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In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences faced by Indian American children after exposure to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We demonstrate that there is an intimate connection—an almost exact correspondence—between James Mill’s colonial-racist discourse (Mill was the head of the British East India Company) and the current school textbook discourse. This racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces the same psychological impacts on Indian American children that racism typically causes: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon akin to racelessness, where children dissociate from the traditions and culture of their ancestors.


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Śālā (‘shed’)

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Śālā literally means ‘shed’.

Śālā is a shed built for the performance of Vedic sacrifices. It is built to the west of mahāvedi having its beams in the easterly direction. Hence it is also called prācīnavaiṅśa.[1]

It is a quadrangular shed measuring 20 x 10 aratnis.[2] There are four doors in the four cardinal directions and also windows at the corners. The shed is covered and enclosed with mat. A room for boiling milk and a hut for the sacrificer’s wife[3] are also built around it. Inside the śālā, three fires are lighted. Hence the name agniśālā also.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Prācīnavaiṅśa means with bamboo beams oriented to the east.
  2. ↑ One aratni is of 1/5 the height of the sacrificer.
  3. ↑ Hence it is called patnīśālā.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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