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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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Aṅgavidyā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

Swami Harshananda

Aṅgavidyā literally means ‘science of the limbs’.

From the ancient times, the throbbing of the limbs, particularly of the arm and the eye, has been regarded as the harbinger of coming events, auspicious or otherwise. For men, throbbing of the right side of the body is considered an auspicious sign. For women, the opposite holds good.

Some examples of such prognostications can be given :

  • The fruit indicated by the throbbing of the top of the head is the acquisition of land.
  • The fruit indicated by the throbbing of the forehead is the prosperity of the position already occupied.
  • The fruit indicated by the throbbing of the region of the eye is death.
  • The fruit indicated by the throbbing of the upper arm is the union with friends
  • The fruit indicated by the throbbing of the hand is the acquisition of wealth.
  • The fruit indicated by the throbbing of the back is defeat and so on.

The Matsyapurāna[1] advises the placating of brāhmaṇas with gifts of gold to ward off the evil effects of such throbbing. It is interesting to note that the well- known astrological work Brhatsamhitā of Varāhamihira (6th cent. A. D.) treats this subject[2] in an entirely different way. When an enquirer wishes to know from the astrologer any information (for instance, about the thief who has stolen his articles), the astrologer has to closely observe the way the enquirer puts the questions touching any of his aṅgas or limbs in the process in a natural way, and prognosticate the results. For instance, if the enquirer touches his own feet in the process, the astrologer can conclude that the servant is the thief. Of course, time and place of questioning also count.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Matsyapurāna ch. 241
  2. ↑ Brhatsamhitā chapter 51
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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