Part 2 - Pre-Purāṇic Religious Systems Prevalent in India

Prior to the Purāṇic religion, different religious movements took place in ancient India due to the invasion of the foreign invaders, having indigenous religious system and the local inhabitants of the region possessing individual religious belief. Due to their relationship to the Vedic tradition they can be classified into the Vedic, comprising the Śrauta and the Smārta tradition; the anti-Vedic that includes the Jainism, the Ājīvakism and the Buddhism;the semi-Vedic consisting of the Vaiṣṇavism, the Śaivism and the Bhāgavatism; and non-Vedic, i.e. the Śāktism and the Tāntricism.^[1] Besides these, in some religious systems there are found elements of two or more religious sects. Such religions are composite in nature. The Purāṇic religion is also a composite religion where the Vedic tradition of sacrificial religion, the semi-Vedic tradition of Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and other unorthodox cults and the non-Vedic tradition of Śaktism and Tāntricism are intermingled.