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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.

Tripurabhairavi

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshanananda

Tripurabhairavi literally means ‘the Mother-goddess who is fierce towards the three realms’.</ref>

Significance of Tripurabhairavi Goddess[edit]

Tripurabhairavi is one of the major forms of the Mother goddess worshiped in her fierce as well as benevolent aspects. Tripura signifies the three worlds:

  1. bhu - It means the earth. It stands for dharma[1] in her benevolent aspect.
  2. Bhuvah - It means the middle region. It stands for artha[2] in her benevolent aspect.
  3. Suvah - It means the heaven. It stands for kāma[3] in her benevolent aspect.

In her fierce aspect, she destroys these at the end of a cycle of creation.

Iconographical Representation[edit]

Iconographical works describe her thus:

In her benevolent form:

  • She is very bright like a thousand rising suns.
  • She wears reddish silken garments.
  • She has four arms, carrying in her two hands a book and a rosary while the other two exhibit the postures of boon-giving called as varadamudrā and protection called as abhaya-mudrā.

In her fierce aspect:

  • She is shown as red in color with parted lips revealing blood-shot teeth and the eyes wild with intoxication.
  • She wears garlands of skulls or a garland of three heads of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Rudra.

In both these aspects she has three eyes and four arms. She also has matted hair-braids tied up into a topknot and adorned with a crescent moon.


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Dharma means virtue.
  2. ↑ Artha means wealth.
  3. ↑ Kāma means pleasure.
  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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