# 📜 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.