 (pg 506), vol 7 (pg 1031), vol 8 (pg 1841), & vol 9 (pg 2320).

    vol 3 consists of vol 10 (pg 1), vol 11 (pg 409), vol 12 (pg 784), vol 13 (pg 1299), vol 14 (pg 1712), & vol 2 (pg 2133)

    (The discrepancies were easy to find when I OCR’d the texts, and the beauty was finding that mysteriously vol 2 WAS included at the end of the current vol 3).

    So I simply extracted 3 from 1, and 2 from 3, and I now have a complete set based on the material already provided.

    Thanks again for your work. These are a noble and fantastic addition to our collective knowledge and practice.

11. admin
    January 15th, 2012 @ 11:29 pm

    Thanks Geodesic, I will see if I can rearrange the books. If not, your post will be the official guide :-)

    Admin

12. Harshit Shrivastava
    January 21st, 2012 @ 7:28 am

    Well I have also downloaded the complete set and I found that vol.1-vol.3 is there in the first link, the second link is having vol.4-vol.9 and the third is having vol.10-vol.15. The rest links are fine!

13. Geodesic
    January 28th, 2012 @ 7:42 pm

    Thank you, Harshit.
    I had to r’dload #3 and didn’t find Vol.2! Perhaps I am mad! However, since this public domain series is so important, I did find another pdf copy of Sacred Books Vol.2 (bundled with vol 14 which is part 2) at the Internet Archive site: . Hope that helps.

14. Harshit Shrivastava
    February 4th, 2012 @ 9:38 am

    Thanks Geodesic, for the information that these books are also available at archive. But, there is no need to go there! In my previous comment, I mentioned about the volumes in the first three links. I am now going in detail, so that no confusion can take place.

    First link:

    Vol. 1: (pg 1)
    Vol. 2: (pg 440)
    Vol. 3: (pg 832)

    Second link:

    Vol. 4: (pg 1)
    Vol. 5: (pg 506)
    Vol. 6: (pg 1031)
    Vol. 7: (pg 1432)
    Vol. 8: (pg 1841)
    Vol. 9: (pg 2320)

    Third Link:

    Vol. 10: (pg 1)
    Vol. 11: (pg 409)
    Vol. 12: (pg 784)
    Vol. 13: (pg 1299)
    Vol. 14: (pg 1712)
    Vol. 15: (pg 2133)

    So, first fifteen volumes are present in these three links. Rest links are fine.

15. ATUL
    February 11th, 2012 @ 5:27 pm

    Finest work done in scholer-world!!!

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