Kathmandu, Aug. 16 -- For centuries, religious knowledge in Nepal has travelled through priests, scriptures and oral traditions. Increasingly, it is also travelling through smartphones.

A growing group of Nepali developers is building apps and devices that put rituals, mantras, astrology and religious texts on demand, betting that technology can make practices rooted in centuries-old traditions fit more easily into modern life.

The market is still small. But the experiments are multiplying.

Five years ago, Nabin Khatiwada and Yubaraj Dhungel, two Sanskrit students from eastern Nepal who studied in Vrindavan, India, started with an unusually simple idea: put a Hindu ritual book on a phone.

Their project, Brihat Karmakanda, has since ev...