There's the reading list in the side-bar, but that doesn't really have secondary books on Hinduism.

There's Gavin Flood's An Introduction to Hinduism. I haven't read it yet, but it's the only thing I got off the top of my head. If you want, I can look through the copy I found on the sidewalk and tell you about it.

But Flood seems to have a pretty good pedigree. But I don't know if he's a Hindu. I would also recommend Eknath Easwaran's translation of the Bhagavad Gita. I have it, and his intro goes into Hindu concepts. This book also seem well-received, though I don't have it.

There's a public domain book called The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India. There's also The Wonder that was India, which is good. And apparently the same guy wrote The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism.

Most Indian history books talk about Hinduism, so maybe the Cambridge History of India?

This is a good start Krishna: the Beautiful Legend of God: (Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book X) (Penguin Classics) (Bk.10) https://www.amazon.com/Krishna-Beautiful-Bhagavata-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447997 It is the story of his life. Also read a good translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Eknath Easwaran's version is good, as if Swami Mukundananda's.

I'm a white guy for whom Krishna is God. I talk to him, I do a small daily (well, almost daily) puja in my home shrine, I think of him, I sing and chant along with recorded bhajans, or just listen to them as I'm driving or going about my business at home. I very rarely do japa, only because I haven't established the routine, but I want to. There's nothing magical or mysterious about being devoted or dedicated to him or any other deity.

There is a good and practical book by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti called 'A Guide to Human Conduct' which explains all the 10 points of Yama and Niyama in clear and precise way. Another book I will would reccomend is called 'Yogic Ethics for a Balanced Mind: Yama Niyama.' It is and in-depth discussion of all the points, as wel as the concept of ethics within the yogic context. It contains interesting psychological and filosophical explanations, as well as practical advice. Also many examples and citations. Its available from Amazon. This is the link: Yogic Ethics for a Balanced Mind.

There is also a very nice and clearly explained course on the Youtube channel: 'Meditations Steps'

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAv4LHSCXRoegzvAbwbZGoA/featured

I don't believe he is part of ISKCON, since although he edited a book about ISKCON he apparently said in that book that his only experience with the movement was as an outsider.

However, there is evidence that he probably does follow Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Bryant is also known as Adwaita Das, per these lectures on YouTube, and internet rumors (unfortunately all I can find at the moment) say he was initiated by Shri Haridas Shastri. He also did a translation of the 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, which isn't proof of anything in itself...but given how central that text is to Gaudiya Vaishnavas, it may not be an accident that he chose to work on that particular scripture.

So as far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty confident Bryant follows a Krsna Bhakti tradition of some sort. Which suits me just fine as that's my personal tradition as well. :)

The better one(because Easwaran tends to see "Lord of Love" everywhere) would be the commentary Gudartha Dipika by Madhusudana Saraswati. And the commentary of Adi Sankara,the founder of the school that Madhusudana Saraswati belonged to.

Online,the commentary of Sankara is available. And the famous Jnaneshwari commentary on the Gita(if you wish to buy it on Amazon).

Basically,I'm following up with what /u/CaliforniaJade said.

Update: Due to popular feedback, I decided to make split versions of the ebook edition for anyone who found 2554 pages too daunting but are still interested in reading my book. In case any of you are still interested. I've also made the Indian editions more affordable for people in India.

Part I Only.

Part II Only.

Explanation on pricing can be read here.

This was my first introduction to the Mahabharata and I loved it

https://www.amazon.in/Mahabharata-Special-Issue-Chitra-Katha/dp/8190599011

There is also this

https://www.amazon.in/gp/aw/reviews/0143424785/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_top?ie=UTF8

While these aren't the original unabridged Mahabharata, they are still really good

There are plenty of references to Hinduism and Buddhism in comments to this recent quanta interview with the same guy.

A book I plugged here a while ago addresses this same topic in great detail as well.

My favorite is S. Radhakrishnan's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Principal_Upanishads

Other ones I've read and liked are:
https://www.amazon.com/Upanishads-Breath-Eternal-Swami-Prabhavanada/dp/0451528484/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1502231249&sr=8-4&keywords=upanishad

and
https://www.amazon.com/Upanishads-Classic-Indian-Spirituality/dp/1586380214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502231249&sr=8-1&keywords=upanishad

I recommend any of the penguin classics! Here is one I bought from a local bookstore in New Delhi: https://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Siva-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140442707


I think reading good translations of ancient poetry is the way to go.

We can agree that RV forms the earliest Sanskrit exposition.

However, you are wrong when you say this:

>The rigveda is dated to around 1500 BCE, with several hundred years of room in either direction.

Please read Michel Danino's "The Lost River" which provides archaeological and anthropological evidence that the RV pre-dates the Mohenjadaro and Harappan civilizations. That places the existence of the RV prior to 2500 BCE atleast. You would have to reconsider what this would mean for your other hypothesis about Hittite, PIE, etc.

As far as Hindu theology, archaeological and anthropological evidence are concerned, Sanskrit is PIE and is dated prior to Hittite.

Regarding your other argument, it sounds like hypothesis created ad hoc without any universal applicability. People do not have to move for languages and good ideas to spread.

For instance, the Caraka Samhita is an ancient Indian treatise on medicine. It is a collection of a proceedings of a medical conference believed to have been held on the foothills of the Himalayas atleast 10000 years ago. The very first sutra of the text mentions this and informs us that people from geography as far away as what we know today to be China and Greece attended this conference. It could easily have been because of such interactions that ideas from Indian culture and philosophy spread to other lands.

I appreciate your taking time to give examples of various words. But this still misses the point. What I am looking for are rules such as:

"Whenever a sound /e/ gets diphthongized and becomes /ie/, it means such and such..."

Absent this, it still remains hypothesis after hypothesis built on weak to nonexistent foundation.

Desire and Motivation in Indian Philosophy is a good read on this topic.

I'm pretty conservative and hardcore,but I would not recommend the Vedas or Upanishads first. One can get around completely without touching these. I would recommend first the Bhagavad Gita with a classical commentary(ones by Shankara,Ramanuja,Madhva,Dyaneshwar,Abhinavagupta,etc).

• Gita with Sankara's commentary with notes from Anandagiri's gloss translated by AM Shastri. A PDF of it can be downloaded
  
• Jnaneshwari,or Jnaneshwar's commentary on the Gita. Amazon
  
• Ramanuja's commentary on the Gita
  
  Then as /u/nura2011 said:
  
  >the prasthAnatrayi, the two epics, and a purana or two (or three: one each from the Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta traditions) that gives you an overview of mythological Hinduism. In addition, go through a few overview texts to get an idea of schools that resonate with you (perhaps Kashmir Shaivism, for e.g.), and then go into books of those.

Sun closer than the moon thing can be better understood if the theory of matter behind Vedic cosmology is understood. "Closer" and "farther" are not physical distances but semantic distances (distances of meanings). Ex: The physical distance between a table and a chair is totally different than the semantic distance between them. For instance the semantic distance between two chairs at opposite sides of the universe is minimal, while the semantic distance between a table and a chair sitting next to each other is huge.

More insights about these matters in the book Mystic Universe.

Anything by Sir John Woodroffe, such as this book. He was literally one of the first people to bring esoteric Hinduism to the West.

Also a great website:

http://www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/tantra.htm

edit: He published under Arthur Avalon.

My initiation to both Ramayana & mahabharata was via C Rajagopalachari's version. An excellent starting point imo - you can always read more thorough versions in the next stage

http://www.amazon.in/Mahabharata-C-Rajagopalachari/dp/8172763689

I am not a Hindu, but I purchased the Bhagavad Gita on a whim one day for the heck of it. I found it to be a phenomenal read, both spiritually profound and intellectually provocative. I still keep my copy with me and read it from time-to-time.

Here is the link to the Wikipedia page

And here is the link to purchase it from Amazon. It's only about $4 after shipping so it won't break your bank by any means.

...or too much aham (ego) to see realities as Maya, may be!

Anyways, I liked this
https://www.amazon.com/Hindu-Buddhist-Ideas-Dialogue-Traditions/dp/140944354X book on this topic. Worth reading.

Since you are just starting, I would suggest Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata. It's a good book to get started.

Cannot recommend enough Juan Mascaró's version. It's without commentary of his own, poetical, and it doesn't show any predisposition to any denomination. Rabindranath Tagore praised the translation as well, and no wonder - Juan spent around 20 years translating the Gita and the Upanishads. Give it a listen, see if it's yours. The Gita is translated in the same way. I'll upload the audiobook on YouTube some time soon.

Here, OP.

http://www.amazon.com/Mahabharata-Over-Million-Copies-Sold/dp/8172763689/

This is a straight up translation though, so you might want to see a pdf version before you buy, seeing as it can be slightly different than modern reading tastes.

Wow! So many numbers. That was really some mind boggling calculations, though he also doesn't put Rama at 10,000 ago! So the point of idol or temples still seems futile. Though I said 1,296,000 from the following scholars.

https://www.dukeupress.edu/averting-the-apocalypse/?viewby=title

http://www.amazon.com/Ramayana-historical-perspective-Hasmukhlal-Dhirajlal/dp/0333903900

http://www.amazon.com/India-Michael-Wood/dp/0465003591

(You can also get those referels from Wikipedia)

This guy didn't even bother to acknowledge the book where he took his stuff from. He even copied the title.

https://www.amazon.com/When-God-Customer-Courtesan-Ksetrayya/dp/0520080696?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Oh really ? That is debatable, you should do some more research, here :

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-River-The-Trail-Sarasvati/dp/0143068644

This book by Michel Danino provides numerical arguments based on the topographical explorations, geological and climatological studies, satellite imagery and isotope analyses to trace the river bed of Sarasvati since 3500BCE.