what holy books are placed on the altar in a GLI craft lodge

Five Volumes of the Sacred Law lie open on the altar: the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, the Granth, the Zend Avesta, and the Bible, alongside the Dhammapada when represented among the membership, as the Grand Lodge of India records. Officers and candidates take their obligations upon the sacred text of their own faith, demonstrating universality across religious traditions.

This arrangement formalizes a practice developed during the nineteenth century. Under earlier English and Scottish warrants in India, candidates were obligated on the scripture most binding upon their conscience—such as the Koran, the Shastras, or the Zend Avesta—while the Christian Bible remained open in the lodge 1. Craft Masonry treats the Volume of the Sacred Law as a symbol of divine revelation rather than restricting it to a single sectarian text 2, allowing brethren of different faiths to meet on equal terms 1.

At the consecration of the Grand Lodge of India, five different Volumes of the Sacred Law lay open on the altar simultaneously for use by the Grand Officers taking their obligations, as an article on the Grand Lodge of India's website records.

While this historic precedent established the simultaneous opening of multiple sacred texts on the central altar, the available records do not specify whether every individual Craft lodge under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of India must keep all of its Volumes of the Sacred Law open simultaneously during ordinary lodge meetings.

A candidate is obligated upon the Volume of the Sacred Law that he accepts as divine revelation and that is most binding upon his conscience 1. As Albert C. Mackey notes, the volume used must be adapted to the faith of the candidate so that the binding influence of the obligation is maintained 1.

Historically, under nineteenth-century English practice in India, a Muslim candidate was obligated upon the Koran, a Hindu upon the Shastras, and a Zoroastrian candidate upon the Zoroastrian code 1. It was established as the duty of the Worshipful Master to ascertain before the ceremony which sacred text the candidate accepted as most binding upon his conscience, and to administer the obligation on that volume 1.

While the candidate takes his obligation upon his own Volume of the Sacred Law, historical practice under English warrants required that the Christian Bible remain open in the lodge, being moved for convenience to another part of the room while the candidate's specific sacred text was placed upon the altar for the obligation 1. The District Grand Lodge of India under the Grand Lodge of Scotland similarly recognized this practice in the late nineteenth century by establishing official lodge officers as bearers for the Koran, the Zend Avesta, and the Shastras 1.