What Apam Napat is
Apam Napat is a free, growing encyclopedia of Hindu and Indian mythology. It gathers the gods and goddesses of the pantheon, the heroes and adversaries of the great epics, the sacred texts, and the ideas, dharma, karma, maya, moksha, that give the tradition its shape, and presents them as a single, cross-linked reference you can browse or search.
The name Apam Napat (“child of the waters”) is itself a Vedic deity, a fitting emblem for a project that traces the figures and stories of Indian myth back to their oldest sources.
How it is organised
Every entry is filed under one of nine realms, so a single lookup leads naturally to the figures and ideas around it:
- Deities & Pantheon, the gods and goddesses and their forms and powers.
- Epics & Legends, the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranic sagas.
- Mythological Creatures, nagas, asuras, apsaras and celestial beings.
- Scriptures & Texts, the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita and Puranas.
- Philosophy & Ethics, dharma, karma, maya and Hindu thought.
- Beliefs & Practices, rituals, festivals, yoga and devotion.
- Spirituality & Enlightenment, Brahman, moksha and the paths to liberation.
- Art & Architecture, temples, iconography and sacred symbolism.
- Textual Studies, how the myths are read and interpreted today.
Who it is for
Apam Napat is written for students, readers and the curious, anyone who wants a clear, reliable starting point on a god, a hero, a text or an idea from Indian mythology, with the context and connections to read further.
Our sources
Entries are based on the classical primary texts of the tradition and standard reference scholarship. You can read about the texts we draw on and how entries are written and reviewed on our Sources & Editorial Standards page.
The editorial team
Apam Napat is curated by the Apam Napat Editorial Team, a small group of researchers and editors who specialise in classical Hindu and Indo-Iranian mythology. Every entry is sourced from primary texts, cross-checked against standard reference scholarship, and reviewed before publication.
Editorial standards
- Primary text first. Entries draw on the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmanas, Itihasas (Mahabharata, Ramayana) and the Puranas in translation, with the source text and book/parvan named where possible.
- Standard scholarship as secondary. Reference works by Wendy Doniger, Diana Eck, A.K. Ramanujan, Devdutt Pattanaik, Sheldon Pollock, the Oxford and Penguin classics catalogues, the Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Brill), Britannica, and the Internet Sacred Text Archive (sacred-texts.com).
- Multiple traditions named, not flattened. Where Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, Smarta, Vedic and regional versions differ, we say so.
- Reviewed before publication. Two editors review every entry for accuracy, sourcing and clarity; entries are updated as new scholarship lands and reader corrections are submitted.
- Corrections welcomed. Spotted an error? Email us via the Contact page and we will review within 7 days.
How entries are written
An entry begins with a one- or two-sentence definition (also surfaced as the AI Summary at the top of the page), followed by family/origin, the major stories, symbolism, worship or relevance, and the figure’s relationships to others in the encyclopedia. Each entry ends with the texts and references it draws on. See our Sources & Editorial Standards for the full reference list.
A living project
Apam Napat is maintained and continually expanded by the editorial team. The project is published by Marketing the Change. Spotted an error or have a suggestion? We welcome corrections; accuracy matters to us.