Definition of Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology is a term used largely by western scholarship for a large body of Indian literature that details the lives and times of legendary personalities, deities and divine incarnations on earth interspersed with often large sections of philosophical and ethical discourse. Despite connotations of fiction in common usage, the term myth, in theological and academic studies, does not necessarily imply that a narrative is untrue. Its continued usage however reveals a colonial perspective and a western prejudice against non-Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious literature. Thus, the use of the term mythology is a western construct applied primarily to non-Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious literature.