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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.

Ambastha

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

When the varna system was born in the society, the seed of admixture of varna was also sown. Even as early as the Mahābhārata period, such admixture (varṇasaṅkara) was deplored. One of the several jati's born out of such admixture is the ambaṣṭha, the offspring of a brāhmaṇa father and a vaiśya mother.

Practice of medicine, surgery and agriculture are the professions recommended for this caste. Some books make the ambaṣṭha the offspring of a kṣattriya father from a vaiśya mother. Fighting is the vocation recommended.

Ambaṣṭha seems to be the name of a country also. A king, Āmbaṣṭhya, is said to have performed Aśvamedha sacrifice.[1]

Mahābhārata mentions another king Ambaṣṭha who fought on the side of the Kauravas and met his death at the hands of Arjuna. Kaiṅsa’s mahout who tried to assassinate Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa was also known as Ambaṣṭha.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Aitareya Brāhmana 39.7
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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