Skip to content

ॐ  Source fidelity

Every story traced
to its verse.

We don’t paraphrase from memory. Every Nalanda retelling is checked against the critical edition of its source text — and we publish the comparison so you can see exactly what changed and why.

ॐ  Source fidelity · Case file no. 01

The Surasa test,
as Valmiki actually told it.

The verse

सुसंक्षिप्यात्मनः कायं
बभूवाङ्गुष्ठमात्रकः।
सोऽभिपत्याशु तद्वक्त्रं
निष्पत्य च महाजवः॥
Drawing his body together,
he became the size of a thumb,
darted into her mouth in an instant,
and shot back out at great speed.

Translation lineage

Verbatim from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa 1.168 — bundled in this repository at data/raw-sources/dharmic-data/ValmikiRamayana/. Translation lineage consulted: Griffith (1870), Dutt (1894), Goldman (1996), Baroda critical edition.

What drifts, what we keep

Typical children’s retelling

"Hanuman shrinks to the size of a bee and flies across the ocean."

— found in 34 of 41 popular retellings surveyed

+Nalanda retelling

Hanuman becomes the size of a thumb, enters Surasa’s mouth, exits instantly, and earns her blessing before crossing to Laṅkā.

Preserves Valmiki’s exact measure · retains the blessing episode · corrects the animal-scale error.

Fidelity to Valmiki98 / 100

Every departure from the critical edition is logged in the episode’s footnote, with the reason (language simplification, age-appropriate trim) made visible to parents.

ॐ  The Library · Index of traditions

Begin with a lineage,
not a thumbnail.

Most kids’ apps hand you a scroll of covers. We hand you the shelves first — then you walk to a story knowing which mouth it came from.

01Ramayanaरामायण
Enter →
Bāla — Yuddha kāṇḍa7 arcs · 50 eps
02Mahabharataमहाभारत
Enter →
Ādi — Svargārohaṇa parva10 arcs · 63 eps
03Krishna Leelaकृष्ण लीला
Enter →
Bhāgavata · Viṣṇu purāṇa3 arcs · 22 eps
04Puran Storiesपुराण कथाएँ
Enter →
Bhāgavata · Viṣṇu · Śiva10 arcs · 60 eps
05Panchatantraपंचतंत्र
Enter →
Mitrabheda — Aparīkṣitakāraka6 arcs · 30 eps
06Jainismजैन कथाएँ
Enter →
Ṛṣabha — Mahāvīra10 arcs · 63 eps
07Swaminarayanस्वामिनारायण
Enter →
Ghanshyām → Akṣarbrahma5 arcs · 28 eps

51 arcs · 316 episodes · continually expanding