Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now freely available.
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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.

Viṣnudharmasutra

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Significance of Viṣṇudharmasutra[edit]

Viṣṇudharmasutra is one of the dharmaśāstra works in the form of sutras. The text as available in print at present seems to be a mixture of an earlier old part and a later part grafted on to it. The earlier prose part in the form of sutras probably belongs to the period 300 B. C. to A. D. 100. The later part in poetry may be assigned to the period A. D. 400-600.

Contents of Viṣnudharmasutra[edit]

It has 100 chapters most of them being brief or even very short. A brief synopsis of the contents may now be given:

  • The four varṇas and their dharmas
  • Duties of kings
  • Various offences and their punishments
  • Mixed castes and their off-springs
  • Death-rites and associated rules
  • Marriages including inter-marriages
  • Duties of women
  • Various sanskāras
  • Sins and expiations
  • Descriptions of various hells
  • Śrāddhas
  • Anatomy of the human body
  • Hymns of praise to Vāsudeva by Bhu[1] and Śrī[2]

Epilogue[edit]

The whole work professes to be a revelation by Lord Viṣṇu. However it seems to borrow the material from other earlier smṛtis like those of Manu and Yājñavalkya. There is a commentary called Vaijayanti by Nandapaṇḍita[3] which has been published.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Bhu means Earth.
  2. ↑ Śrī means Lakṣmī.
  3. ↑ He lived in A. D. 1623.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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Deval Sancheti

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