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

Parṇakurca

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

Parṇakurca literally means ‘an expiation in which leaves and dry grass are used’.

Significance of Parṇakṛcchra[edit]

The dharmaśāstras prescribe expiations for a variety of sins, both minor and major, committed by human beings knowingly or unknowingly. One group of such expiations is given the general name ‘kṛcchara’. The parṇakurca is also known as ‘parṇakṛcchra’. It is one of them.

Ritual of Parṇakṛcchra[edit]

The sinner for whom this expiation is prescribed has to give up food for five days and subsist only on the decoction of boiled leaves[1] for four days and then water in which a kurca[2] has been dipped.

Leaves for Parṇakṛcchra[edit]

The recommended leaves are:

  1. Palāśa - Butea frondosa
  2. Udumbara - Ficus glomerata
  3. Lotus
  4. Bilva - Aegle marmelos

Some works like the Viṣṇudharmasutras[3] give a longer duration of seven days adding the leaves of two more trees.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Parṇa means leaf.
  2. ↑ Kurca means darbha or Poa cynosuroides.
  3. ↑ Viṣṇudharmasutras 46.23
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Parṇakurca&oldid=135307"