Volume I of the Indology library

Brownstudy on Heathenland

A Book on Indology — by M. N. Behera

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.

Get the book Explore the 27 topics See the plates

Publisher: University Press of America
Published: 2003
ISBN: 0-7618-2652-1
Format: Paperback, 234 pages
Structure: 4 parts · 27 topics · 16 plates

About the book

A brown study is a reverie: musing, pondering or meditating, with a touch of sadness. Heathenland is the author’s name for the ancient land of which India is the heart, defined in the opening paragraphs of Topic 1. The title names the book exactly: a long, searching meditation on that land and its people.

The book is in four parts. Part I sketches the land and takes up the first questions: life, soul, God, prayer, fate and sin, then justice, law, religion and government. Part II turns to salvation, spirit and death, and to the long history of worship, priesthood and caste. Part III is the thousand years of invasion and the road to Partition. Part IV looks at India now and ends with the Bhagavad Gita and the practice of yoga.

Sixteen plates illustrate it, all but five drawn by the author: maps of Heathenland across a million years, and cosmic diagrams of the universe as he understands it. They are gathered in the Atlas.

“The book Brownstudy on Heathenland by Sri M. N. Behera of India is a timely, rational and scientific interpretation of Indian thoughts, Indian character, Indian history and Indian scriptures. It is a unique book wherein the mysteries of India have been revealed. Besides discussing Indian social and political conditions in the right perspective, it highlights the cause, origin and base of terrorism in the world. In addition to a scientific analysis of religion and religious practices it gives a brief exposition of spiritualism and Indian mysticism. There are twenty seven topics in the book each of which contains some new, marvellous and hither-to unknown facts. One should read the whole book to obtain the optimum benefit and to assess its merit in the context of the present international situation. I recommend it to be a guiding handbook for everybody, intellectual and layman alike.”
From the Foreword, J. B. Ray, Singapore, 26 January 2003

The author’s prefatory note

The Brownstudy on Heathenland is an analytical and critical study with scientific and rational approach and philanthropic view to improve the knowledge about India and Indians. It is purely a literary work for advancement of knowledge and for dispelling all delusions and illusions on the subject.

Apart from the statement of facts it does not intend to cast any deliberate aspersion on any community, organization or personality and also does not intend to bear any scurrility or malice to deliberately harm anybody or any institution or organization. The analysis based on historical, social, political and logical truths is purely general, rational and scientific in nature and on the whole it is both enlightening and entertaining. May this please every reader.

The 27 topics

Grouped by part, as the author arranged them. Each opens its own page.

Part I · Topics 1–11

The land and the first questions. Where Heathenland was and how it got its names; then the large words, life, soul, God, prayer, fate and sin, each examined with the tools of physics and plain reasoning; then the institutions that are supposed to protect us: justice, law, religion, government.

01The LandscapeWho, in the author’s account, is the true Father of the Indian Nation? Not the name you expect.02LifeThe three pages that decide the rest of the book.03SoulTwo pedestals hold up a very old trade. The author names them.04God & CosmosWhy, in the author’s cosmos, does the universe keep no account of right and wrong?05PrayerA crutch, a habit, or something else: the author decides in five paragraphs.06FateThe one word the author would keep from the whole vocabulary of fortune.07SinA mosquito, a goat, a tiger, an attacker: which killing is a sin, which a crime, and who decided?08JusticeThe author’s test for whether justice exists at all: two conditions, and most countries fail.09LawWhy, the author asks, does India still live under two sets of personal laws?10ReligionA priest and a politician: the author says there is little difference. Decide for yourself.11GovernmentThe author’s one institutional fix for a government that fails its citizens.

Part II · Topics 12–18

Spirit and society. What salvation, spirit and death might mean once the superstitions are set aside; then the long story of how worship, priesthood and caste arose in India, with the author’s own reading of the Jagannath temple at Puri.

12SalvationWhat does Nirvana literally mean? The root changes the whole idea.13SpiritIf the spirit is transferable, what did the Upanishads mean by migration?14DeathThe law about funerals that the author thinks every government should pass.15EntertainmentsOM, SWAH, ALLAH: the author’s theory of the first songs.16IdolatryWhy, in the author’s telling, is a married sister worshipped between two brothers at Puri?17PriestcraftThe author’s reading of why Shiva drank the poison.18CasteismCaste, the author argues, is older than every religion in India. Here is why.

Part III · Topics 19–21

The thousand years. Lost lands and human depredation; a documented account of invasion and conquest drawn from the Cambridge Shorter History of India; and the road from 1921 to Partition and January 1948.

19Pillage & RavagesWhy, in the author’s account, do lakhs gather at Sagar Island every year?20The Horror-SpellThe chapter the Foreword describes as the book’s account of the roots of terrorism.21The RedeemerKalki: the role the author says the public cast Gandhi in, and why he believes it ended as it did.

Part IV · Topics 22–27

India now, and the texts. The aftermath of 1948, the world’s reformers compared, corruption and a charter of reforms, and two closing chapters on the Bhagavad Gita and the practice of yoga.

22The AftermathThe author coins eleven new words for modern India. This chapter needs most of them.23The Reformation HikeThe author’s last candidate for ending human wickedness is not a prophet.24CorruptionThe point K on the author’s diagram, where welfare starts to fall as investment rises.25The Spiritual CharterSeven reforms. Which would you keep?26RestorativesThe author’s one-line summary of the Gita.27Hypnotic FeatsWhat the author believes a yogi actually sees in Samadhi.

Map of ancient Heathenland before 1.1 million B.C., drawn by M. N. Behera — **Plate 1** · Map of ancient Heathenland before 1.1 million B.C.Zoom

Inside the book · Topic 1

The Landscape

Where does the name Heathenland come from, and why does the author choose it for the land he is writing about? The chapter maps a vast ancient territory, from the Mediterranean to South-East Asia, and follows the names Isha, Asia, Sindhu, Hind, India and Bharat through the mouths of Greeks, Persians and Europeans. Three maps drawn by the author show the land as he believes it lay before 1.1 million B.C., before 1 million B.C. and in 1000 B.C.

Read the topic page

About the author

[Author portrait]

M. N. Behera devoted more than sixty years to the study of India’s culture, history and character, and of the world’s religions.

A retired government servant, he graduated with first-class Honours in Economics and Political Science with Distinction, with History and English Literature as subsidiary subjects.

He conducted research on Road Transport Dynamics under the Indian Institute of Road Transport, Bombay; his thesis was serialised in the monthly journal of the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings of India from July 1968 to July 1969. Brownstudy on Heathenland, published in 2003, is the result of his lifelong inquiry.

What readers say

“A mirror of the Indian nation.”

“A comprehensive index to enigmatic India.”

“A store-house of both oriental and occidental knowledge.”

From readers’ views collected in 2003. Names are added as the writers confirm them.

Get the book

Paperback, 234 pages. Available from the publisher and major booksellers.

Rowman & Littlefield (University Press of America)Amazon Barnes & Noble WorldCat (find it in a library)