There is no complete contemporary English translation of the Veda. A good one is still the nineteenth-century translation by Ralph T. H. Griffith available online here: www.sacred-texts.com/hin.

This is a good recent translation, but out of print at the time of writing:

Nooten, Barend A. and Gary B. Holland, eds. Rig Veda: A Metrically Restored Text with an Introduction and Notes. Harvard University Press, 1994 (ISBN: 0-674-76971-6).

An easily available but often criticized contemporary translation of a small part of the Rig Veda—the oldest and most important Veda—is:

Doniger, Wendy, trans. The Rig Veda: an Anthology: One Hundred and Eight Hymns, Selected, Translated and Annotated. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1981 (ISBN: 0-14-044402-5).

The Upanisads are important philosophical texts. Each vedic school had its own Upanisads. The “principal” Upanisads are among the earliest Hindu sources. Here is one current and respected translation of the principal Upanisads:

Olivelle, Patrick, trans. Upanisads. Oxford World’s Classics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996 (ISBN: 0-19-282292-6).

The Mahābhārata is an epic poem about the Kurukshetra War, an ancient war fought in Kuru, an early state in what is now India. There is a complete translation, in nine volumes translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt, but it isn’t readily available in the United States, though a number of American research libraries have copies. However, there are partial editions that are more readily available and would be more suitable for study. First, there is an ongoing translation of the complete text with introductions and notes from the University of Chicago Press, begun by J. A. B. van Buitenen and continued by his student James L. Fitzgerald after Buitenen’s death:

• van Buitenen, J. A. B., trans. and ed. The Mahābhārata. 3 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973–1978. (ISBN: 0-226-84648-2).
• Fitzgerald, James L., trans. The Mahābhārata, Volume 7. Book 11, The Book of the Women, Book 12, The Book of Peace, Part One. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. (ISBN: 0-226-84648-2).

There is also a recent abridged translation that would probably be the best for smaller libraries:

• Smith, John D., trans. The Mahābhārata: An Abridged Translation. London: Penguin, 2009. (ISBN: 978-0-14-044681-4).

Most readers might prefer to start with this popular subsection of the Mahābhārata. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the better known Hindu texts in the English-speaking world and is available in many translations. Two contemporary and easily available translations are:

• Johnson, W. J., trans. The Bhagavad Gita. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (ISBN: 978-0-19-953812-6).
• Patton, Laurie L., trans. The Bhagavad Gita. London: Penguin, 2008. (ISBN: 978-0-14-044790-3).

The Rāmāyana is an epic poem concerning the Vishnu avatar Rama and his struggle to rescue his wife from the demon king Ravana. The texts include different recensions, with the most important being the southern recensions, available in a translation from the Gita Press:

• Vālmīki. Śrīmad Vālmīki-Rāmāyana. 3 vols. Gorakhpur, India: Gita Press, 1969. (ISBN: 812930029X).

An abridged translation is:

• Narayan, R. K., trans. The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. Penguin Classics, 2006. (ISBN: 0-14-303967-9).

Very roughly translated, dharma is the overall balance of the cosmos. There are many dharmaśāstras, with the Laws of Manu being considered the oldest. Several recent and well received translations of the dharmasūtras and two of the dharmaśāstras by Patrick Olivelle of the University of Texas are available:

• Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Dharmasutras: The Law Codes of Ancient India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. (ISBN: 0-19-955537-0).
• Olivelle, Patrick, trans. and ed. Manu’s Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. (ISBN: 0-19-517146-2).
• Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Law Code of Viṣṇu: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Vaiṣṇava-Dharmaśāstra. Harvard Oriental Series, 73. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. (ISBN: 0-674-05139-4).

These inexpensive anthologies provide a sampling of Buddhist texts from various traditions:

• Lopez, Donald S., ed. Buddhism in Practice (Abridged Edition). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. (ISBN: 0-691-12968-1).
• Lopez, Donald S., ed. Buddhist Scriptures. London: Penguin, 2004. (ISBN: 014044758X).
• Strong, John, ed. The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. (ISBN: 0-495-09486-2).

The easiest way to build a large standard collection of the Pali Tipitaka is to purchase the Pāli Canon in English Translation set published by the Pali Text Society, which has been publishing English translations of Pali texts since its founding in 1881 (www.palitext.com/palitext/tipitaka.htm). The standard set for non-members of the society consists of 43 books covering an extensive range of the canon. It is expensive (approximately $1,700 at the moment of writing), but if affordable provides a solid foundation to a major Buddhist canon. The list of titles in this set includes:

• The Book of Analysis
• The Book of Discipline 6 vol. set
• The Book of Gradual Sayings 5 vol. set
• The Book of Kindred Sayings 5 vol. set
• Buddhist Psychological Ethics
• Conditional Relations 2 vol. set
• Designation of Human Types
• Discourse on Elements
• Dialogues of the Buddha 3 vol. set
• Elder’s Verses 2 vol. set
• Group of Discourses, 2nd Edition
• The Itivuttaka
• Jātaka or Stories of the Buddha’s former Births vol. set
• Middle Length Sayings vol. set
• Minor Anthologies, Vol. III
• Minor Readings and the Illustrator of the Ultimate Meaning
• The Path of Discrimination
• Peta Stories
• Points of Controversy
• Udāna
• Vimāna Stories
• Word of the Doctrine

These volumes can sometimes be purchased separately, and some individual volumes are included in the list below.

Another less expensive approach is to select representative translations from the five main collections (or nikayas) of the Sutta Pitaka. The divisions include long discourses of the Buddha, mid-length discourses, shorter connected discourses linked thematically, shorter texts arranged by the number of items within them, and miscellaneous texts. Below are suggested translations within each category that are both good translations and readily available, including texts from outside the Pali Canon set.

The Mahayana literature is extensive and exists in several different languages. Instead of by nikaya, the selections below are organized by some common genres and traditions of Mahayana Buddhist literature. Perfection of Wisdom literature is central to Mahayana Buddhism; forest vocation literature concerns seclusion in the forest to achieve enlightenment; in Change of Sex sutras, a young woman arguing with a male bodhisattva changes sex to make her points; Pure Land, Lotus, and Zen are popular Japanese variations of Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is another important tradition.

Compared to Hinduism and Buddhism, the number of sacred texts associated with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is small and could be condensed to one book for each religion, though I discuss more. The canonical Jewish bible is known as the Tanakh, which corresponds roughly with the Christian Old Testament. It consists of three parts: the Torah (“teaching”) or the Written Law, traditionally handed down from God to Moses on Mount Sinai; the Nevi’im (“prophets”), consisting of the writings of prophets inspired by God; and the Ketuvim (“writings”), consisting of several poetical and wisdom books. There are two good recent translations of the Tanakh into English, both authoritative and relatively inexpensive.

The Jewish Study Bible. Jewish Publication Society Tanakh translation. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. (ISBN: 0-8276-0366-5).

A standard study Bible with commentary.

The Koren Tanakh, New Edition of the Koren Jerusalem Bible. Bilingual. Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2010. (ISBN: 965-301-151-0).

A bilingual edition with Hebrew and English on facing pages.

The Torah is the Written Law of Judaism, but traditionally the written law cannot be fully understood without the accompanying Oral Law, which was also passed to Moses on Mount Sinai. The most important source for the Oral Law is the Mishnah, which can also be considered a sacred book. The most complete source of the Mishnah is the Babylonian Talmud, a collection including the Mishnah, commentaries on the Mishnah called the Gemara, extensive commentary by a famous medieval rabbi traditionally known as Rashi, and later rabbinical commentary. Those who want to dig deeper into Judaism will want some familiarity with the Talmud. There are two Talmuds, the Jerusalem and the Babylonian. The Babylonian is the later and more complete Talmud and the one generally studied. There are two recent English translations of the Babylonian Talmud.

The Talmud = [Talmud Bavli]: The Steinsaltz Edition. 1st American ed. New York: Random House, 1989. (first volume ISBN: 0-394-57665-9).

An English-only edition in 21 slender volumes.

Talmud Bavli = [Talmud Bavli]: The Schottenstein Edition: The Gemara: The Classic Vilna Edition, with an Annotated, Interpretive Elucidation, as an Aid to Talmud Study. ArtScroll Series. Brooklyn, N.Y: Mesorah Publications, 1990. (first volume ISBN: 0-89906-717-4).

An Aramaic-Hebrew-English edition in 71 thick folio volumes. Easier to use, but much larger and more expensive than the Steinsaltz edition. Also, the commentaries are considered more conservative.

There are also available English translations of just the Mishnah, including this standard translation consisting of one large volume:

Danby, Herbert, trans. The Mishnah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933. (ISBN: 1-59856-902-3).

The Christian Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christianity is a development from within Judaism, and the earliest Christians were Jews who used the Hebrew scriptures as part of their new religion centered around Jesus. The Hebrew scriptures became the Christian Old Testament, considered by Christians to be the old covenant with God. The New Testament is considered to be a new covenant with God in the form of Jesus Christ, and is thus of central importance. The New Testament consists of four parts: The Gospels (or “good news”), which relate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; the Acts of the Apostles, which chronicle early Christian history; the Letters or Epistles, mostly written by the early Christian evangelist St. Paul, some of which are the earliest writings in the New Testament; and the final book of Revelations.

Different denominations of Christians use different Bibles. Roman Catholics and Protestants, for example, consider different books of the Old Testament canonical. Several books of the Old Testament were originally written in Greek rather than Hebrew, and are not considered canonical by either Jews or Protestant Christians. They are considered “apocryphal” books. However, Roman Catholics consider them deuterocanonical and include them in the Catholic Bible. Thus, it is desirable to have translations acceptable to both Catholics and Protestants.

There have been numerous excellent translations of the Bible over the past 400 years. I recommend having three, for different reasons. All are relative inexpensive. They are also available in Oxford Biblical Studies Online.

The Authorized or King James Version (KJV).

Translated in the 17th century and considered a classic of English prose. A necessary translation because of its influence on the English language. Widely available from numerous publishers and freely available on the Internet.

Metzger, Bruce and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. (ISBN: 0-19-528881-5).

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation, a contemporary and commonly cited translation. This edition has excellent notes, and includes the Apocrypha in a separate section.

Senior, Donald, ed. The Catholic Study Bible 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. (ISBN: 0-19-529775-X).

The New American Bible (NAB), a Catholic translation incorporating the Catholic deuterocanonical books within the Old Testament. Also has an excellent scholarly apparatus.

Kohlenberger, John R, ed. The Precise Parallel New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press Inc, USA, 1996. (ISBN: 0-19-528412-7).

Includes the original Greek text of the New Testament, as well as seven English translations alongside it, including those mentioned above.

Though not sacred books as such, there are collections of primary texts similar to the New Testament writings, but excluded from the canonical New Testament (which in its current form wasn’t officially canonical until the forth century CE). These collections include various early gospels and other writings, including the “Gnostic gospels,” that might be of interest to those studying early Christianity.

Robinson, James M. and Richard Smith, eds. The Nag Hammadi Library in English. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990. (ISBN: 0-06-162600-7).

Schneemelcher, Wilhelm, ed. New Testament Apocrypha. Vol. 1, Gospels and Related Writings. Louisville, Ky.: J. Clarke & Co.; Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991. (ISBN: 0-664-22721-X).

Schneemelcher, Wilhelm, ed. New Testament Apocrypha. Vol. 2, Writings Relating to the Apostles, Apocalypses and Related Subjects. Louisville, Ky.: J. Clarke & Co.; Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992. (ISBN: 0-664-22722-8).

For Muslims, the Qur’an is the word of God revealed to his prophet Muhammad over a period of many years. Muhammad recited the words, which were written down soon after his death. The standard written text was established around 650 CE and is known as the “Uthmanic text.” Unlike, for example, the Christian Bible, there is one version of the Qur’an accepted as authoritative by all Muslims. It is divided into 114 chapters, called suras, in order of length from longest to shortest. The suras are referred to by name rather than number. Like many holy books, it is meant to be recited orally in its original language. No translation is considered authoritative by scholars, but the following two translations are respected and easily available, including in Oxford Islamic Studies Online:

Abdel Haleem, M. A., trans. The Qur’an: A New Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. (ISBN: 0-19-953595-7).

Arberry, Arthur J., trans. The Koran Interpreted. 2 vols. London: Allen and Unwin, 1955. (ISBN: 0-684-82507-4—an available reprint).

The following sources were used to develop the title list:

• Coward, Harold G. Scripture in the World Religions: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oneworld, 2000.
• Oxford University Press. Buddhism. Oxford Bibliographies Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press, n.d.
• ———. Hinduism. Oxford Bibliographies Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press, n.d.
• ———. Islamic Studies. Oxford Bibliographies Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press, n.d.
• Rosen, Jeremy. Understanding Judaism. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2003.
• Schmidt-Leukel, Perry. Understanding Buddhism. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2006.
• Snodgrass, Mary. Encyclopedia of World Scriptures. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2001.
• Whaling, Frank. Understanding Hinduism. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic, 2010.
• Yaran, Cafer S. Understanding Islam. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2007.