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INTRODUCTION

inal features. In comparison with Buddhism Jainism has added little to the mythology of India, but in its own way it has developed many themes of Indian mythology, with the main doctrines of which it remains in much closer contact than does Buddhism.

The subject, therefore, divides itself, in accordance with the literary sources upon which any treatment must be based, into seven divisions:

I. The Period of the Ṛgveda (Chapters I and II);
II. The Period of the Brāhmaṇas (Chapter III);
III. The Period of the Epics (Chapters IV and V);
IV. The Period of the Purāṇas (Chapter VI);
V. The Mythology of Buddhism (Chapter VII);
VI. The Mythology of Jainism (Chapter VIII);
VII. The Mythology of Modern India (Chapter IX).