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RELIGION-ANIMISM
the tree-spirits, equally wealthy and powerful. They could at will, and often did, adopt the human form; and though terrible if angered, were kindly and mild by nature. Not mentioned either in
FIG. 41.-NAGA MERMAIDS IN WATER. [From Burgess and Grünwedel's Buddhist Art in India.]
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the Veda or in the pre-Buddhistic Upanishads, the myth seems to be a strange jumble of beliefs, not altogether pleasant, about a strangely gifted race of actual men; combined with notions derived
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
