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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.


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.

Aghamarṣaṇa

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Aghamarṣaṇa literally means ‘destroyer of sins’.

Sandhyā or sandhyākarma or sandhyā van-dana is a fundamental Vedic ritual obligatory on all the dvijas (the ‘twice born,’ viz., the brāhmaṇas, the kṣattriyas and the vaiśyas). It is essentially an upāsanā (meditation, spiritual practice) and has several steps designed to elevate the mind to the level of meditation and mysticism.

Aghamarṣaṇa is one such step in the process. It consists of taking a few drops of water in the right hand shaped like the gokarṇa (the ear of a cow), holding it near the nose and breathing out from the nose on the water (with the idea of driving away sin from oneself). This action is accompanied with the three Rgvedic verses beginning with ‘ṛtarh ca’[1] and throwing away the water to one’s left on the ground.

Though the subject matter of these mantras is creation and the Creator, the mantras themselves are reputed to be ‘aghamarṣana’ or sin-effacing. These mantras can also be repeated during bath as an expiation of sins. The mantras beginning with ‘hiraṇya- śṛngaiii varuṇam. prapadye’ and ending with ‘ākrāntsamudrah’ which forms a part of the Mahānārāyana Upanisad[2] are known as Aghamarsanasukta. The three ṛks of the aghamarṣaṇa ritual (‘ṛtarn ca’) are also included in this. This Aghamarsanasukta is normally recited while taking bath in ponds or rivers. It is accredited with the power of destroying all sins, whether ordinary ones like the one incurred by eating the food given by evil ones or heinous ones like committing adultery and murder of the embryo.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Rgveda Sarhhitā 10.190. 1-3
  2. ↑ Mahānārāyana Upanisad 55-70
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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