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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.

Bṛhad-yogi-yājñavalkya

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

The Bṛhad-yogi-yājñavalkya is a large work in Sanskrit comprising of 930 verses spread over 12 chapters. The subject matter is a combination of some topics of dharmaśāstras and of others dealt with in works on yoga and mantras. The work begins with the questions posed by some sages to Yogiśvara of Mithilā. The following is a brief summary of the twelve chapters:

  1. Essence of the Vedas, the smṛtis and the fourteen vidyas; ātma-jñāna; mantrajapa
  2. Praṇava or Oṅkāra
  3. The Vyāhṛtis
  4. The Gāyatrī
  5. Some nyāsas (purification of limbs)
  6. Sandhyā ritual
  7. Snāna (bath), tarpaṇa (offering of water to the manes) and japa (muttering of mantras)
  8. Prāṇāyāma (breath control) and pratyāhāra (withdrawal of mind from sense-objects)
  9. Dhyāna or meditation
  10. Suryopasthāna (worship of the Sun with the mantras and Gāyatrī)
  11. Yogadharma or the practice of yoga
  12. Origination of the śāstras from the Vedas and allied topics

The work quotes a large number of verses from the Manusmṛti and contains many verses of the Bhagavadgitā also. Several passages from the Upaniṣads too are found in it. One interesting statement that this book makes is that Gārgī was the wife of Yājñavalkya. This however is not correct as we find from the more authoritative scriptures, viz., the Brhadāranyaka Upaniṣad.

References[edit]

  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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