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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.

Nyāyāmṛta

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Nyāyāmṛta literally means ‘nectar through polemics’.

Contribution of Madhvācārya[edit]

If Śaṇkara[1] took to dialectical methods to counter the nihilism of the Buddhist philosophers and the ritualism of the mīmānsakas and establish his Advaita Vedānta based on the scripture the prasthānatraya, other Vedāntins who radically differed from him were equally pugnacious in attacking his views. The adherents of Dvaita Vedanta of Madhvācārya[2] have contributed quite a voluminous literature in this regards.

Significance of Nyāyāmrta[edit]

The Nyāyāmrta of Vyāsatīrtha[3] is one of the best works of this type. Vyāsatīrtha, also known as Vyāsa-rāya, wrote nine works of which three were considered as his masterpieces. Out of these, the Nyāyāmrta that has been regarded as his magnum opus. It aims at a thorough vindication of the philosophical power and prestige of the realistic metaphysics of Madhvācārya, dealing simultaneously with the concomitant problems.

Content of Nyāyāmrta[edit]

The work which is in elegant prose, is divided into four paricchedas or chapters. An overview of the topics of each section is delineated belows.

First Chapter[edit]

The first chapter examines thoroughly the various concepts put forward by Advaita Vedānta such as:

  • Adhyāsa - superimposition
  • Anirvacanīyatva - inexplicability
  • Mithyātva - falsity of the world-appearance
  • Others

Second Chapter[edit]

The second chapter refutes some of the common and well-known advaitic doctrines such as:

Third Chapter[edit]

The third chapter deals with the correct interpretation of certain statements in the scriptures dealing with sādhanās or spiritual practices.

Fourth Chapter[edit]

The last chapter elucidates the doctrine of mukti or liberation according to Madhva, refuting the views of other schools. Thus this work gives an inkling into the genius of Vyāsatirtha’s highly analytical mind.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ He lived in A. D. 788-820.
  2. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1238-1317.
  3. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1478-1539.
  4. ↑ Nirākāra means formless.
  5. ↑ Svaprakāśa means shines by himself.
  6. ↑ Pañcabhedas means the five fundamental differences.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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Deval Sancheti

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