India and Indians — the land, the cosmos, the society, the scriptures.
Books, essays, the author’s own maps and diagrams, and a readers’ circle. Begin with the first volume, enter by subject, or wander the atlas.
Now in the library: 1 book · 27 topics · 11 plates — 3 more volumes to come.
Brownstudy on Heathenland
A Book on Indology · M. N. Behera · 2003
Written over sixty years of private study by a retired Indian civil servant, Brownstudy on Heathenland sets out to explain India to itself and to the world: its land and its names, its cosmos, its gods and its priests, its castes and its laws, its thousand years of conquest, its modern politics and its mystical texts. The author’s method is rational and his conclusions are entirely his own; many readers will disagree with some of them, and he expected that. Twenty-seven topics in four parts, with sixteen maps and diagrams drawn by the author’s hand.
Enter by subject
6 research areas. Each gathers the relevant chapters from every book, with the plates, articles and sources that belong to them.
Area iLand & GeographyAncient and modern Heathenland; the origin of the names Asia, India, Hindu and Hindustan; the lands the author believes were lost to the sea.2 topics · 3 plates
Area iiHistory & CivilisationThe rise and fall of civilisations, a thousand years of invasion and conquest, and the road from 1921 to Partition and 1948.5 topics · 2 plates
Area iiiPhilosophy & MetaphysicsLife, soul, prayer, fate, sin, salvation, spirit and death, each examined with the tools of physics, biology and plain reasoning.9 topics · 5 plates
Area ivCosmology in Indian ThoughtMagnetic energy in creation and destruction, the Pole-star constellation, galaxies and black holes, and the four Vedas read in scientific terms.1 topic · 5 plates
Area vSociety, Caste & PolityJustice, law, government, caste and corruption in modern India, with the author’s proposals for reform.8 topics · 2 plates
Area viScriptures & MysticismReligion, worship, priesthood, the world’s reformers, the Bhagavad Gita and the practice of yoga and samadhi.10 topics‘Indo’ means Indian, and ‘-logy’ forms the names of sciences or departments of study. Hence Indology means the study of Indians. But the study of a people will never be sound without study of its land and of its neighbouring lands, for neighbouring influences always shape character and culture.
From the site’s introduction to Indology, 2003 · See how chapters read
The first essays are being written.