Conversion- An Assault on Truth

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About the Book "When a king conquers another kingdom, he has to ensure that the customs, social practices and religious beliefs of the conquered people remain intact...... He has to reinstate the defeated king in the throne, and rule the region only through him (the defeated king) as his fiduciary... Only a conqueror who conducts himself thus can be called a righteous conqueror. If, on the other hand, the conqueror kills the defeated king and loots and pillages the conquered kingdom, he should be condemned as a demon... the conqueror should not, therefore, kill the conquered king, or his kin; he should not in any way harm the women folk of the palace; he should not loot or pillage; he must respect the religion, language and customs of the conquered region.... In substantiation, I have quoted excerpts from the original texts of Yagnavalkya smruthi, Arthashastra of Koutilya, and Raghuvamsham of Kalidasa. India thus has always held a view that is very much opposed to the view that the victor can loot, pillage and do whatever suits him in general. At some points of history, some kings may have deviated from this ideal; but the wars of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata exemplify these lofty principles. And they became ideals of India's war ethos."

The cover photograph is that of the Vishna temple at Angkor Wat, Cambodia Angkor was the capital of the Khmer or the Kambega empire. Will Durant describes this temple as a masterpiece equal to the finest architectural achievements of the Egyptains, the Greeks or the cathedral builders of Europe".

Who built this temple and when it got to be built are some of the questions that have remained unanswered. Philip Rawson introduces his book The Art of Southeast Ann with the following words:

The culture of India has been one of the world's most powerful civilizing forces. Countries of the Far East, including China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and Mangolia owe much of what is best in their own cultures to the inspiration of ideas imported from India. The West too, has its own debts. But the members of that circle of civilizations beyond Burma scattered around the Gulf of Siam and the Java Sea. virtually owe their very existence to the creative influence of Indian ideas....No conquest or invasion, no forced conversion imposed them. They were adopted because the people saw they were good and they could use them...thear code of living, their conceptions of law and kingship, their rich literature and highly evolved philosophy of life".

**Contents and Sample Pages**