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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.

Urvaśi

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Urvaśi literally means ‘damsel born out of the thigh’.

When the sages Nara and Nārāyaṇa were performing austerities at the Badarikāśrama, Indra sent a few of his apsarās[1] to disturb them. Seeing them, the sage Nārāyaṇa slapped his own uru or thigh, from which emerged a damsel who was more beautiful than all of them put together. Since she came out of the uru, she was called Urvaśi.

Later, as a result of a curse by Surya,[2] she had to live in bhuloka[3] as the wife of the king Pururavas. Once she fell in love with Arjuna who politely refused her advances. She then cursed him to become a eunuch. This curse was utilized by Arjuna at the time of living incognito in Virāṭa’s palace. He lived there under the pseudonym Bṛhannalā.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Apsarās means heavenly damsels.
  2. ↑ Surya is Sun god.
  3. ↑ Bhuloka means the earth.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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