books, or Agamas, of the Jains consist of seven divisions, among which the eleven Angas form the first and most important division.
Among the other sects of ascetics which flourished side by side with the Buddhists and the Nirgranthas in the sixth century b. c., the best known in their day were the Ajivakas founded by Gosala. Asoka names them in his inscriptions, along with the Brahmans and Nirgranthas. Gosala was therefore a rival of Buddha and Mahavira; but his sect has now ceased to exist.
The great religious movements that had their rise in the latter part of the sixth century b. c. have been traced here with some attention to detail, not only because of the importance of religion throughout all of India's development, but especially because of the prominent part which Buddhism played in the history of the greatest kings of India during the next thousand years after the date with which this volume closes.
