Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now published after academic peer-review and available through open access.

In this book, we analyze the psycho-social consequences that Indian American children face after they are exposed to the school textbook discourse on Hinduism and ancient India. We show that there is an intimate connection―an almost exact correspondence―between James Mill’s ( a prominent politician in Britain and head of the British East India Company) colonial-racist discourse and the current school-textbook discourse. Consequently, this archaic and racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces in the Indian American children the same psychological impact as racism is known to produce: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon similar to racelessness where the children dissociate from the tradition and culture of their ancestors

This book is an outcome of 4 years of rigorous research as a part of our ongoing commitment at Hindupedia to challenge the representation of Hindu Dharma within Academia.

Mitāksarā

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Mitākṣarā literally means ‘a work with limited number of letters,’ ‘a small work’.

Mitākṣarā, a Commentary[edit]

A person's life, at the personal as well as the social level, has been regulated by the dharmaśāstras for over two millennia. The Yājñavalkyasmrti is a metrical work in about thousand verses. It is one of the earliest and most authoritative works. It has several commentaries out of which the Mitākṣarā of Vijñāneśvara[1] has been considered outstanding. Vijñāneśvara was an expert in Purva-Mimānsā Darśana. He applied it's rules for determining the purpose of the Smṛti of Yājñavalkya wherever there is doubt.

Though the Mitākṣarā is also termed as Rjumitākṣarā and Pramitākṣarā, it is generally brief and clear as the very name indicates. It also goes into great details when needed. The work quotes about 80 smṛtis and writers of dharmaśāstras. An interesting factor noticed is that it almost ignores the purāṇas. Only five purāṇas have been quoted. Earlier authors quoted by it are Viśvarupa,[2] Medhā-tithi[3] and Dhāreśvara.[4]

Commentaries on Mitākṣarā[edit]

The Mitākṣarā has several commentaries out of which the following are more noteworthy:

  1. Subodhini of Viśveśvara-bhaṭṭa[5]
  2. Pramitākṣarā of Nandapaṇḍita[6]
  3. Bālambhatti of Bālambhaṭṭa or Bālakṛṣṇa[7]

Mitākṣarā Haradatta[edit]

There is also another Mitākṣarā which is a commentary on the Gautama-dharmasutras by Haradatta.[8]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ He lived in circa A. D. 1100.
  2. ↑ He lived in circa A. D. 800.
  3. ↑ He lived in A. D. 825-900.
  4. ↑ He lived in circa A. D. 1000.
  5. ↑ He lived in 14th century A. D.
  6. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1580-1630.
  7. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1730-1820.
  8. ↑ He lived in circa A. D. 1100.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Mitāksarā&oldid=135056"