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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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Narsimha

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Narasimha literally means ‘Man-lion incarnation’.

Reference of Narasimha[edit]

Independent shrines of Narasimha are quite common in South India, whereas he has small shrines or niches in the temples of Viṣṇu in the North. Iconographic descriptions of the deity are provided in several āgama treatises like:

  1. Vihagendrasamhitā
  2. Pādmasamhitā
  3. Iśvarasamhitā
  4. Parāśarasamhitā
  5. Sāttvatasamhitā
File:Nārāśamśigāthā.jpg
Narasimha

Forms of Narasimha[edit]

The forms delineated are too numerous to mention. Some of these are:

  1. Āsīna - seated
  2. Sthānaka - standing
  3. Yānaka - striding
  4. Ugra - ferocious
  5. Varada - boon- giving
  6. Lakṣmīnarasimha - in the company of Laksmī
  7. Yogānarasimha - seated in yoga
  8. Girija - emerging from a cave in a mountain
  9. Etc.

The hands of the image may be two or four. In the latter case, the two back-hands hold the śaṅkha[1] and cakra[2] the other two being shown in the act of killing the demon Hiraṇyakaśipu.

Literary Works on Narsimha[edit]

An entire Upaniṣad, the Narsimhatāpinī, in two parts is devoted to his worship and meditation. There are several authors of dharmaśāstra literature by this name, but not much is known of them. Some of them are:

  1. Narasimha, the author of Āpastamba-grhyasutra-kārikā- vrtti[3]
  2. Narasimhadeva, author of Durgābhaktitarañgini[4]
  3. Narasimha Vājapeyin, author of Nityācāra-pradīpa
  4. Narasimha Somayājin, author of Viṣṇupratisthāvidhidarpana.

Many of these works are still in the manuscript form and not printed.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Śaṅkha means conch.
  2. ↑ Cakra means discus.
  3. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1614.
  4. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1425-50.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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Deval Sancheti

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