An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c3.8

c3.8

The result of this method of procedure is to throw the broad changes marked by the periods into bold relief and to indicate clearly which sects were active within each period; but it has this disadvantage that, in the case of every sect which has been prominent through several periods, the history is cut up into as many pieces. But this disadvantage is more apparent than real; for the student who wishes to deal with a single community will probably find it a rewarding piece of work to study first the whole history throughout a number of periods, and then to re-read consecutively the portions which deal with the particular community.