forehead marks (humor)

[Bijoy Misra]

On Wed, 12 Jun 1996 aditya at icanect.net wrote:

> 
>      How to answer the usual questions asked of Indians?
>       To help the new wave of incoming students from India,
>       here are the proper answers to awkward questions asked
>       everyday:
> 
>      Q. What does that red dot on women's forehead mean?
>      A. Well, in ancient times, Indian men used to practice archery
>         skills by target practicing by aiming at their wife's red dot.
>         In fact, that is one of the reasons why they had many wives.
>         You see, once they mastered the art of archery and hit the
>         target....
>  
I don't find any humor in above.  It's disrespectful to women..




> From PMEHTA at hdc.harvard.edu 12 96 Jun EDT 11:45:22
Date: 12 Jun 96 11:45:22 EDT
Subject: political thought
From: PMEHTA at hdc.harvard.edu (Mehta, Pratap Bhanu)
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Could someone provide refernces on the following topics?

Is there any work on Indian conceptions of "sovereginty" in the 
eigteenth century (something like Ronald Inden's work on the 
rashtrakutas)?  What would be some of the original sources one 
can consult on this matter?

When does one find the earliest  Indian political critiques of 
the British Empire.  What are the significant ones before 
1850's?

What are good sources on the historical transformation of two 
concepts:  praja (Gandhi uses it frequently in the Gujarati 
edition of Hind Swaraj) and janapada.

many thanks

pratap mehta
department of government 
harvard university
pmehta at hdc.harvard.edu