Reading Sanskrit texts

Every text has a reader at /text/[slug]. The reader is built for comparing scripts, moving through a work’s native structure, and opening lexical context without leaving the passage.

Script display

Use the three display buttons to choose the presentation that suits your task:

• Devanāgarī shows only the Sanskrit script.
• IAST shows transliteration only.
• Both keeps the two readings together for comparison.

These controls change presentation, not the underlying text or analysis.

References and navigation

The reference menus follow each work’s own structure. A Yoga Sūtra selection is organised by pāda and sūtra; a Ṛgveda selection by maṇḍala, sūkta, and ṛc; other works use the levels available in their source data.

Choose a value in the first menu before choosing the next. The later menu is narrowed to entries genuinely available beneath that selection. Choosing the final level opens the containing page and scrolls directly to the requested passage.

Page size

The final menu in the navigator chooses 20, 50, or 100 verses/page. A larger page is useful for continuous reading; a smaller page makes close work and word selection lighter. The current size remains in the address while you use next, previous, and passage navigation.

Verse references

Verse labels use the source text’s reference rather than an artificial running number. Prefixes that merely identify a corpus edition are removed where they would be redundant. Some editions contain sub-passages or source-specific subdivisions; those are preserved when they identify a real location.

Selecting words

Click a word, or focus it with the keyboard and press Enter or Space, to open it in the word lens. The selected word remains highlighted in the visible passage. Selecting another word simply replaces the lens content.

When a token is an unresolved compound, the lens first shows its available resolved components. Choose a component to open that component’s own entry.