Questions people ask before they press play.

An Android app of stories from Indian scripture, told in Hindi as short vertical episodes of about a minute each. The Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, made like reels, so you can learn a story and what it teaches in the gaps of a day.

These stories are how generations of Indian families learned where they come from and how to live. Fewer people now hear them from a grandparent at bedtime, and more people spend their spare minutes on a phone. Divya Katha brings the stories to that screen, a minute at a time, so they keep being told.

Not yet. Divya Katha is an Android app on Google Play today.

The Play Store listing may still show the name “Katha Mythology Hindi Stories”. It is the same app: look for the package id com.hindi.story.mythology.series and the publisher Bharat Product House.

Divya Katha is published by Bharat Product House and made in Bharat. The episodes, artwork and narration are produced by the same team.

The Mahabharata, the Ramayana (both Valmiki's Ramayana and Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas), the Bhagavata Purana, the Shiva Purana, the Devi Mahatmya, the Upanishads (Katha, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka) and the Bhagavad Gita.

They follow the source texts, such as the Bhagavata Purana, Valmiki's Ramayana and the Ramcharitmanas. To fit a story into one-minute episodes, some passages are condensed or retold briefly, and where the texts differ we follow one telling. They are retellings, not word-for-word translations, and they are not a replacement for reading the texts themselves.

Because a story lands differently when you stand where someone stood. Hanuman on the shore before the leap, Sanjaya describing the war to a blind king, Nachiketa waiting at Death's door: told by a witness, the choices and doubts become personal, and the lesson is easier to feel and remember.

“Through the eyes of”. Many stories are told by one character who lived them, such as Hanuman, Lakshman, Nandi, Vidura, Sanjaya, Savitri, Nachiketa or Maitreyi, so you see the events the way that witness saw them.

Yes. The questions of the Upanishads are told through people who asked them, such as Nachiketa questioning Yama and Maitreyi asking Yajnavalkya what makes a person truly rich. The Bhagavad Gita is there too, as the conversation on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

Courage, truth, devotion, duty, forgiveness and friendship, shown through choices rather than lectures. Dhruva teaches steadiness, Sudama and Krishna teach friendship without pride, Govardhan teaches humility, and Nachiketa teaches that it is good to ask big questions. A one-minute episode suits a child's attention and leaves time to talk about it.

They are made for families. Some stories, especially the battles of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, include war, so parents may like to watch along with younger children. Watching together is also a lovely way to talk about what a story teaches.

Each episode carries one moment of a story, and the episodes follow one another, so a whole story unfolds over a few minutes. A moment small enough to remember is often what stays: a promise, a question, a choice. Over days, those moments add up to the epics.

Many people turn to them for exactly that. The Gita speaks about doing your work without clinging to the result; Savitri shows patience and resolve; Vidura speaks truth to power. The stories do not hand out rules, but they show people facing the same pulls we face, and what came of their choices.

Yes. Every episode is narrated in Hindi, in simple, everyday language that the whole family can follow.

Yes. Divya Katha is a Hindi kahani app for Android with pauranik and dharmik kahaniyan from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, each told in short videos of about a minute.

Yes, that is exactly what Divya Katha is: Hindu mythology stories in Hindi as vertical videos of 35 to 70 seconds, made like reels. Watch one when you have a minute, or keep swiping and let a whole story play on.

Yes. In Divya Katha, stories from the Mahabharata are told in Hindi as one-minute videos, many through the eyes of someone who was there, such as Sanjaya, Vidura or Abhimanyu. Swipe up and the story carries on, and the app remembers where you left off.

Yes. Divya Katha tells stories from the Ramayana, from both Valmiki's Ramayana and Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, in Hindi, a minute at a time. Some are told through the eyes of Hanuman or Lakshman. The Mahabharata, the Puranas, the Upanishads and the Gita are there too.

Yes. Krishna's stories from the Bhagavata Purana, such as lifting Govardhan and welcoming his old friend Sudama, are there, along with the Bhagavad Gita. Hanuman's story is told through his own eyes, from the shore of the ocean to the leap to Lanka.

It tells stories from the Shiva Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, retold in Hindi as one-minute episodes. It is not a live katha or a recorded pravachan: it is the stories themselves, told simply, to watch whenever you have a minute.

About a minute: most run between 35 and 70 seconds. Swipe up for the next episode, down for the previous one, or let them play on one after another. The app remembers where you left off in each story.

Many festivals have their story in the app: Prahlad and Narasimha for Holi, Krishna lifting Govardhan for Govardhan Puja, the Devi and Mahishasura for Navratri, the Ramayan for Diwali, and Shiva, Sati and Parvati for Mahashivratri. Watching the story before the day gives the rituals their meaning.

Tap the share button on any episode and send it to WhatsApp, your family group or anyone you like. You can also like an episode and leave a comment on it.

Yes. New stories arrive in the app without an update, so you do not need to download anything new from the Play Store to see them.

The app server knows an anonymous device id (stored hashed), the display name you choose, your comments, likes and ratings, and your watch progress and in-app activity. It never asks for your email, phone number or real name. The app uses Firebase Analytics for usage statistics and push notifications for reminders and updates. The privacy policy has the details.