Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp

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.

Pañcaśikha

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Pañcaśikha literally means ‘one with five locks of hair on the head'.

Pañcaśikha as per Sāṅkhya Darśana[edit]

One of the six systems of the religious philosophy whose elements are rooted in the Vedic literature and which is extant even today as an important subject of study is the Sāṅkhya Darśana. This system is said to have been originally taught by the sage Kapila and further expounded and expanded by his disciple Asuri and his student Pañcaśikha also.

Pañcaśikha as per Mahābhārata[edit]

One Pañcaśikha is mentioned by the Mahābhārata[1] as a teacher of the king Janaka. He is said to have authored a voluminous work, Sastitantra[2] which is not available now. This name might have been given to that work since it was said to deal with sixty[3] topics of Sāñkhya philosophy.

Pañcaśikha as per Yogasutras[edit]

Twenty-one sutras in prose have been quoted in the Vyāsabhāsya on the Yogasutras of Patañjali[4] as of Pañcaśikha. He might have lived during the first century B. C. His Sāṅkhya probably represents a transitional stage from that of the Upaniṣads to that propounded by īśvara-kṛṣṇa[5] in his Sāñkhyakārikā.


References[edit]

  1. Śāntiparva, 219
  2. It is in sixty chapters, in two parts, containing thirty two and twenty-eight chapters each.
  3. Sixty means ṣaṣṭi.
  4. He lived in 200 B. C.
  5. Īśvara-kṛṣṇa lived in A. D. 350.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore