Sanskrit

What is caste ? When Portuguese travelers visited India, they first encountered caste system or race based social discrimination in 16th century. They used a Portuguese term that is “casta” which means “race”. Today, the term caste is used to describe the division of societies on the basis of social hierarchy, not only in Asia but all over the world. It is believed that only four castes exist which are divided on the basis of Brahma’s divine genius. The four existing…

Each culture has a significance in certain symbols. One of the archetypes that is related to me is Mandala. The word mandala comes from sanskrit word meaning “circle”, and it symbolizes unity and harmony (Venefica). “The mandala appears to us in all aspects of life, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and more obviously the circles of life encompassing friends, family and communities” (Dicker).…

Buddhism is a major world religion, with several schools of thoughts and numerous sects. The two major branches are known as Theravada, “The Way of the Elders” and Mahayana, “The Great Vehicle.” Buddhism has been influential in many parts of the world, in this paper we will focus on Theravadas dominance in India and Mahayanist preeminence in Japan. Furthermore, we will introduce both schools of thought separately, explore the similarities and differences of these major schools and discuss…

This paper is about Hinduism and how few aspects of the religion has changed with time due to change in the social and cultural environment. There are various aspects of Hinduism that has changed and is changing like the weakening of the caste system, changes in the way people worship Gods, the way they celebrate festivities, decrease in animal sacrifices, and so on. In this paper, I address the culture of animal sacrifice that many Hindu groups practice around the world. It explains how the…

This article was written by John Corvino. He is explaining his reasons why he believes it is not immoral for Tommy and Jim, or any homosexual, to engage in sexual relations. He explains in this article the meaning of unnatural, nature’s and biblical view on homosexuality, and slippery slope argumentation view of homosexuality. He argues with these views as a result of these is the main arguments against sexual relationships between two people of the same gender. By going through these arguments,…

Reflection Paper: Suttee or Sati: Victim or Victor In this article, the author firstly introduced Sati, "which is the death of a woman on her husband's funeral pyre"(p.175). The historical background is also given by the author. Sati seems to have a long history. "There have been several attempts to abolish the practice"(p.176), while it seems not successfully abolished. "Some instances still occur, even in the 1980s, and the esteem and devotion paid to the memories of women who have died in…

2.4 Medical Science It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has. – Hippocrates (460-377 BC), the ancient Greek physician – considered as one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine and, often referred to as the ‘Father of Medicine’ Visualize a chip that is implemented in the brain, which processes images from an artificial retina grafted in the eye and restores the vision of a blind person. Visualize a…

their own history, apart from being blind to the world outside (174). Madan was informed by his friend that she was visiting Lothal, about which Madan had not the faintest idea. Even where language is concerned the friend was well informed about Sanskrit being used in old civilizations in India whereas Madan was ill-informed. This particularly highlights the emphasis which as Indians we lay on knowing about our culture and the heights we reached as old civilization in this world. The Indian…

By the colonial and post-colonial era in South Asia, many people of marginalized genders and sexualities are given harmful labels, and pushed to the fringed of societies by colonizers and elites. Colonizers used religion and economics to enforce a deviant label onto people with marginalized sexualities while reinforcing heterosexuality and the gender binary as being the only real way to have meaningful relationships, despite evidence of the fluidity of gender and sexuality, not only in narrative…

1. Hinduism has no founder, it evolved over time, starting with the Harappas around 2750-1500 BCE. First an indigenous group, known as the Indus Valley Civilization, was living in the Indus Valley. This group developed their own culture, traditions and rituals. Then, the Indo-European moved in and mixed their culture with the Indus Valley people overtime. Mixed together they become known as the Harappas, and their culture is the Harappa Culture. Then the Harappa’s are wiped out, however it is…