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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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Karṇavedha

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Karṇavedha literally means ‘piercing the ear-lobes’.

Sanskāras or sacraments[1] are common to many religions. One of the minor sanskāras recommended in the later dharmaśāstra literature is karṇavedha or piercing the lobes of the ears of a child. Since both men and women used to wear ear-ornaments in those days, karṇavedha procedure was done both on the male and the female.

It was performed either on the 10th or the 12 or the 16th day from birth. Alternatively, it could be done in the 7th or the 10th month after birth. The ceremony used to be done by the father of the child with Vedic mantras[2] followed by the feeding of the brāhmaṇas. In the modern times, it is done by a goldsmith with pointed gold wire or even by a doctor.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Sacraments are the ritual purificatory processes.
  2. ↑ Ṛgveda 1.89.8
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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