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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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Mahādāna

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Mahādāna literally means ‘the great gift’.

Dāna or giving gifts has been extolled greatly in the scriptures, especially in the Dharmaśāstras and the Purāṇas. This aspect of dharma[1] has also been stressed much in the Kaliyuga or Iron Age.

Out of the several dānas mentioned there, ‘mahādāna’ or ‘a great gift’ is also the one. The mahādānas may be ten[2] or sixteen[3]. Some of them are:

  • Tulāpuruṣa - weighing a person against gold or silver, and distributing it to worthy persons
  • Gosahasra - a thousand milch-cows
  • Horses
  • Elephants
  • Chariots
  • Land
  • House
  • Bride
  • Servant-maids

An elaborate and complicated procedure has been set out for making these gifts.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Dharma means righteous living.
  2. ↑ Agnipurāna 209.23, 24
  3. ↑ Matsyapurāṇa 274 to 289
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Apurva Mahendra Bhangdia, Deval Sancheti

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