Hindu texts Prior to the start of the common era, the Hindu texts were composed orally, then memorized and transmitted orally, from one generation to next, for more than a millennia before they were written down into manuscripts. This verbal tradition of preserving and transmitting Hindu texts, from one generation to next, continued into the modern era. The Vedas are a large body of Hindu texts originating in ancient India, with its Samhita and Brahmanas complete before about 800 BCE. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit hymns, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. Hindus consider
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament in a single volume in 1958 as ""The Ancient Near East, Volume I: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures"" with a 2nd edition published in 1965. A second anthology of supplementary material was published in 1975 as ""Ancient Near East, Volume 2: A New Anthology of Texts and Pictures"." The book was published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1950. A second edition, corrected and enlarged, appeared in 1955. A third further enlarged edition appeared in 1969. I. Myths, Epics and Legends: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Sumerian (S. N. Kramer); Akkadian (E. A. Speiser); Hittite (Albrecht Goetze); Ugaritic