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.

Astādhyāyi

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Astādhyāyi literally means ‘comprising eight chapters’.

Vyākaraṇa or grammar is a very important Vedāṅga (‘limb of the Vedas’), the subsidiary branches of knowledge which help a better understanding of the Vedas. Pāṇini (c. 500 B.C.) systematized grammar, drawing upon the ancient grammarians like Āpiśali, Kaśyapa and Gārgya (none of whose works is available now) and adding his own, fairly significant, contribution. His work is known as Astādhyāyi since it comprises eight chapters (aṣṭa = eight; adhyāya = chapter). It is in the form of sutras or aphorisms, 3996 in number. The contents of Astādhyāyi are:

  • Technical terms and rules of interpretation
  • Nouns in composition and case-relations
  • The adding of suffixes to roots and to nouns
  • Accents and changes of sounds in word-formation
  • Accents and changes of the word in the sentences

For centuries, this work has been accepted as the most basic and standard work in Sanskrit grammar and holds unrivaled sway even now. There have been several commentaries on this work, the Mahābhāsya of Patañjali (200 B. C.) being the most celebrated of all. Some pieces of the critical commentary called ‘vārttika’ written by Kātyāyana (c. 350 B. C.) are also available. Since the whole work is oriented towards unfolding the linguistic phenomena of Sanskrit, it is not arranged as in modern grammars, according to the parts of speech. It was Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita (A. D. 1600-1650) who rearranged the Astādhyāyi in this way facilitating an easier study of the subject. His work is known as Siddhānta-kaumudi.


References[edit]

  • 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=Astādhyāyi&oldid=133688"