About ELGODS

ELGODS is a free, open spiritual encyclopedia covering deities, sacred texts, practices, festivals, and religions across 326+ tradition tags worldwide, with a rooted focus on the traditions of Bhārata. Our mission is to make wisdom from every tradition equally accessible — without paywalls, without monetization, forever.

Each entry is structured for three audiences — beginner, intermediate, and scholar — so a curious reader and a researcher can both find their level. Where possible we cite primary sources and traditional commentaries.

Religious knowledge carries real weight for living communities. We prepare records in two clear stages, and we label them honestly:

1. First draft (assisted synthesis)

   First-pass entries are seeded from public scholarly sources, gazetteers, government and ASI records, temple-trust publications, ethnographic work, and tradition-specific texts. Language models help structure these materials into drafts. A draft is a starting point for study — not a finished teaching.

2. Guardian review (human, credentialed)

   Every draft remains awaiting review until a credentialed guardian from the relevant tradition — ordained clergy, religious-studies academic, recognized scholar, or community elder — has read, edited, and signed off. Their name, title, and date appear on the entry and on the Advisory Council page.

Today, 1308 of 1,895 records have cleared guardian review; the remaining 587 are provisional drafts under continuous care. The gap is real, the labelling is honest, and our priority is deepening trust rather than only expanding the corpus.

The sanctuary began with the Dharmic traditions of Bhārata (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh) and their living folk and tribal layers, and is expanding — slowly and conservatively — into the wider world: Zoroastrian yazatas, Shinto kami, Taoist immortals, the Manifestations of the Bahá'í Faith, and more.

The full source and content live at github.com/pmaero-byte/ELGODS. Contributions, corrections, and tradition-specific reviewers are welcome — the easiest path is the web contribution form.

We treat every tradition with equal respect. ELGODS does not promote, rank, or syncretize traditions — it documents them as practitioners and scholars within each tradition describe them.