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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.

Matsyayantra

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

In the epics and the purāṇas we often come across very difficult tests laid down for the contestants who wanted to win the hands of the best of kṣattriya maidens. The test to wed Sītā was lifting and stringing the Śivadhanuṣa.[1][2] It was the matsyayantra in the case of Draupadi, the Pāñcāla princess, the only daughter of the king Drupada. The contrivance matsyayantra had a fish fixed near the roof of the big hall.

Just below it, on the ground was a big pond full of oil. Between the two, near the roof, was a revolving disc containing a hole, the contestant had to discharge five arrows through the hole, while looking at the reflection of revolving wheel in the pond of oil from the bow supplied, to hit the target fish. Only Arjuna succeeded in accomplishing this heroic and dexterous act.[3]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Śivadhanuṣa is the great bow of Lord Śiva.
  2. ↑ Sītā is the king Janaka’s daughter
  3. ↑ Mahābhārata, Ādiparva, chapter 184-188
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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