Hindu Schools Research Articles

PENGUATAN IDENTITAS SOSIAL MASYARAKAT MINORITAS ETNIS INDIA TAMIL DI KAMPUNG KELING KOTA TEBING TINGGI

The aim of the research is to find out what strategies to strengthen social identity are carried out by the Tamil Indian ethnic minority community in Kampung Keling, Tebing Tinggi City. The strengthening of identity in question is due to the identity crisis experienced by the Tamil community from various aspects which then gives rise to a feeling of maintaining existence as an ethnic group. This research uses qualitative methods with a descriptive approach. The theory used in this research is Henri Tajfel's Social Identity Theory. The results of this research are that the Tamil community in Kampung Keling is experiencing an identity crisis related to the use of the Tamil language. Tamil is only mastered by older people and only some teenagers can speak Tamil, while for children, almost all of them cannot master Tamil. Then there are efforts being made to strengthen the identity of the Tamil community, namely by the way parents teach their children how to speak Tamil, then there are plans to build a Tamil Hindu school to make it easier for children to learn about Tamil religion and culture. Another effort is the use of traditional clothing during worship or holding celebrations related to Tamil Indian traditions such as the Adhi Maha Puja tradition which is usually held once every year.

Illusion and individuation in the Orientalisms of Arthur Schopenhauer and Karoline von Günderrode

AbstractThe present article demonstrates the philosophical gains Arthur Schopenhauer and Karoline von Günderrode derive from the Western conceptions of individuation they read into Indian thought. Schopenhauer represents much of 19th‐century German Orientalism—including that of Herder and Friedrich Schlegel—insofar as his Idealism focuses upon Indian “antirealism” or the view that contrasts the unreality of finitude with a higher, ultimate reality. In particular, he subsumes all individuated forms—including individual subjectivity—under the Indian concept māyā, or “illusion” as understood by the Hindu school Advaita. Günderrode, on the contrary, privileges the Indian concept of saṃsāra, or cyclical reincarnation, which in her understanding exemplifies a then uncommon interpretation of Indian thought as “realist,” or committed to the truth of appearances and the value of finitude. With regard to Hindu belief, Günderrode's conception of individuation as participation in reality therefore resonates with the materialist school of Hinduism Vaiśeṣika, as well as Advaita's directly competing school, Viśiṣṭādvaita.

Change: Thinking through Sāṅkhya

This paper explores the ways change is addressed in Sāṅkhya, one of the major Hindu schools of philosophy, specifically in light of the classical debate between Hindu and the Buddhist philosophers regarding intrinsic nature (svabhāva) and the concept of transformation (pariṇāma). When we closely analyze Sāṅkhya categories, the issue of temporality stands out, because for Sāṅkhya philosophers time is not a distinct category and is infrequently addressed in classical Sāṅkhya. Nonetheless, we can still extract two different notions related to time, dynamism intrinsic to rajas, and temporality that is enclosed within the notion of space and spatial objects. What this implies is that the temporality implicit within the concept of change is only applicable to the last of the evolutes, according to Sāṅkhya cosmology. However, the Sāṅkhyan idea of 16 transformations (pariṇāma) applies to all categories, except puruṣa. By exploiting the parameters of these arguments, this paper makes the case for a closer analysis of the category of transformation in classical Sāṅkhya. Reading about change in the light of svabhāva, the intrinsic nature of an entity, versus the idea of its termination, allows us to have a wider conversation on what it means for something to change from within the Sāṅkhya paradigm.

Individual differences in religiosity and its influences on psychological capital

ABSTRACT The purpose of the current study was to investigate relationships between certain dimensions of religiosity and psychological capital (PsyCap) in the Christian, Hindu, and Muslim secondary school students in Pakistan. Extrinsic, intrinsic, quest religious orientations, and the behavioural dimension of religiosity were adopted as independent variables. The PsyCap served as a criterion variable. Fifteen hundred secondary school students affiliated with the Christian (n = 371), Hindu (n = 505), and Muslim (n = 624) communities participated in the study. Three measures, including the New Indices of Religious Orientation Revised, Behavioural Measure of Religiosity and Psychological Capital Questionnaire were used to collect data. Results demonstrated a significant contribution of independent variables in explaining variances in the criterion variable in the three groups of students. However, the impact of each dimension of religiosity on psychological capital differs among the Christian, Hindu, and Muslim students.

Aurangzeb Alamgir on Inter Faith Harmony: An Analysis of Objections

Islam provides an absolute religious freedom to the followers of all the religions. The Muslims promoted peace, mutual respect, inter-faith harmony and religious equality in the Sub-Continent in this ideological prospective. The Mughal rulers not only continued this glorious Islamic tradition but also promoted it on a very large scale. Aurangzeb Alamgir is one of those Mughal rulers who not only granted religious freedom to the non-Muslim inhabitants of India rather he honored many non-Muslims especially the Hindus with important public offices. He took special steps for their comprehensive socio-religious welfare and progress. He not only provided security to the contemporary religious worship places of the non-Muslims, but also allowed them to build new religious as well as educational institutions where they wanted. Contrary to the historical facts, some of the partial writers accuse Aurangzeb Alamgir to be prejudiced and cruel towards his non-Muslim subjects, particularly the Hindus. They think that Aurangzeb Alamgir demolished the Hindu temples as well as the Hindu schools. He increased the amount of “Jizya”, took some steps for forced religious preaching and the Hindus were expelled from public services and official posts. But, these allegations do not match the historical realities. This research article aims to conduct a thorough and an impartial analysis of these allegations.

BIOETIKA DALAM HINDU

Religion and medicine are involved when the human face the truths related to the beginning and the end of life. The reflection of the Hindu values on the issues of modernity in the medical domain must be important at least for two basic reasons: Firstly, in the philosophical sense, various Hindu schools of thought have a fascinating conformity with the demands of modern times’, the pluralistic era. And secondly, the patriarchal cultural orientation of the Balinese society on the one hand (having son is their main obligation during their marriage times) and the view of God as a personal Being (God as the creator of all) raise an ethical dilemma: in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Analysis of water-related metaphors within the theme of religious harmony in Swami Vivekananda’s <i>Complete Works</i>

This article focuses on the metaphors employed by Swami Vivekananda. The aim was to explain otherwise abstruse philosophical principles within the Hindu school of thought, with especial emphasis on Swami Vivekananda’s version of Advaita Vedanta, which maintains that there is no duality of existence despite the appearance of such. Using conceptual metaphor theory as a framework, and corpus linguistics as a tool, the metaphors used in Vivekananda’s Complete Works have been explored and it is concluded that he more often than not draws on the water frame to explain concepts. This is contrary to mainstream Western religions, which seem to employ primarily the family frame to conceptualise God metaphorically; this is not so within Vivekananda’s Hinduism – though he does use the said frame. Hence, Vivekananda’s water-related metaphors are analysed here under various themes, and parallels are drawn between Christian mysticism and Vivekananda’s Hinduism, showing that there are significant similarities between these two influential traditions.

Hindu Perspectives on Evolution: Darwin, Dharma, and Design

Hindu Perspectives on Evolution challenges some of the myths associated with the debate of creationism and evolutionism in the Hindu context by focusing on the Hindu religion's take on the question of evolution and design. The major aim of the book is to critically engage the notion of the natural coexistence of Hinduism and science. The principal argument of the book is that, “while those Hindus who denied and continue to deny Darwinism outright were and are relatively few, the apparent historical ease of assimilating modern science and evolutionary theory on the part of Hindus is misleading—indeed, an illusion” (5). The author engages with different schools of thought and periods to illustrate this. Part 1 of the book deals with how different classical Hindu schools and traditions responded to the question of creationism and design. It has a rich discussion of various classical Indian philosophical traditions such as Advaita Vedanta of Sankara, Nyaya-Vaisesika of Udayana, and Visistadvaita Vedanta of Ramanuja. The author argues that even though some of the ancient Hindu traditions like Carvaka have a rich tradition of materialism, in general, other schools tend to give importance to Brahman/Atman. For them, consciousness, or atman, is superior to matter. This section invites the reader to think about the discourse of creationism beyond the Western imagination. The discussion on Carvaka and Samkhya problematizes the orientalist understanding of the East as a spiritual land. This section is rich in its philosophical discussion, which makes it difficult for those not familiar with classical Indian philosophy to comprehend.

Utpaladeva's Conception of Self in the Context of the Ātmavāda-anātmavāda Debate and in Comparison with Western Theological Idealism

This essay examines the unique conception of self (ātman) developed by Utpaladeva, one of the greatest philosophers of the Kashmir Śaiva Recognition (Pratyabhijñā) school, in polemics with Buddhist no-self theorists and rival Hindu schools. The central question that fueled philosophical debate between Hinduism and Buddhism for centuries is whether a continuous stable entity, which is either consciousness itself or serves as the ground of consciousness, is required to sustain all the experienced features of embodied physical and mental activity, and, in the context of the conceptualization of the world as saṃsāra , whether such a self persists between rebirths and in liberation. Utpaladeva argues contra Buddhists and contra other ātmavādins not only that differentiation and unity or change and continuity are compatible, but that a coherent account of our experience requires a continuous dynamic substratum that accommodates both. The Pratyabhijñā's ātman is opposed to that of Nyāya, Vaiśeṣ ika, and Mīmāṃsā insofar as it is de-individuated, which makes it close to Advaita's Brahman, also a universal consciousness, from which it differs, however, insofar as it is theological and acts as the contentbearer by taking on forms, as opposed to being impersonal and passive. When compared with theologies, both from within and outside the wider domain of Hindu thought, the Pratyabhijñā proves to be unique in that it gives a philosophically nuanced account of God, who stands in a nondual relationship to the individual self. This essay also compares the Pratyabhijñā's theological account of self with the theological idealism of Berkeley and Bradley, finding it closer to the latter. Comparing the Pratyabhijñā with its nearest Western philosophical counterparts should make it more accessible and intelligible from the standpoint of the Western academy and pave the way for involving its rich and distinctive conception of self in the fledgling cross-cultural philosophical dialogue on questions concerning self and consciousness.

Equality on Different Terms

In this article the authors examine the reasons for the establishment of Hindu schools in the Netherlands and how the Dutch system of education facilitates these and other voluntarily separate schools. In particular, the authors explore the manner in which Hindu schools aim to cultivate and sustain attachments to their own group through a culturally specific approach to learning and belonging that promises greater educational equality. The authors argue that the special features of Dutch Hindu schools, as a form of voluntary separation, may better facilitate and promote equality of educational opportunity than other options available to the Dutch Hindu community.

The Self's Awareness of Itself: Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha's Arguments against the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self (review)

Reviewed by: The Self's Awareness of Itself: Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha's Arguments against the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self Elisa Freschi The Self's Awareness of Itself: Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha's Arguments against the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self. By Alex Watson. Wien: De Nobili, 2006. Pp. 433. The central role and the philosophical significance of the controversy about the existence of an ātman(“self”) in Indian philosophy has been examined in Claus Oetke's masterpiece “ Ich” und das Ich,which philosophically investigates the conflicting opinions about the self and its nature in Theravāda Buddhism, Vaiśeṣika, Nyāya, and Bhāṭṭamīmāṃsā. Alex Watson's learned book The Self's Awareness of Itself: Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha's Arguments against the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Selfintroduces into this debate the views of a Śaiva Siddhānta author, Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha, who lived in Kashmir between circa a.d.950 and 1000 (p. 115). In fact, thanks to the accurate work of Nidodi Ramachandra Bhatt, Dominic Goodall, and Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat, among others, we already had excellent editions and translations of some of Rāmakaṇṭha's works, whereas a philosophical appreciation of his contribution was still a desideratum. Watson has focused on a portion of the first chapter of Rāmakaṇṭha's Nareśvaraparīkṣāprakāśa(“[Commentary throwing] light on [Sadyojyotis'] investigation into the human being and God”—henceforth NPP). The motivation behind Watson's choice of author lies in the fact that, according to him (p. 77), Rāmakaṇṭha was the most dialectically engaged thinker of the Śaiva Siddhānta school (his predecessors and successors rather neglecting genuine philosophical confrontations with other schools). As well, this text in particular is the Śaiva Siddhānta text that devotes the “most space to dialogue with other traditions.” Moreover, “It is not only the amount of space devoted to, but also the manner of, this engagement with other traditions that sets the first chapter of NPPapart from earlier Śaiva Siddhānta texts, and indeed from many of the others by Rāmakaṇṭha” (p. 77). So, both because of its dialogic character and its content, an inquiry about the existence and nature of the self, the first chapter of the NPPallows Watson to insert Rāmakaṇṭha directly into the philosophical arena of classical Indian thought. The book is divided into five parts. An introduction presents an overview of the Indian controversy about the existence of an ātman(briefly outlining the theses of various Buddhist and Hindu schools), introduces Rāmakaṇṭntha, and offers some editorial remarks about the NPPtext. This is followed by four chapters in which portions of the first chapter of the NPPare critically edited, translated, and extensively commented on by Watson. The book's chapters, and the paragraphs therein, present Watson's own partitions of the text and are meant to guide its philosophical understanding by distinguishing the opponents' views from those of the siddhāntin(the upholder of the correct view, identifiable with Rāmakaṇṭha himself) and by demonstrating the various steps of the argument within each view. The first argument Watson has selected from the NPPis dedicated to the inference of the self based on desire and the synthesis of cognitions, an inference most Naiyāyikas believe to be the only way to demonstrate the existence of the self, as well as to the Buddhist opposing arguments. The next chapter focuses on self-awareness [End Page 400] (svasaṃvedana)as evidence for the existence of the self, here Rāmakaṇṭha directly opposing the Buddhist defeaters of the Naiyāyikas found in the previous chapter. The following chapter deals with I-cognitions, believed by the Mīmāṃsaka Kumārila Bhaṭṭa to yield evidence of the existence of a self, and with the Buddhist opponents of this view, especially Dharmakīrti. Rāmakaṇṭha's view on this matter as represented by Watson seems to hold some ambiguities, insofar as I-cognitions are conceptual cognitions, and Rāmakaṇṭha has until this point rather maintained that the self appears preconceptually in self-awareness...

Age trends in anthropometric characteristics among 6-9 years old Bengalee Hindu school girls of Kolkata, India

A cross-sectional study of 431 6-9 years old urban Bengalee Hindu schoolgirls of Kolkata, India, was undertaken to study age trends in anthropometric characteristics including regional and subcutaneous adiposity. The anthropometric variables measured included height, weight, sitting height (SH), waist (WC), hip (HPC), thigh (TC), mid-upper arm (MUAC) and medial calf (MC) circumferences as well as triceps (TSF), biceps (BSF), subscapular SUBSF), suprailliac (SUPSF) and medial calf (MCASF) skinfolds. The results revealed, that there was a significant increasing age trend for all the anthropometric variables including the two derived variables: body mass index (BMI) and subischial leg length (SLL). For all variables, the lowest and the highest means were observed at the age of 6 and 9 years, respectively. The maximum increase in weight, BMI, all linear measurements, WC and HPC were observed during the period 6-7 years of age. In general, all skinfolds recorded similar yearly increments. More importantly, this study clearly indicated that among Bengalee girls aged 6-9 years, the highest amount of linear growth (height, SH and SLL) was observed at 6 years of age. The overall adiposity (BMI) also recorded the maximum increment during this period. The unique data presented here can be used as reference values for urban Bengalee Hindu girls aged 6-9 years.

The Hindu Succession act: One Law, Plural Identities

A broad definition of law manifests itself in various ways: it legitimates certain visions of social order, it determines relations between individuals and groups, and it manipulates cultural understandings and discourses over various concepts of rights - and duties. In India, the Hindu Succession Rights Act (HSA) of 1956 allows the wife and daughters, along with the sons of the deceased senior male, to claim an equal share in familial property. By giving inheritance rights to daughters and widows, not only to sons, this Act proposes a radically different organization of the ideal household, commonly referred to as the ‘Indian joint family’. The Act initiates a transformation of Hindu women’s status through their rights to property, which implies the transformation of women’s rights and duties in India. It also affects men’s access to natal property and modifies brother-sister relationships. Moreover, it redefines some religious categories. Firstly, under this Act the category ‘Hindu’ includes Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh. Secondly, it regulates the multiple religious and inheritance practices that still exist in different parts of India.Like other national laws concerning the personal rights of the Hindu population, the HSA is the result of a compromise between different legal traditions such as various Hindu schools of law, British common law and the western philosophy underlying the concept of equality. The long debate over personal laws that took place in the 1950s led Indian legislators to envisage a new ‘social order’ in their laws, which would become potential agents of social change. But such legislative initiatives are not sufficient because their success depends on tribunals’ reactions and their capacity and desire to elaborate a new jurisprudence. In addition, innovative legal cases depend on people’s knowledge of the law and their desire to use it instead of other forms of conflict resolution. Drawing on observations made during an extensive fieldwork period in a rural community and case studies in Pune tribunals, this paper shows that women know that they have some rights to their fathers’ and husbands’ property. However, for various reasons, they do not see any advantage in claiming those rights. Women often find it difficult to reconcile claiming rights with their duties as daughters or daughters-in-law and the social restrictions associated with widowhood. This socio-legal ethnography of women’s succession rights in the state of Maharashtra contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of social cohesion in an environment where legal pluralism offers plural sources of identity definition and transformation.

Education and Community in the Asian Diaspora: The Struggle for Hindu Schools in Trinidad

Education and Community in the Asian Diaspora: The Struggle for Hindu Schools in Trinidad

Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions (review)

Reviewed by: Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions A. J. Nicholson Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions. By Francis X. Clooney, S. J. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. x + 209. For the past decade, Francis Clooney has been one of the most influential comparative theologians in North America. A Jesuit priest who lived in India and later became an expert interpreter of Hindu texts, he combines the confessional commitments of a practicing Christian with a hermeneutical sophistication that has made his work essential reading for Indologists. In earlier works, such as Theology after Vedānta, he illustrated in a convincing way that the schools of Hinduism can be understood at least as well under the rubric of "theology" as under the rubric of "philosophy." Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions is in some ways Clooney's most ambitious work to date. In it he elucidates the thought of dozens of Hindu and Christian thinkers, but does so in a way that remains grounded in the rigorous interpretation of Tamil and Sanskrit texts. He presents as comparative examples a number of Hindu thinkers who have rarely been treated in the secondary literature, and for that reason alone his book should hold interest for students of Hindu thought. But Clooney states that his primary audience is Christian theologians themselves. His larger aim is to show inductively that theology is by its very nature an interreligious, comparative, dialogical, and confessional enterprise, and therefore that Christian theologians must necessarily study the theologies of other religions. If they fail to do so, they will not be good theologians. This last claim is a radical indictment of the way theology has been done throughout Christian history—and one that I believe Clooney falls short of adequately arguing. Hindu God, Christian God is divided into six chapters plus a postscript. The first and last chapters address the methodological context and wider claims of Clooney's comparative theological project. Chapters 2 through 5 contain the bulk of Clooney's comparisons, each chapter structured around a single theological topic: the existence of God (chapter 2), the one true God (chapter 3), divine embodiment (chapter 4), and revelation (chapter 5). Each of these chapters begins a with brief presentation of one twentieth-century Christian theologian's thoughts on the topic, followed by a lengthier comparison with a number of premodern Hindu thinkers. For instance, after the discussion in chapter 2 of Richard Swinburne's probabilistic argument for the existence of God, Clooney presents multiple Hindu perspectives. Among them are the views of Annaṃbhaṭṭa and Jayanta Bhaṭṭa, two thinkers who maintained that God's existence can be proven through rational argument, and Śaṃkara and Vedānta Deśika, two thinkers who denied this possibility. Clooney's method serves to emphasize that there is almost never a single "Hindu view" or "Christian view" [End Page 599] on any particular question. Although earlier generations of comparativists sometimes attempted generalizations about an essential Hindu worldview (e.g., the doctrine of māyā), given our access today to the texts of so many different Hindu schools, these generalizations should be taken with a grain of salt. Based on his numerous examples derived from Sanskrit and Tamil texts, one of Clooney's conclusions is that "almost all of what counts as theological reasoning is shared across religious boundaries." Since this is the case, the dividing line between Christian theology and Hindu theology is an arbitrary one. As he points out, a Christian theologian will often have more in common with some Hindu thinker than he will with another Christian on a given topic. This is the case with Clooney, for instance, when he agrees with Jayanta Bhaṭṭa and disagrees with Karl Barth regarding the persuasiveness of cosmological arguments for God's existence. Therefore, Christian theologians are obliged to study Hindu theologies, and presumably theologies from other religions as well. This argument presents difficulties on two levels, I think. First, there are practical concerns, as Clooney acknowledges. He insists quite correctly in his discussion of the methodology of comparative...

The Notion of Merit in Indian Religions

There are uses of the term merit in Indian religions which also appear in secular contexts, but in addition there are other uses that are not encountered outside religion. Transfer of merit is a specific doctrine in whose connection the term merit is used with an intention which is not the same as that found in nonreligious contexts. Two main types of transfer of merit can be distinguished. First, the transfer of merit has been associated with certain ritual practices in Hinduism and in Buddhism. Another main type of transfer of merit is connected with Mahāyāna belief in bodhisattvas' loving-kindness towards other beings. In the orthodox Hindu schools, in Hīnayāna Buddhism and in Jainism, transfer of merit has been rejected on account of the doctrine of karma according to which the person can acquire karmic outcomes for only those actions he or she has performed by himself.

Paradox of eroticism and sexual abstinence in Hindu culture

The belief in the virtue of abstinence from sex is pervasive in Hindu culture, as exemplified in literature—both ancient and contemporary. At the same time, there is plenty of evidence of eroticism—sometimes quite explicit—in Hindu literature, arts and religious rituals. This paper describes and analyses the erotic elements in Kama Sutra, in sculptures on ancient Hindu temples like Khajuraho and in the religious rituals of two Hindu schools (Tantrism and Sahajiya Vaishnavism) and then attempts to explain the apparent paradox between eroticism and sexual abstinence in Hind culture.Ancient Hindu literature in Sanskrit—religious texts, epics, novels and dramas—is a storehouse of sexual symbolism and eroticism. Highly analytical as well as practical discourses on sexuality and sexual techniques in the well-known treatise, Kama Sutra, composed by Vatsayana over 1500 years ago reflect the importance of sex in ancient Hindu life. Some Hindu temples have erotic sculptures carved on their stone walls. Tantrism and...

Paradox of eroticism and sexual abstinence in Hindu culture

The belief in the virtue of abstinence from sex is pervasive in Hindu culture, as exemplified in literature—both ancient and contemporary. At the same time, there is plenty of evidence of eroticism—sometimes quite explicit—in Hindu literature, arts and religious rituals. This paper describes and analyses the erotic elements in Kama Sutra, in sculptures on ancient Hindu temples like Khajuraho and in the religious rituals of two Hindu schools (Tantrism and Sahajiya Vaishnavism) and then attempts to explain the apparent paradox between eroticism and sexual abstinence in Hind culture.Ancient Hindu literature in Sanskrit—religious texts, epics, novels and dramas—is a storehouse of sexual symbolism and eroticism. Highly analytical as well as practical discourses on sexuality and sexual techniques in the well-known treatise, Kama Sutra, composed by Vatsayana over 1500 years ago reflect the importance of sex in ancient Hindu life. Some Hindu temples have erotic sculptures carved on their stone walls. Tantrism and...

Language Policy in South Asia

In the political divisions within South Asia there has traditionally been no organized effort for language policies.1Language was essentially related to one's caste, village, district, and state. Beyond this, one identified with languages associated with religion (Sanskrit or Arabic), or learned and literary texts (mainly Sanskrit and Persian). At the time of Indian independence (1947), one task of the new government was to unravel the status and position of almost 560 sovereign states which were ruled by an array of mahārājās, nawābs, and lesser luminaries, depending on the size and the revenue of each state and subdivision. Each state state was a kindgom unto itself, and such political divisions did not foster a national language policy. In India, the largest country in South Asia, four languages were used for wider communication asbazārlanguages or languages of literature and intranational communication: Hindi (and its varieties, Hindustani and Urdu), Sanskrit, Persian, and later, English (cf., for Sanskrit, Kachru and Sridhar 1978; Sharma 1976; for English, Kachru 1969; 1982a). The Hindus tended to send their children to apāṭhśālā(traditional Hindu school mainly for scriptural education) for the study of the scriptures and some basic knowledge of the śāastras (Sanskrit instructional texts, treatise), and the Muslims tended to send their children to amaktab(traditional school for Koranic instruction). The denominational schools (vidyāZaya) provided liberal arts instruction in Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi, Arabic, or in the regional languages.

A Method of Teaching

In 1816 there appeared a translation by Dr. John Taylor of a treatise on Hindu Arithmetic and Geometry, published at the expense of the Literary Society of Bombay The author of this treatise was Bhascara Acharya (1114-c. 1185) and the treatise itself is of some importance in the history of Hindu mathematics. A discussion of this treatise, which is called the Lilawati, may be found by those interested in Rouse Ball’s History of Mathematics, pp. 150-154. It is however with the appendix to Taylor’s translation that we are here concerned. Little is known of Taylor himself except that he was born in Edinburgh, took his M.D. degree there in 1804 and died in Persia in 1821. He is believed to have published other translations from the Sanscrit besides the Lilawati. However, the appendix of this translation is entitled “A Short Account of the Present Mode of Teaching Arithmetic in Hindu Schools” and it may be of some interest to give a brief description of its contents.