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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.


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Ekadanta

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Jit Majumdar

Ekadanta literally means ‘One who has only one tusk’.

Etmytology[edit]

  1. single toothed; single tusked
  2. a name for Ganeśa, one of whose tusks is broken and held in one of his hands.

Significance of Ekadanta[edit]

Gaṇeśa or Gaṇapati, one of the most popular and widely worshiped deity, has an elephant’s head and a human body. Out of his two tusks, one is full whereas the other is broken. It is because of this that he is known as ‘Ekadanta’. The story goes that he lost his tusk in his fight with Paraśurāma. Symbolically, the broken tusk stands for this impermanent, imperfect world where as the full tusk stands for the perfect.

Ekadanta Iconographically[edit]

In iconographical works, Ekadanta Gaṇapati is shown as a special aspect of Gaṇapati, blue-black in color and with four arms. In them he carries:

  • Kuṭhāra - hammer
  • Akṣamālā - rosary
  • Laḍḍu - sweet preparation
  • Danta - his own broken tusk

References[edit]

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

Contributors to this article

Himanshu Bhatt

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