ABSTRACT
THE Brahmanic literature of the ages when the Buddhist canon was constituted no longer presents the crude simple-minded realism which prevailed in the Brahmanas and the two oldest Upanishads. It assumes a completely classical character, like the Sanskrit in which its inspiration is expressed. The religious or philosophic thought which it contains presents a very great variety of aspects, reflecting an immense enrichment of culture. Although kept at arms' length as being heterodox, the Jain and Buddhist sects contributed to this renewal of the spirit. In orthodoxy itself they sowed the belief in transmigration and a notion of karman similar to their own, and they compelled orthodoxy to regard the problem of deliverance as one of the first importance.
