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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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Ekapādamurti

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Ekapādamurti literally means ‘image with one leg’.

Ekapādamurti

God has sometimes been described in the scriptures as Ekapāt or Ekapādah. It is applicable because the manifested universe is only a quarter[1] of him. The word is applied to both Śiva and Viṣṇu. ‘Ajaikapāt’ is one of the epithets of Śiva used even in the Ṛgveda.[2]

The Ekapādamurti is actually the iconographic representation of the Vedic concept of Śiva as Ajaikapāt. In this form he has only one leg. He is described as luminous like a million suns, three-eyed and four-armed. He carries ṭaṅka[3] and Mṛga in his arms.[4] He exhibits the abhaya and the varada mudrās in the other two hands. ‘Ekapāda’[5] signifies the Supreme God to be the sole support of the whole universe.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Pāda means quarter.
  2. ↑ Ṛgveda 6.50.14; 10.64.4
  3. ↑ Taṅka means chisel.
  4. ↑ Mṛga means antelope.
  5. ↑ Ekapāda means one leg.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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