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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.

Garbharakṣaṇa

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Garbharakṣaṇa literally means ‘protection of the foetus’.

According the smṛtis and the dharmaśāstras, each human being was supposed to undergo some sanskāras or purification rites. One of the sixteen such sanskāras known as ‘ṣoḍaśa-sanskāras’ is the pumsavana rite. Garbharakṣaṇa is a part of this rite.

In this rite, which is meant for protecting the foetus, the husband of the pregnant lady drops a little durvārasa[1] into her nostril, touches her heart and repeats some auspicious mantras such as ‘ā te garbho yonimaitu....’[2] This rite is also called ‘anavalobhana’ and is generally done in the fourth month after conception.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Durvārasa is the juice of the grass cynodon dactylon.
  2. ↑ Atharvaveda 3.23.2
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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