Yes, life would be wonderful if we were all like the Indians. As long as nobody got to be any of the undercastes. /sarc.
India's a wonderful place but the racism there makes the stoniest redneck from the woods of Georgia look like a New York liberal by comparison.
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Congrats on your proposed article. You may want to discuss Chandragupta Maurya, Chanakya, and the Age of the Guptas (which has ben justifiably termed India's Golden Age.
And don't worry - you don't have to read the Vedas. If you are going to treat this subject objectively, please contact me via FReepmail and I'll try to send you as much info/contacts that I can.
Good luck.
Can you folks help FReeper DeuceTraveler with this request? I will be sending him/her additional information too.
The age of the Gupta's is NOW.
I'm in Santa Clara this week, and it seems that every other guy is named Gupta. ;)
Perhaps you can help this freeper. Thanks
Another suggestion: try contacting an Indian or British museum and ask for someone in the department that handles Indian history. When I was doing some research on Chinese history I found that much of the best material in the area I was researching had actually been written in English due to the historical British presence in China and the interest of British historians in the region. I imagine you would find a similar situation in India, with much material available in English.
Good luck on your rpg--sounds fun! I am actually doing something similar, which is one reason I follow these threads :-)
Hindu mythology
by Bernard Doyle
The Hindus have created a rich, complex mythology which is still very much alive. Hundreds of millions of people continue to believe in the multitudes of gods which inhabit the Hindu pantheon. This tapestry of religion is the result of millennia of integration. The Indian sub-continent has been a crossroad for several cultures, and the Indian people have incorporated numerous ideas from different faiths.
Still, one cosmic Truth holds in Hindu thought, and that is that all things are simply a part of a greater, whole One. In early Hindu belief, which still holds true, for nothing in Hinduism is ever discarded, this Universal whole was called Brahmam. All beings and things, from the gods and demons, through humans, on to the lowliest pebble on the beach, were and are part of this One. In later times, the neuter Brahmam became equated with the masculine Brahma, but the original idea is still very much a part of Hindu thought.
go here : http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/asia/hindu/hindu_mythology.html