Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c7.6

c7.6

Here, as also in the historical study, we have to bear in mind that the *Jātakas* do not belong to any particular date or place. They are popular stories which were current among the people from very early times, and which remained with the people, subject to individual narrators. This may, at first, appear to take away much of the value that attaches to the geographical knowledge contained in them, but, in reality, it is not so. The information we receive is, barring a few exceptions, much older and, hence, valuable.