Manu said that a woman's dharma is to be mother, daughter, sister and wife in service of men, regardless of the caste. In modern times we call this patriarchy. In the Vedas, the need to control and favour hierarchy is an expression of an anxious mind.

Hindu, Buddhist and Jain lore is full of tales where women do not let men define their dharma. In modern times we call this feminism. In the Vedas, the acceptance of a woman's choice is an expression of a wise and secure mind.

While in Western myth, patriarchy is traditional and feminism progressive, in Indian myth both patriarchy and feminism have always coexisted, in eternal tension, through endless cycles of rebirth. Liberation thus is not a foreign idea. It has always been here.

You have heard tales of patriarchy. This book tells you the other tales-the ones they don't tell you.

Mythology is a cultural truth expressed through stories, symbols and rituals.

• Western myth states that humans live only once.

Indian myth states that all organisms live many lives.

When you live many lives, then gender becomes the result of karma, the outcome of deeds in our previous lives. All men have been women in past lives or will be women in future lives. All women have been men in past lives and will be men in future lives. Such ideas do not exist in the Western world. There is no explanation offered for why someone is male or female in Western myth. So it feels like an imposition. Indian myth, in this book, means Hindu, Buddhist and Jain myths, whose stories, symbols and rituals originated in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia). Western myth means myths whose stories, symbols and rituals originated in lands to the west of India: not simply Europe and America, but also the Middle East, though not Africa. West also refers to the mindset that views progress as linear, from polytheism through monotheism to atheism.