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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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Istakā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Istakā literally means ‘burnt brick’.

Vedic sacrifices often need a proper alter which is normally made of burnt bricks. Such bricks are made of clay. It must be as long as the length of the foot of the yajamāna or the sacrificer. Three lines are also drawn on them. The total number needed for the altars of some sacrifices having five layers is 10,800.

The very first brick prepared by the wife of the sacrificer is named as āṣāḍhā. Three more prepared by the sacrificer are called ‘viśvajyoti-s’. Other types of bricks are also named with special nomenclature as yajuṣmatī, lokampṛṇā, vālakhilyā, svayamātṛṇṇā, citriṇi . They are used in different parts of the altar structure with appropriate mantra-s known as iṣṭakāmantra-s.


References[edit]

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

Contributors to this article

Apurva Mahendra Bhangdia, Deval Sancheti

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