Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now freely available.
Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

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.


This book is the result of four years of rigorous research and academic peer-review, reflecting our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within academia.

Aṣṭāñga-hṛdaya

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Aṣṭāñga-hṛdaya literally means ‘the heart or the essence of the science of eight limbs’.

Ayurveda or the ‘science of longevity’ is a very ancient health science having its origins in the Veda itself. It is sometimes called ‘Aṣṭāṅga’ since it has eight limbs (aṣṭa = eight, aṅga = limb), like

  • śalya (major surgery)
  • śālākya (minor surgery)
  • kāya-cikitsā (therapeutics)
  • so on

Among the few texts largely used by the students of Ayurveda, the Astāñga-hrdaya (also called Astāñga-hrdaya-samhitā ) of Vāgbhaṭa occupies an eminent place. Astāngahrdaya is a basic extant work on Ayurveda.

Two Vāgbhaṭas have been known to the historians of Ayurveda, one the author of Astāñgasañgraha and the other of Astāngahrdaya. Though opinion is divided as to whether the two Vāgbhaṭas are identical or different, most of the scholars are inclined towards the view that Vāgbhaṭa II was the grandson of Vāgbhaṭa I, the son of one Simha Gupta and a disciple of Avalokiteśvara. He probably lived in the 7th/8th centuries A. D.

The work, composed in anusṭubh verses, comprises of six ‘sthānas’ or sections. These sections have been mentioned below :

  1. Sutrasthāna - It consists of 30 chapters and deals with many fundamental concepts of the science and preliminaries common to the other sections.
  2. Sarīrasthāna - It is spread over 6 chapters and deals with anatomy and physiology.
  3. Nidānasthāna - It comprises 16 chapters and deals with pathology.
  4. Cikitsāsthāna - It deals with therapeutics in its 21 chapters.
  5. Kalpasthāna - It has 6 chapters on toxicology.
  6. Uttarasthāna - It is a long section spread over 40 chapters and deals with a number of miscellaneous topics like paediatrics, mental diseases, diseases of the eye, the E.N.T., poisons and their antidotes, venereal diseases and also its verification. An elaborate discussion on the chemistry of digestion and prescription of several medicines prepared out of metals like gold, silver, copper, tin and lead is one of the specialties of this work.

As many as 36 commentaries (both in Sanskrit and in vernaculars) have been listed by scholars on this work. Out of them, 11 are not available now. Of the rest, the Sarvāñgasundari of Aruṇadatta (A. D. 1220) is best known[1].

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Among other works, it has been quoted in the Arabic work Kitabul Fihrist (A. D. 888) under the title Asañkar or Aṣṭaṅkar.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Aṣṭāñga-hṛdaya&oldid=113845"