📜 Epics Dataset (Cleaned CSV Format)
This repository contains cleaned and structured CSV datasets of major Hindu Itihasa (Epics) texts, originally sourced from
GRETIL – Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages.
🔗 Original Source: https://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.html
The raw Sanskrit texts were extracted from GRETIL and processed into machine-readable CSV format for research, NLP, and data science applications.
📚 About the Source
GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages)
Maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany.
GRETIL provides digitized classical Indian texts, primarily in transliterated Sanskrit (IAST format).
This repository does not claim ownership of the original texts.
It provides cleaned and structured CSV versions strictly for research and educational purposes.
🧹 Data Cleaning & Processing Steps
The following preprocessing steps were applied:
- Removed header and footer metadata
- Cleaned encoding inconsistencies
- Standardized chapter and verse formatting
- Removed irregular spacing and special symbols
- Normalized verse numbering
- Structured text into tabular format
- Added Devanagari script (where applicable)
- Exported into CSV format
📂 Available Epics
The dataset includes cleaned CSV files for:
- Bhagavad Gita
- Harivamsa
- Mahabharata (Narayaniya section)
- Valmiki Ramayana
Each text is segmented at verse level for structured analysis.
🗂 Dataset Structure
Each CSV file typically contains the following columns:
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Book / Parva / Kanda | Major division of the epic |
| Chapter / Adhyaya | Chapter number |
| Verse Number | Verse index |
| Verse Code | Unique verse identifier |
| Text (IAST) | Sanskrit text in transliteration |
| Text (Devanagari) | Sanskrit text in Devanagari script |
Note: Column names may vary slightly depending on the specific epic.
🎯 Possible Use Cases
- Sanskrit NLP research
- LLM pretraining or fine-tuning
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Semantic search systems
- Knowledge graph construction
- Story structure analysis
- Digital humanities research
- Comparative scriptural studies
⚠️ Disclaimer
- The original texts are sourced from GRETIL.
- This repository provides cleaned and structured datasets for educational and research purposes only.
- For authoritative versions, please refer to GRETIL.
📌 Citation
If you use this dataset in academic or research work, please cite:
GRETIL – Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages
https://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.html
and reference this repository accordingly.
👤 Maintainer
Maintained by: dataspoof
For issues, improvements, or collaboration, feel free to open an issue or pull request.