September 9, 2011
Beef eating in India today
A very large number of Indians abroad eat beef. I have personally experienced this. However, even in India, beef is eaten in at least a few places, including Kerala and Mizoram.
Kappa Beef in Kerala:
Kappa beef recipe: here.
Photo from facebook:
December 8, 2010
Beef-Eating in Ancient India
By Mahadev Chakravarti, Social Scientist, Vol. 7, No. 11 (Jun., 1979), pp. 51-55 [Word]
November 9, 2010
One Man’s Beef
One man's beef…
Pankaj Mishra finds the roots of post-Partition conflict in DN Jha's account of India's sacred cows, The Myth of the Holy Cow [SOURCE]
The Myth of the Holy Cow
by DN Jha
183pp, Verso, £16
Shortly before he died, at the age of 101, the Anglo-Bengali scholar and polemicist Nirad Chaudhuri received the leader of the Hindu nationalist BJP party, LK Advani, at his home in Oxford. The Hindu nationalists, who recently presided in Gujarat over India's worst-ever anti-Muslim pogrom, had been pleased by some of Chaudhuri's offhand denunciations of the medieval Muslim invaders of India.
They probably hoped that India's most distinguished intellectual exile would do more for their fascistic cause, but they hadn't fully reckoned with Chaudhuri, who interrogated Advani about his knowledge of India. He was still full of scorn when I saw him weeks later. "These wretched BJP types," he told me, "they call themselves cultural nationalists, speak of an ancient Hindu ethos, yet do not know Sanskrit, know nothing of their own history. Such barbarous people!"
The sayings and beliefs of religious fundamentalists are often taken at face value. As fervent believers, they seem not to have any truck with rational politics. But it is important to realise how pathetically little they know about the religious and spiritual traditions that supposedly inform their political beliefs; and how the superior morality they noisily lay claim to is important to them only so far as it can give legitimacy to resolutely unspiritual ambitions to capture state power in their native countries. This marks most of the fundamentalists as inescapably modern: people quite like us.
The middle-class Hindu nationalists of India are no different. Their agenda – a militaristic nation-state with a culturally homogeneous population of Hindus – resembles not so much anything in the Bhagavad-Gita as it does the nation- and empire-building projects of 19th-century Europe.
They redefine many of their preferred aspects of Indian tradition and culture, and present them as eternal and immutable, interrupted only by alien Muslims and other unclean foreigners. They fear the kind of scholarship that reveals that Indian tradition, like all other traditions, is a man-made thing, vulnerable to endless change, revision, and appropriation.
The education minister in the present Indian government, a promoter of astrology and something called "Vedic Mathematics", recently compared India's most distinguished intellectuals to terrorists. And now DN Jha, a respected historian of ancient India, is under attack for daring to examine the myth of the sacred cow.
His book was turned down by its original publishers in Delhi, who were afraid of provoking the Hindu fanatics who have recently been seen vandalising art exhibitions and burning books. One extremist even sentenced Jha to death in a fatwa – plainly a venerable Hindu tradition, this.
It may be hard at first to figure out what the fuss is about. Certainly, Jha did not set out to provoke. His main thesis – that beef-eating was not unknown to Indians of the pre-Muslim period – is neither new nor startling.
Visitors to India are often baffled by the wide berth given to even those very emaciated and diseased cows that seem to exist for no other purpose than to slow down the traffic on some of the world's most dangerous roads. But the cow wasn't sacred to the nomads and pastoralists from Central Asia who settled North India in the second millennium BC and created the high Brahminical culture of what we now know as Hinduism.
These Indians slaughtered cattle for both food and the elaborate sacrificial rituals prescribed by the Vedas, the first and the holiest Indian scriptures. After they settled down and turned to agriculture, they put a slightly higher value upon the cow: it produced milk, ghee, yoghurt and manure and could be used for ploughing and transport as well.
Indian religion and philosophy after the Vedas rejected the ritual killing of animals. This may have also served to protect the cow. But beef eating was still not considered a sin. It is often casually referred to in the earliest Buddhist texts. The great Indian emperor Ashoka, who instituted non-violence as state policy in the third century BC, did not ban the slaughter of cattle.
It is only in the early medieval period that the eating of beef became a taboo, if only for upper-caste Hindus. But the cow was far from holy. It is significant that no cow-goddesses, or temples to cows, feature in India's anarchically all-inclusive polytheisms.
Jha elaborates on how variously the ancient Indians saw their cattle; and he does so, if not with a graceful prose-style, then with an impressive range of textual evidence.
It is good to have all the relevant facts in one book. But, perhaps, Jha would have better engaged the general reader had he explained in greater detail why upper-caste Hindus have been more passionate about the cow in the last century and a half than at any other time in India's history. Or, as DD Kosambi put it in his Ancient India (1965), why "a modern orthodox Hindu would place beef-eating on the same level as cannibalism, whereas Vedic Brahmins had fattened upon a steady diet of sacrificed beef".
The answer lies in the 19th century, when many newly emergent middle-class Hindus began to see the cow as an important symbol of a glorious tradition defiled by Muslim rule over India. For these Hindus, the cause for banning cow-slaughter became a badge of identity, part of their quest for political power in post-colonial India. Educated Muslims felt excluded from, even scorned by, these Hindu notions of the Indian past; and they developed their own separatist fantasies.
The newly invented traditions helped create two antagonistic political elites, defined primarily by religion, and eventually led to the disastrous partition of India. The nationalist myths are now incarnated by the two nuclear-armed nation-states of India and Pakistan.
DN Jha is their most recent victim; but probably no one has suffered more from them than the poor holy cow that, bereft of a clear economic or religious role, slowly dwindles on Indian roads, until the day it is run over, when it receives the final kindness of being allowed to bleed to death.
· Pankaj Mishra is the author of The Romantics (Picador)
November 9, 2010
ON COW SLAUGHTER AND BEEF BATTLE
November 9, 2010
Objections to the view re: beef eating in India
http://www.love4cow.com/cowandthevedas.htm
Harsh Vora's comment here: http://sabhlokcity.com/2010/11/clearing-the-mist-around-max-muller/comment-page-1/#comment-6687
Details:
This slanderous campaign has been unleashed by different vested interests to embarrass Hindus around the world citing specific references from the Vedas.
The Vedas are also accused of animal sacrifice in sacrificial ceremonies popularly known as the YAJNA. Interestingly a section of home-bred intellectuals claiming to have deep study of ancient India has also come up, who cite references from works of western indologists to prove such unholy content in the Vedas.
Saying that the Vedas permit beef-eating and cow-slaughter amounts to striking a lethal blow to a Hindu’s soul. Respect for cow forms a core tenet of Hinduism. Once you are able to convince him of flaws in the foundation of this core tenet and make him feel guilty, he becomes an easy prey for the predator faiths. There are millions of ill-informed Hindus who are not empowered to counter argue and hence quietly surrender.
The vested interests that malign the Vedas are not confined to foreign and home-bred indologists alone. A certain class among Hindus exploited the rest of the population including the socially and economically weaker sections by forcing them to believe and follow what they said in the name of Vedas or else face the wrath.
All the slanders heaped upon the Vedas can be attributed mainly to the interpretations of commentaries written by Mahidhar, Uvat and Saayan in the medieval times; and to what Vam-margis or the Tantra cult propagated in their books in the name of the Vedas.
In due course the falsehood spread far and wide and they became even more deep rooted when western scholars with their half baked knowledge of Sanskrit transliterated these interpretations of commentaries of Sayan and Mahidhar, in the name of translating the Vedas.
However, they lacked the pre-requisite understanding of Shiksha (Phonetics), Vyakarana (Grammar), Nirukta (Philology), Nighantu (Vocabulary), Chhanda (Prosody), Jyotish (Astronomy), Kalpa and so on that are critical for correct interpretation of the Vedas.
The purpose behind this series of videos is to objectively evaluate all such misconceptions about the Vedas – the foundation of human knowledge and establish their piety, sanctity, great ideals and philosophy that cater not only to Hindus but to every human being without bars, bias or discrimination of any kind.
Section 1: No violence against animals
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Yasmintsarvaani bhutaanyaatmaivaabhuudvijaanatah
Tatra ko mohah kah shokah ekatvamanupasyatah
Yajurveda 40.7
“Those who see all beings as souls do not feel infatuation or anguish at their sight, for they experience oneness with them”.
How could people who believed in the doctrines of indestructibility, transmigration dare to kill living animals in yajnas? They might be seeing the souls of their own near and dear ones of bygone days residing in those living beings.
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Anumantaa vishasitaa nihantaa krayavikrayee
Samskartaa chopahartaa cha khadakashcheti ghaatakaah
Manusmrithi 5.51
Those who permit slaying of animals; those who bring animals for slaughter; those who slaughter; those who sell meat; those who purchase meat; those who prepare dish out of it; those who serve that
meat and those who eat are all murderers.
Breehimattam yavamattamatho maashamatho tilam
Esha vaam bhaago nihito ratnadheyaaya dantau maa hinsishtam pitaram maataram cha
Atharvaveda 6.140.2
O teeth! You eat rice, you eat barley, you gram and you eat sesame. These cereals are specifically meant for you. Do not kill those who are capable of being fathers and mothers.
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Ya aamam maansamadanti paurusheyam cha ye kravih
Garbhaan khaadanti keshavaastaanito naashayaamasi
Atharvaveda 8.6.23
We ought to destroy those who eat cooked as well as uncooked meat, meat involving destruction of males and females, foetus and eggs.
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Anago hatya vai bheema kritye
Maa no gaamashvam purusham vadheeh
Atharvaveda 10.1.29
How could there be justification of cow and other animals being killed when killing is so clearly prohibited in the Vedas?
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Aghnyaa yajamaanasya pashoonpahi
Yajurveda 1.1
“O human! animals are Aghnya – not to be killed. Protect the animals”
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Pashunstraayethaam
Yajurveda 6.11
Protect the animals.
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Dwipaadava Chatushpaatpaahi
Yajurveda 14.8
Protect the bipeds and quadrupeds!
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Kravy da –kravya[ meat obtained from slaughter] + Ada [ the eater]—the meat eater.
Pisacha — pisita [meat] +asa [eater]—the meat eater.
Asutrpa — Asu [breath of life] + trpa [one who satisfies himself on]—one who takes others life for his meals.
Garba da and Anda da – the foetus and egg eaters.
Mans da – the meat eaters
Meat eaters have always been looked down in Vedic literature. They have been known as Rakshasas, Pisacha and so on….All these words are synonyms of demons or devils that have been out-cast from the civilized human society.
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Urjam no dhehi dwipade chatushpade
Yajurveda 11.83
“May all bipeds and quadrupeds gain strength and nourishment”
This mantra is recited by Hindus before every meal. How could the same philosophy which prays for well-being of every soul in every moment of life, approve of killing animals?
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Section 1: No violence in Yajna
Yajna never meant animal sacrifice in the sense popularly understood. Yajna in the Vedas meant a noble deed or the highest purifying action.
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Adhvara iti Yajnanaama – Dhvaratihimsaakarmaa tatpratishedhah
Nirukta 2.7
According to Yaaska Acharya, one of the synonyms of Yajna in Nirukta or the Vedic philology is Adhvara.
Dhvara means an act with himsa or violence. And therefore a-dhvara means an act involving no himsa or no violence. There are a large number of such usage of Adhvara in the Vedas.
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In the post-Mahabharata period, misinterpretation of the Vedas and interpolations in other scriptures took place at various points intime. Acharya Shankar reestablished the Vedic values to an extent.
In the more recent times, Swami Dayanand Saraswati – known as the grandfather of modern India – interpreted the Vedas as per thecorrect rules of the language and authentic evidences. His literature, which includes commentary on the Vedas, Satyarth Prakash loosely translated as Light of Truth, An Introduction to the Vedas and other texts led to widespread social reformation based on Vedic philosophy and dispelling of myths surrounding the Vedas.
Let us discover what the Vedas have to say on Yajna.
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Agne yam yagnamadhvaram vishwatah pari bhuurasi
Sa id deveshu gacchati
Rigveda 1.1.4
O lord of effulgence! The non-violent Yajna, you prescribe from all sides, is beneficial for all, touches divine proportions and is accepted by noble souls.
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The Rigveda describes Yajna as Adhvara or non violent throughout. Same is the case with all the other Vedas. How can it be then concluded that the Vedas permit violence or slaughter of animals?
The biggest accusation of cattle and cow slaughter comes in the context of the Yajnas that derived their names from different cattle like the Ashwamedh Yajna, the Gomedha Yajna and the Nar-medh Yajna. Even by the wildest stretch of the imagination the word Medha would not mean slaughter in this context.
It’s interesting to note what Yajurveda says about a horse
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Imam ma himsirekashafam pashum kanikradam vaajinam vaajineshu
Yajurveda 13.48
Do not slaughter this one hoofed animal that neighs and who goes with a speed faster than most of the animals.
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Aswamedha does not mean horse sacrifice at Yajna. Instead the Yajurveda clearly mentions that a horse ought not to be slaughtered.
In Shathapatha, Ashwa is a word for the nation or empire
The word medha does not mean slaughter. It denotes an act done in accordance to the intellect Alternatively it could mean consolidation, as evident from the root meaning of medha i.e. medhru san-ga-me
Raashtram vaa ashwamedhah
Annam hi gau
Agnirvaa ashwah
Aajyam medhah
(Shatpath 13.1.6.3)
Swami Dayananda Saraswati wrote in his Light of Truth:
A Yajna dedicated to the glory, wellbeing and prosperity of the Rashtra the nation or empire is known as the Ashwamedh yajna.
“To keep the food pure or to keep the senses under control, or to make the food pure or to make a good use of the rays of Sun or keep the earth free from impurities[clean] is called Gomedha Yajna”.
“The word Gau also means the Earth and the yajna dedicated to keep the Earth the environment clean is called Gomedha Yajna”
“The cremation of the body of a dead person in accordance with the principles laid down in the Vedas is called Naramedha Yajna”.
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Section 3: No beef in Vedas
Not only the Vedas are against animal slaughter but also vehemently oppose and prohibit cow slaughter.Yajurveda forbids killing of cows, for they provide energizing food for human beings
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Ghrtam duhaanaamaditim janaayaagne maa himsiheeh
Yajurveda 13.49
Do not kill cows and bulls who always deserve to be protected.
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Aare gohaa nrhaa vadho vo astu
Rigveda 7.56.17
In Rigveda cow slaughter has been declared a heinous crime equivalent to human murder and it has been said that those who commits this crime should be punished.
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Sooyavasaad bhagavatee hi bhooyaa atho vayam bhagvantah syaama
Addhi trnamaghnye vishwadaaneem piba shuddhamudakamaacharantee
Rigveda 1.164.40 or Atharv 7.73.11 or Atharv 9.10.20
The Aghnya cows – which are not to be killed under any circumstances– may keep themselves healthy by use of pure water and green grass, so that we may be endowed with virtues, knowledge and wealth.
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The Vedic Lexicon, Nighantu, gives amongst other synonyms of Gau[ or cow] the words Aghnya. Ahi, and Aditi. Yaska the commentator on Nighantu, defines these as-
Aghnya the one that ought not to be killed
Ahi the one that must not be slaughtered.
Aditi the one that ought not to be cut into pieces.
These three names of cow signify that the animal ought not to be put to tortures. These words appear frequently throughout the Vedas in context of the cow.
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Aghnyeyam saa vardhataam mahate soubhagaaya
Rigveda 1.164.27
Cow – The aghnya – brings us health and prosperity
Suprapaanam Bhavatvaghnyaayaah
Rigveda 5.83.8
There should be excellent facility for pure water for Aghnya Cow
Yah paurusheyena kravishaa samankte yo ashwena pashunaa yaatudhaanah
Yo aghnyaayaa bharati ksheeramagne teshaam sheershaani harasaapi vrishcha
Rigveda 10.87.16
Those who feed on human, horse or animal flesh and those who destroy milk-giving Aghnya cows should be severely punished.
Vimucchyadhvamaghnyaa devayaanaa aganma
Yajurveda 12.73
The Aghnya cows and bulls bring you prosperity
Maa gaamanaagaamaditim vadhishta
Rigveda 8.101.15
Do not kill the cow. Cow is innocent and aditi – that ought not to be cut into pieces
Antakaaya goghaatam
Yajurveda 30.18
Destroy those who kill cows
Yadi no gaam hansi yadyashwam yadi poorusham
Tam tvaa seesena vidhyaamo yatha no so aveeraha
Atharvaveda 1.16.4
If someone destroys our cows, horses or people, kill him with a bullet of lead.
Vatsam jaatamivaaghnyaa
Atharvaveda 3.30.1
Love each other as the Aghnya – non-killable cow – loves its calf
Dhenu sadanam rayeenaam
Atharvaveda 11.1.34
Cow is fountainhead of all bounties
The entire 28th Sukta or Hymn of 6th Mandal of Rigveda sings the glory of cow.
Aa gaavo agnamannuta bhadramakrantseedantu
Bhooyobhooyo rayimidasya vardhayannabhinne
Na taa nashanti na dabhaati taskaro naasaamamitro vyathiraa dadharshati
Na taa arvaa renukakaato ashnute na samskritramupa yanti taa abhi
Gaavo bhago gaava indro me achhaan
Yooyam gaavo medayathaa
Maa vah stena eeshata maaghanshasah
1. Everyone should ensure that cows are free from miseries and kept healthy.
2. God blesses those who take care of cows.
3. Even the enemies should not use any weapon on cows
4. No one should slaughter the cow
5. Cow brings prosperity and strength
6. If cows keep healthy and happy, men and women shall also keep disease free and prosperous
7. May the cow eat green grass and pure water. May they not be killed and bring prosperity to us.
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What more proofs does one need to understand the high esteem in whichnot only the cow but each living being is held in the Vedas.
The learned audience can decide for themselves from these evidences that the Vedas are completely against any inhuman practice… to top it all the Beef and Cow slaughter.
There is no Beef in Vedas.
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Bibliography:
1. Rigveda Bhashya – Commentary on Rigveda by Swami Dayanand Saraswati
2. Yajurveda Bhashya – Commentary on Yajurveda by Swami Dayanand Saraswati
3. No Beef in Vedas by BD Ukhul
4. Vedon ka Yatharth Swaroop (True nature of Vedas) by Pt Dharmadeva Vidyavachaspati
5. All 4 Veda Samhita by Pt Damodar Satvalekar
6. Pracheen Bharat me Gomamsa – Ek Sameeksha (Beef in Ancient India – an analysis) by Geeta Press, Gorakhpur
7. The Myth of Holy Cow – by DN Jha
8. Hymns of Atharvaveda – Griffith
9. Scared Books of the east – Max Muller
10. Rigveda translations by Williams/Jones
11. Sanskrit English Dictionary – Monier Williams
12. Commentary on Vedas by Dayanand Sansthan
13. Western Indologists – a study of motives by Pt Bhagvadutt
14. Satyarth Prakash by Swami Dayanand Saraswati
15. Introduction to Vedas by Swami Dayanand Saraswati
16. Cloud over understanding of Vedas by BD Ukhul
17. Shathpath Brahman
18. Nirukta – Yaska Acharya
19. Dhatupath – Panini
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Addendum on 14 April 2010:
After this article, there was severe reaction from various sources who cannot live with the fact that Vedas and ancient culture of our nation could have been more ideal than their current communistic ideals. I received several mails that tried to refute the articles by citing additional references that support beef-eating. These include 2 mantras from Rigveda, and some Shlokas from Manu Smriti and a few other texts. An example is the comment from Avtar Gill on this page itself. On these, I have to say the following:
a. The article has given evidence from Manu Smriti itself which states that even one who permits killing is a murderer. Thus all these additional shlokas are either from adulterated Manu Smriti or misinterpreted by twisting of words. I recommend them to read Manu Smriti by Dr Surendra Kumar which is available from http://vedicbooks.com
b. A typical example of foul play by those hell-bent on justifying their obsession with beef in ancient texts, is to translate Mansa as ‘meat’. In reality, ‘Mansa’ is a generic word used to denote pulp. Meat is called ‘Mansa’ because it is pulpy. So mere presence of ‘Mansa’ does not mean it refers to meat.
c. The other texts referred by them are among dubious ones not considered authoritative evidence. Their modus operandi is simple – state anything written in Sanskrit as Dharma and translate the way they want to prove whatever they want. This is how they have been fooling us all by filling our textbooks with all unverified demeaning claims.
d. With regards to Vedas, they could come up with two mantras that supposedly justify beef eating. Let us evaluate them:
Claim: Rigveda (10/85/13) declares, “On the occasion of a girl’s marriage oxen and cows are slaughtered.”
Fact: The mantra states that in winter, the rays of sun get weakened and then get strong again in spring. The word used for sun-rays in ‘Go’ which also means cow and hence the mantra can also be translated by making ‘cow’ and not ‘sun-rays’ as the subject. The word used for ‘weakened’ is ‘Hanyate’ which can also mean killing. But if that be so, why would the mantra go further and state in next line (which is deliberately not translated) that in spring, they start regaining their original form.
How can a cow killed in winter regain its health in spring? This amply proves how ignorant and biased communists malign Vedas.
Claim: Rigveda (6/17/1) states that “Indra used to eat the meat of cow, calf, horse and buffalo.”
Fact: The mantra states that brilliant scholars enlighten the world in the manner that wood enhances the fire of Yajna. I fail to understand from where did Avtar Gill and his friends discover Indra, cow, calf, horse and buffalo in this mantra!
In summary, I continue the challenge to everyone – cite one single mantra from Vedas that justify beef-eating and I shall be eager to embrace any faith that he or she may decide for me. If not, they should agree to revert back to the Vedas.
November 9, 2010
Paradox of the Indian Cow: Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India
Paradox of the Indian Cow: Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India By DN Jha Renowned historian writes on beef eating in ancient India and associated issues
An average Indian of today rooted in what appears to him as his traditional Hindu religious heritage carries the load of the misconception that his ancestors, especially the Vedic Aryans, attached great importance to the cow on account of its inherent sacredness. The ‘sacred’ cow has come to be considered a symbol of community identity of the Hindus whose cultural tradition is often imagined as threatened by the Muslims who are thought of as beefeaters. The sanctity of the cow has, therefore, been announced with the flourish of trumpets and has been wrongly traced back to the Vedas, which are supposedly of divine origin and fountainhead of all knowledge and wisdom. In other words, some sections of Indian society have traced back the concept of sacred cow to the very period when it was sacrificed and its flesh was eaten. More importantly, the cow has tended to become a political instrument at the hand of rulers over time. The Mughal emperors (e.g. Babar, Akbar, Jahangir and Aurangzeb etc) are said to have imposed a restricted ban on cow slaughter to accommodate the Jaina or Brahmanical feeling of respect and veneration of the cow[1]. Similarly Shivaji, sometimes viewed as an incarnation of God who descended on earth for the deliverance of the cow and brahmin, is described as proclaiming: “We are Hindus and the rightful lords of the realm. It is not proper for us to witness cow slaughter and the oppression of brahmanas”[2]. But the cow became a tool of mass political mobilization when the organized Hindu cow protection movement, beginning with the Sikh Kuka (or Namdhari) sect in the Punjab around 1870 and later strengthened by the foundation of the first Gorakshini Sabha in 1882 by Dayanananda Saraswati, made this animal a symbol to unite a wide ranging people, challenged the Muslim practice of its slaughter and provoked a series of serious communal riots in the 1880s and 1890s. Although attitudes to cow killing had been hardening even earlier, there was undoubtedly a ‘dramatic intensification’ of the cow protection movement when in 1888 the North-Western Provinces High Court decreed that a cow was not a sacred object.[3] Not surprisingly cow slaughter very often became the pretext of many Hindu-Muslim riots, especially those in Azamgarh district in the year 1893 when more than one hundred people were killed in different parts of the country. Similarly in 1912-1913 violence rocked Ayodhya and a few years later, in 1917, Shahabad witnessed a disastrous communal conflagration.[4] The killing of the kine seems to have emerged again and again as a troublesome issue on the Indian political scene even in independent India despite legislation by several state legislatures prohibiting cow slaughter and the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution which directs the Indian state to “…to take steps for… prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle”. For instance, in 1966, nearly two decades after Indian independence, almost all the Indian communal political parties and organizations joined hands in masterminding a massive demonstration by several hundred thousand people in favour of a national ban on cow slaughter which culminated in a violent rioting in front of the Indian Parliament resulting in the death of at least eight persons and injury to many more. In April 1979, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, often supposed to be a spiritual heir to Mahatma Gandhi, went on a hunger strike to pressurize the central government to prohibit cow slaughter throughout the country and ended it after five days when he succeeded in getting the Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s vague assurance that his government would expedite anti-slaughter legislation. Since then the cow ceased to remain much of an issue in the Indian political arena for many years, though the management of cattle resources has been a matter of academic debate among sociologists, anthropologists, economists and different categories of policy framers. The veneration of cow has been, however, converted into a symbol of communal identity of the Hindus and the obscurantist and fundamentalist forces obdurately refuse to appreciate that the ‘sacred’ cow was not always all that sacred in the Vedic and subsequent Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical traditions and that its flesh, along with other varieties of meat, was quite often a part of the haute cuisine in early India. Although the Shin, Muslims of Dardistan in Pakistan, look on the cow as other Muslims do the pig, avoid direct contact with cows, refuse to drink cow’s milk or use cow dung as fuel and reject beef as food,[5] the self-styled custodians of non-existent ‘monolithic’ Hinduism assert that the practice of beef eating was first introduced in India by the followers of Islam who came from outside and are foreigners in this country, little realising that their Vedic ancestors were also foreigners who ate the flesh of the cow and various other animals. Fanaticism getting precedence over fact, it is not surprising that the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangha (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and their numerous outfits have a national ban on cow slaughter on their agenda and the Chief Minister of Gujarat (Keshubhai Patel) announced some time ago, as a pre-election gimmick, the setting up of a separate department to preserve cow breeds and manage Hindu temples.[6] More recently, a Bajrang Dal leader has threatened to enroll 30 lakh volunteers to agitate against cow slaughter during the month of Bakrid in 2002.[7] So high-geared has been the propaganda about abstention from beef eating as a characteristic trait of ‘Hinduism’ that when the RSS tried to claim Sikhs as Hindus, it led to vehement opposition from them and one of the Sikh youth leaders proposed, ”Why not slaughter a cow and serve beef in a gurudwaralangar?”[8] The communalists who have been raising a hullabaloo over the cow in the political arena do not realise that beef eating remained a fairly common practice for a long time in India and that the arguments for its prevalence are based on the evidence drawn from our own scriptures and religious texts. The response of historical scholarship to the communal perception of Indian food culture, however, has been sober and scholars have drawn attention to the textual evidence of beef eating which, in fact, begins to be available from the oldest Indian religious text Rgveda, supposedly of divine origin. H.H. Wilson, writing in the first half of the nineteenth century, had asserted: “the sacrifice of the horse or of the cow, the gomedha orasvamedha, appears to have been common in the earliest periods of the Hindu ritual”. The view that the practice of killing of cattle at sacrifices and eating their flesh prevailed among the Indo-Aryans was put forth most convincingly by Rajendra Lal Mitra in an article which first appeared in theJournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and subsequently formed a chapter of his book The Indo-Aryans published in 1891. In 1894 William Crooke, a British civil servant, collected an impressive amount of ethnographic data on popular religious beliefs and practices in his two-volume book and devoted one whole chapter to the respect shown to animals including the cow[9]. Later in 1912, he published an informative piece on the sanctity of cow in India. But he also drew attention to the old practice of eating beef and its survival in his own times.[10] In 1927, L. L. Sundara Ram made a strong case for cow protection for which he sought justification from the scriptures of different religions including Hinduism. However he did not deny that the Vedic people ate beef, [11] though he blamed the Muslims for cow slaughter. Later in the early forties P. V. Kane in his monumental workHistory of Dharmasastra referred to some Vedic and early Dharmasastric passages which speak of cow killing and beef eating. H.D. Sankalia drew attention to literary as well as archaeological evidence of eating cattle flesh in ancient India.[12] Similarly, Laxman Shastri Joshi, a Sanskritist of unquestionable scholarship, drew attention to the Dharmasastra works, which unequivocally support the prevalence of the practice of flesh eating including beef eating in early India.[13] Needless to say that the scholarship of all of the scholars mentioned above was unimpeachable, and that none of them seems to have anything to do with any anti- Hindu ideology. H.H. Wilson, for example, was the first occupant of the Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1832 and was not as avowedly anti-Indian as many other imperialist scholars. Rajendra Lal Mitra, a product of the Bengal renaissance and a close associate of Rabindranath’s elder brother Jyotindranath Tagore, made significant contribution to India’s intellectual life, and was described by Max Mueller as the ‘best living Indologist’ of his time and by Rabindranath Tagore as “the most beloved child of the muse”.[14] William Crooke was a well-known colonial ethnograher who wrote extensively on peasant life and popular religion without any marked prejudice against Hinduism.[15] L. L. Sundara Ram, despite his somewhat anti-Muslim feeling, was inspired by humanitarian While the contribution of the scholars mentioned above cannot be minimised, the limitation of their work lies in the fact that they have referred to isolated bits of information on beef eating concentrating mainly on the Vedic texts without treating it as part of the flesh eating tradition prevalent in India. Unlike their works, therefore, the present paper seeks to draw attention to the Indian textual evidence of cattle killing and beef eating widely dispersed over time so as to indicate its continuity for a long time in the Brahmanical society and to suggest that the idea of cow’s supposed holiness does not tie up with practices current in Indian society. II The early Aryans, who migrated to India from outside, brought along with them their earlier cultural traits. Therefore, even after their migration into the Indian subcontinent, for several centuries, pastoralism, nomadism and animal sacrifice remained characteristic features of their life till sedentary field agriculture became the mainstay of their livelihood. Animal sacrifices were very common, and in the agnadheya, which was a preparatory rite preceding all public sacrifices, a cow was required to be killed.[16] In the asvamedha, the most important of public sacrifices, first mentioned in the Rgveda and discussed in the Brahmanas, more than 600 animals (including wild ones like boars) and birds were killed and its finale was marked by the sacrifice of 21 cows, which, according to the dominant opinion were sterile ones.[17] In the gosava, an important component of the public sacrifices like the rajasuya and vajapeya, a sterile spotted cow was offered to Maruts and seventeen ‘dwarf heifers under three’ were done to death in the pancasaradiyasava.[18] The killing of animals including the cattle figures in several other yajnas including caturmasya,sautramani and independent animal sacrifice called pasubandha ornirudhapasubandha.[19] These and several other major sacrifices involved killing of animals including the cattle, which constituted the chief form of the wealth of the early Aryans. They, not surprisingly, prayed for cattle and sacrificed them to propitiate their gods. The Vedic gods, for whom the various sacrifices were performed, had no fixed menu of food. Milk, butter, barley, oxen, goats and sheep were offered to them and these were their usual food, though some of them seem to have had their special preferences. Indra had a special liking for bulls (RV, V.29.7ab; VI.17.11b; VIII.12.8ab X.27.2c; X. 28. 3c;X.86.14ab). Agni was not a tippler like Indra, but was fond of animal food including the flesh of horses, bulls and cows (RV, VIII. 43.11; X. 91.14ab). The toothless Pusan, the guardian of the roads, ate mush as a Hobson’s choice. Soma was the name of a heady drink but, equally importantly, of a god and killing of animals including cattle for him (RV, X.91.14ab) was basic to most of the Rgvedic yajnas. The Maruts and the Asvins were also offered cows. The Vedas mention about 250 animals out of which at least 50 were deemed fit for sacrifice and by implication for divine as well as human consumption. The animal food occupied a place of importance in the Vedic sacrifices and dietetics and the general preference for the flesh of the cow is undeniable. The Taittiriya Brahmana (III.9.8) categorically tells us: “Verily the cow is food” (atho annam vai gauh) and the Satapatha Brahmana (III.1.2.21) refers to Yajnavalkya’s stubborn insistence on eating the tender (amsala) flesh of the cow. According to the subsequent Brahmanical texts (e.g. Grhyasutras andDharmasutras) the killing of animals and eating of beef was very much de rigeur. The ceremony of guest-reception (known as arghya in the Rgvedabut generally as madhuparka in subsequent texts) consisted not only of a meal of a mixture of curds and honey but also of the flesh of a cow or bull. Early lawgivers go to the extent of making flesh food mandatory inmadhuparka — an injunction more or less dittoed by several later legal texts (AsGS, I.24.33; KathaGS, 24,20; SankhGS, II.15.2; ParGS, I.3.29). A guest therefore came to be described by Panini as a goghna (one for whom the cow is slain). The sacred thread ceremony was not all that sacred; for it was necessary for a snataka to wear an upper garment of the cowhide (ParGS, II.5.17-20). The slaughter of animals formed an important component of the cult of the dead in the Vedic texts as well as in later Dharmasastra works. The thick fat of the cow was used to cover the dead body (RV, X.14-18) and a bull was burnt along with the corpse to enable the departed to ride with in the nether world. The funerary rites included feeding of the brahmins after the prescribed period and quite often the flesh of the cow/ ox was offered to the dead (AV, XII.2, 48). The textual prescriptions indicate the degree of satisfaction obtained by the Manes depending upon the animal offered—- the cow’s flesh could keep them contented for at least a year! The Vedic and the post-Vedic texts also often mention the killing of animals including the kine in several other ritual contexts. The gavamayana, a sessional sacrifice performed by the brahmins was, for example, marked by animal slaughter culminating in an extravagant bacchanalian communal festival (mahavrata) in which cattle were slaughtered. There was, therefore, a relationship between the sacrifice and sustenance. But this need not necessarily mean that different meat types were eaten only if offered in a sacrifice. Thus in the grhamedha, which has been discussed in severalSrautasutras, an unspecified number of cows were slain not in the strict ritual manner but in the crude and profane manner.[20] Archaeological evidence also suggests non-ritual killing of cattle. This is indicative of the fact that beef and other animal flesh formed part of the dietary habits of the people and that the edible flesh was not always ritually consecrated, though some scholars have argued to the contrary.[21] Despite the overwhelming evidence of cattle killing, several scholars have obdurately held that the Vedic cow was sacred and inviolable on the basis of the occurrence of the word aghnya/aghnya in the Atharvaveda and the use of words for cow as epithet or in simile and metaphor with reference to entities of highest religious significance. But it has been convincingly proved that if the Vedic cow was at all inviolable, it was so only when it belonged to a brahmin who received cows as sacrificial fee (daksina).[22]But this cannot be taken to be an index of the animal’s inherent sanctity and inviolability in the Vedic period or even later. Nor can one make too much of the doctrine of non-killing (ahimsa) in relation to the cow. Gautama Buddha and Mahavira emphasized the idea of non-violence, which seems to have made its first appearance in the Upanisadic thought and literature. But despite their vehement opposition of the Vedic animal sacrifice, neither they nor their followers were averse to eating of meat. The Buddha is known to have eaten beef and pork and the texts amply indicate that flesh meat very well suited the Buddhist palate. Asoka, whose compassion for animals is undeniable, allowed certain specified animals to be killed for his kitchen. In fact, neither Asoka’s list of animals exempted from slaughter nor the Arthasastra of Kautilya specifically mentions cow as unslayable. The cattle were killed for food throughout the Mauryan period. Like Buddhism, Jainism also enthusiastically took up cudgels for non-violence. But meat eating was so common in Vedic and post-Vedic times that even Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is said to have eaten the meat of a cockerel. Perhaps the early Jainas were not strict vegetarians. A great Jaina logician of the eighth century, Haribhadrasuri, tells us that the monks did not have objection to eating flesh and fish, which were given to them by householders, though there is irrefutable textual evidence to show that meat eating became a strong taboo among the followers of Jainism. The inflexibility of the Jaina attitude to meat eating is deeply rooted in the basic tenets of Jaina philosophy, which, at least in theory, is impartial in its respect for all forms of life without according any special status to the cow. Thus, although both Buddhism, and, to a greater extent, Jainism contributed to the growth of ahimsa doctrine, neither seems to have developed the sacred cow concept independently.
III Despite the Upanisadic, Buddhist and Jaina advocacy of ahimsa, the practice of ritual and random of killing animals including the cattle continued in the post-Mauryan centuries. The law book of Manu (200 BC-AD 200), which is the most representative of the legal texts and has much to say on the lawful and forbidden food, contains several passages on flesh eating, which have much in common with earlier and later Brahmanical juridical works. Like the earlier law books, it mentions the animals whose flesh could be eaten. Manu’s list includes the porcupine, hedgehog, iguana, rhinoceros, tortoise and the hare and all those domestic animals having teeth in one jaw only, the only exception being the camel (V.18); and, it is significant that the cow is not excluded from the list of edible animals. Eating meat on sacrificial occasions, Manu tells us, is a divine rule (daivo vidhih smrtah), but doing so on other occasions is a demoniac practice (V.31). Accordingly one does not do any wrong by eating meat while honouring the gods, the Manes and guests (madhuparka ca yajne ca pitrdaivatakarmani), irrespective of the way in which the meat was procured (V.32, 41). Manu asserts that animals were created for the sake of sacrifice, that killing on ritual occasions is non-killing (V.39) and injury (himsa) as enjoined by the Veda (vedavihitahimsa) is known to be non-injury (V.44). In the section dealing with rules for times of distress, Manu recalls the legendary examples of the most virtuous brahmins of the days of yore who ate ox-meat and dog-meat to escape death from starvation (X.105-9). Manu’s latitudinarian attitude is clear from his recognition of the natural human tendency of eating meat, drinking spirituous liquor and indulging in sexual intercourse, even if abstention brings great rewards (V.56). He further breaks loose the constraints when he says: “the Lord of creatures (Prajapati) created this whole world to be the sustenance of the vital spirit; both the immovable and the movable (creation is) the food of the vital spirit. What is destitute of motion is the food of those endowed with locomotion; (animals) without fangs (are the food) of those with fangs, those without hands of those who possess hands, and the timid of the bold. The eater who daily even devours those destined to be his food, commits no sin; for the creator himself created both the eaters and those who are to be eaten” (V.28-30). This injunction removes all restrictions on flesh eating and gives an unlimited freedom to all desiring to eat animal flesh and since Manu does not mention beef eating as taboo one can infer that he did not treat cow as sacrosanct. Manu contradicts his own statements by extolling ahimsa (X.63), but there is no doubt that he permitted meat eating at least on ritual occasions (madhuparka, sraddhaetc) when the killing of the cow and other cattle, according to his commentator Medhatithi (9th century), was in keeping with the Vedic and post- Vedic practice (govyajamamsamaproksitambhaksyed… madhuparkovyakhyatah tatra govadhovihitah).[23] Yajnavalkya (AD 100-300), like Manu, discusses the rules regarding lawful and forbidden food. Although his treatment of the subject is less detailed, he does not differ radically from him. Yajnavalkya mentions the specific animals (deer, sheep, goat, boar, rhinoceros etc) and birds (e.g. partridge) whose flesh could satisfy the Manes (I.258-61). According to him a student, teacher, king, close friend and son-in-law should be offeredarghya every year and a priest should be offered madhuparka on all ritual occasions (I.110). He further enjoins that a learned brahmin (srotriya) should be welcomed with a big ox or goat (mahoksam va mahajam va srotriyayopakalpayet) delicious food and sweet words. This indicates his endorsement of the earlier practice of killing cattle at the reception of illustrious guests. Yajnavalkya, like Manu, permits eating of meat when life is in danger, or when it is offered in sacrifices and funerary rites (i.179). But unconsecrated meat (vrthamamsam, anupakrtamamsani), according to him, is a taboo (I.167, 171) and any one killing animals solely for his own food and not in accordance with the Vedic practice is doomed to go to hell for as many days as the number of hair on the body of the victim (I.180). Similarly Brhaspati (AD 300-500), like Manu, recommends abstention from liquor (madya), flesh (mamsa) and sexual intercourse only if they are not lawfully ordained[24] which implies that whatever was lawful was permitted. The lawgivers generally accept as lawful all those sacrifices, which, according to them, have Vedic sanction. The sacrificial slaughter of animals and domesticated bovines, as we have seen, was a Vedic practice and therefore may have been fairly common among the Brahmanical circles during the early Christian centuries and even well into the later half of the first millennium AD. It would be, however, unrealistic to assume that the dharmic precept of restricting animal slaughter to ritual occasions was always taken seriously either by brahmins for whom the legal injunctions were meant or by other sections of society.[25] It is not surprising, therefore, that Brhaspati, while discussing the importance of local customs, says that in Madhyadesa the artisans eat cows (madhyadese karmakarah silpinasca gavasinah).[26] The evidence from the epics is quite eloquent. Most of the characters in the Mahabharata are meat eaters and it makes a laudatory reference to the king Rantideva in whose kitchen two thousand cows were butchered everyday, their flesh, along with grains, being distributed among the brahmins (III.208.8-9)[27]. Similarly the Ramayana of Valmiki makes frequent reference to the killing of animals including the cow for sacrifice as well as food. Rama was born after his father Dasaratha performed a big sacrifice involving the slaughter of a large number of animals declared edible by the Dharmasastras, which, as we have seen, sanction ritual killing of the kine. Sita, while crossing the Yamuna, assures her that she would worship her with thousand cows and a hundred jars of wine when Rama accomplishes his vow. Her fondness for deer meat drives her husband crazy enough to kill Marici, a deer in disguise. Bharadvaja welcomes Rama by slaughtering a fatted calf in his honour.[28] The non-vegetarian dietary practices find an important place in the early Indian medical treatises, whose chronology broadly coincides with that of the law books of Manu and Yajnavalkya, and the two epics. Caraka (1st-2nd century), Susruta (3rd –4th century) and Vagbhata (7th century) provide an impressive list of the variety of fish and flesh and all three of them speak of the therapeutic uses of beef[29]. The continuity of the tradition of eating flesh including that of the cattle is also echoed in early Indian secular literature till late times. In the Gupta period, Kalidasa alludes to the story of Rantideva who killed numerous cows every day in his kitchen.[30] More than two centuries later, Bhavabhuti (AD 700) refers to two instances of guest reception, which included the killing of a heifer[31]. In the 10th century Rajasekhara mentions the practice of killing an ox or a goat in honour of a guest[32]. In the 12th century Sriharsa mentions a variety of non-vegetarian delicacies served at a dazzling marriage feast and refers to two interesting instances of cow killing[33], though, in the same century Somesvara shows clear preference for pig flesh over other meat types and does not mention beef at all. IV While the above references, albeit limited in number, indicate that the ancient practice of killing the kine for food continued till about the 12thcentury, there is considerable evidence in the commentaries on the kavya literature and the earlier Dharmasastra texts to show that the Brahmanical writers retained its memory till very late times. Among the commentators on the secular literature, Candupandita (late 13th century) from Gujarat, Narahari[34] (14th century) from Telengana in Andhra Pradesh, and Mallinatha[35] (14th-15th century), who is associated with the king Devaraya II of Vidyanagara (Vijayanagara), clearly indicate that, in earlier times, the cow was done to death for rituals and hence for food. As late as the 18th century Ghanasyama, a minister of a Tanjore ruler, states that the killing of cow in honour of a guest was the ancient rule.[36] Similarly the authors of Dharmasastra commentaries and religious digests from the 9th century onwards keep alive the memory of the archaic practice of beef eating and some of them even go so far as to permit eating beef in specific circumstances. For example, Medhatithi (9thcentury), probably a Kashmirian brahmin, says that a bull or ox was killed in honour of a ruler or any one deserving to be honoured and unambiguously allows eating the flesh of cow (govyajamamsam) on ritual occasions[37]. Several other writers of exegetical works seem to lend support to this view, though some times indirectly. Visvarupa[38] (9th century), a brahmin from Malwa and probably a pupil of Sankara, Vijnanesvara[39] (11thcentury), who may have lived not far from Kalyana in modern Karnataka, Haradatta[40] (12th century), also a southerner (daksinatya), Laksmidhara[41] (12th century), a minister of the Gahadwala king, Hemadri[42] (late 13th century), a minister of the Yadavas of Devagiri, Narasimha/ Nrsimha[43] (14th century), possibly from southern India, and Mitra Misra[44] (17th century) from Gopacala (Gwalior) support the practice of killing a cow on occasions like guest-reception and sraddha in ancient times. As recently as the early 20th century, Madana Upadhyaya from Mithila refers to the ritual slaughter of milch cattle in the days of yore.[45] Thus even when the Dharmasastra commentators view cow killing with disfavour, they generally admit that it was an ancient practice and that it was to be avoided in the kali age. V While the above evidence is indicative of the continuity of the practice of beef eating, the lawgivers had already begun to discourage it around the middle of the first millennium when the Indian society began to be gradually feudalized leading to major socio-cultural transformation. This phase of transition, first described in the epic and Puranic passages as kaliyuga, saw many changes and modification in social norms and customs. The Brahmanical religious texts now begin to speak of many earlier practices as forbidden in the kaliyuga – practices which came to be known askalivarjyas. While the number of kalivarjyas swelled up over time, most of the relevant texts mention cow killing as forbidden in the kali. According to some early medieval lawgivers a cow killer was an untouchable and one incurred sin even by talking to him. They increasingly associated cow slaughter and beef eating with the proliferating number of untouchable castes. It is, however, interesting that some of them consider these acts as no more than minor behavioural aberrations like cleaning one’s teeth with one’s fingers and eating only salt or soil.[46] Equally interesting is the fact that almost all the prescriptive texts enumerate cow killing as a minor sin (upapataka) and none of them describe it as a major offence (mahapataka). Moreover the Smrti texts provide easy escape routes by laying down expiatory procedures for intentional as well as inadvertent killing of the cow. This may imply that that cattle killing may not have been uncommon in society and the atonements were prescribed merely to discourage eating of cattle flesh. To what extent the Dharmasastric injunctions were effective, however, remains a matter of speculation; for the possibility of at least some members eating beef on the sly cannot be ruled out. As recently as the late 19th century Swami Vivekananda was alleged to have eaten beef during his stay in America, though he vehemently defended his action.[47]Similarly in early twentieth century Mahatma Gandhi spoke of the hypocrisy of the orthodox Hindus who “do not so much as hesitate or inquire when during illness the doctor … prescribes them beef tea.”[48] Even today 72 communities in Kerala– not all of them untouchable perhaps— prefer beef to the expensive mutton and the Hindutva forces are persuading them to go easy on it.[49] VI Although cow killing and beef eating gradually came to be viewed as a sin and a source of pollution from the early medieval period, the cow and its products (milk, curds, clarified butter, dung and urine) or their mixture called pancagavya had been assuming a purificatory role from much earlier times. The Vedic texts attest to the ritual use of cow’s milk and milk products, but the term pancagavya occurs for the first time in theBaudhayana Dharmasutra. The law books of Manu, Visnu, Vasistha, Yajnavalkya and those of several later lawgivers like Atri, Devala and Parasara mention the use of the mixture of the five products of the cow for both purification and expiation. The commentaries and religious digests, most of which belong to the medieval period, abound in references to the purificatory role of the pancagavya. The underlying assumption in all these cases is that the pancagavya is pure. But several Dharmasastra texts forbid its use by women and the lower castes. If a sudra drinkspancagavya, we are told, he goes to hell.[50] It is curious that the prescriptive texts, which repeatedly refer to the purificatory role of the cow, also provide much evidence of the notion of pollution and impurity associated with this animal. According to Manu (V.125) the food smelt by the cow has to be purified. Other early lawgivers like Visnu (XXIII.38) and Yajnavalkya (I.189) also express similar views. The latter in fact says that while the mouth of the goat and horse is pure that of the cow is not. Among the later juridical texts, those of Angirasa, Parasara, Vyasa and so on, support the idea of the cow’s mouth being impure. The lawgiver Sankha categorically states that all limbs of the cow are pure except her mouth. The commentaries on different Dharmasastra texts reinforce the notion of impurity of the cow’s mouth. All this runs counter to the ideas about the purificatory role of the cow. Needless to say, then, that the image of the cow projected by Indian textual traditions, especially the Brahmanical- Dharmasastric works, over the centuries is polymorphic. Its story through the millennia is full of inconsistencies and has not always been in conformity with dietary practices prevalent in society. It was killed and yet the killing was not killing. When it was not slain, mere remembering the old practice of butchery satisfied the brahmins. Its five products including faeces and urine have been pure but its mouth has not been so. Yet through these incongruous attitudes and puzzling paradoxes the Indian cow has struggled its way to sanctity. But its holiness is elusive. For, there is no cow- goddess, nor any temple in her honour.[51] Nevertheless the veneration of this animal has come to be viewed as a characteristic trait of modern day non-existent monolithic ‘Hinduism’ bandied about by the Hindutva forces. [1] L.L. Sundara Ram, Cow Protection in India, The South Indian Humanitarian League, George Town, Madras, 1027, pp.122-123, 179-190. [2] Siva Digvijaya quoted in Sundara Ram, op. cit. p.191. [3] Sandria B. Freitag, “Contesting in Public: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Communalism”, in David Ludden, ed., Making India Hindu, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996, p.217. [4] Idem, Collective Action and Community: Public Arena and the Emergence of Communalism in North India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990, Chapter 6; Gyan Pandey, ‘Rallying round the Cow’, in Subaltern Studies, Vol.. II, Ranajit Guha, (ed.), Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 60- 129. [5] Frederick J. Simoons, “Questions in the Sacred-Cow Controversy”, Current Anthropology, 20(3), September 1979, p.468. [6] The Times of India, 28 May 1999, p.12. [7] Frontline, 13 April 2001. [8] Rajesh Ramachandran, “A Crisis of Identity”, The Hindustan Times, 7 May 2000. [9] W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, 2 Vols, Delhi: 4threprint, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978. [10] W. Crooke, ‘The Veneration of the Cow in India’, Folklore, 13 (1912), pp.275-306. [11] Sundara Ram, Cow Protection in India, Madras: The South Indian Humanitarian League, 1927, p.8, passim. [12] H.D. Sankalia, “ (The Cow) In History”, Seminar No. 93, May 1967. [13] “Was the Cow Killed in Ancient India?” Quest, (75), March- April 1972, pp. 83-87. [16] J.C. Heesterman translates a passage of the Kathaka Samhita (8.7:90.10) relating to the agnadheya as: ‘they kill a cow, they play a dice for [shares in] her, they serve her up to those seated in the assembly hall’: Broken World of Sacrifice, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993, p.283, note 33. [17] Louis Renou, Vedic India, Varanasi, reprint, Indological Book House, 1971 p.109. [18] R.L. Mitra, Indo-Aryans: Contributions to the Elucidation of Ancient and Medieval History, 2 Vols, Varanasi: reprint, Indological Book House, 1969, p.363. [19] A.B. Keith, Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanisads, Delhi: Indian reprint, Motilal Banarsidass, 1970, p.324; P.V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, II, pt.2, Chapter XXXII. [20] J. C. Heesterman, op.cit., pp. 190-93, 200-02. [21] For different views see Hanns-Peter Schmidt, ‘Ahimsa and Rebirth’ in Inside The Texts Beyond The Texts: New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas, M. Witzel (ed.), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997, pp. 209-10; Cf. J.C. Heesterman, ‘Vratya and Sacrifice’, Indo-Iranian Journal, 6 (1962), pp. 1-37. [22] William Norman Brown, ‘The Sanctity of Cow in Hinduism’, Madras University Journal, 27.2 (1957), pp. 29-49. [23] Medhatithi on Manu, V.27, 41 see Manava-Dharma-Sastra, ed., V.N. Mandalik, Bombay, 1886, pp.604, 613. [24] Brhaspatismrti cited in Krtyakalpataru of Laksmidhara, trtiyabhaga, ed., K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar, Baroda Oriental Institute, Baroda,1950, p.326 [25] Contra Francis Zimmermann (The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987, p.180ff) asserts that only consecrated meat was eaten and Hanns Peter Schmidt seems to be in agreement with him (‘Ahimsa and Rebirth’, op.cit., p.209). But the evidence from the Buddhist Jatakas, Kautilya’s Arthasastra, and Asokan inscriptions etc does not support this view. [26] Brhaspatismrti, 128b, Gaekwad Oriental Series, Baroda, 1941. [27] For further references see S. Sorensen, An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1963, pp.593-94. [28] R. L. Mitra, op.cit., vol.I, p. 396. [29] Caraka Samhita: Sutrasthanam, II.31, XXVII.79: Susruta Samhita:Sarirasthanam, III.25; Astanga Hrdayam: Sutrasthanam, VI.65. [30] Meghaduta, with the commentary of Mallinatha, ed. and tr., M. R. Kale (ed. & tr.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1979, I.48. [31] Mahaviracarita, Rampratap Tripathi Shastri (ed. with Hindi tr.), Allahabad: Lok Bharati Prakashan, 1973. III.2. Uttararamacarita, with notes and the commentary of Ghanasyama, P.V. Kane and C. N. Joshi (ed. and tr.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1962, Act IV. [32] Balaramayana, of Rajasekhara, Ganagasagar Rai (ed.) Varanasi: Chowkhamba, 1984. I.38a [33] Naisadhamahakavyam, with the commentary of Mallinatha, Haragovind Shastri (ed.) Varanasi, Chowkhamba, 1981 XVII.173, 197. [34] Naisadhacarita of Sri Harsa, K.K. Handiqui (tr. with commentaries), Poona, Deccan College, 1965, p.472. [35] Naisadhamahakavyam, p. 1137. [36] Meghaduta, Kale’s edn, p.83. [37] Medhatithi on Manu, V.26-7,41. See Manava-Dharma-Sastra (with the commentaries of Medhatithi, Sarvajnanarayana, Kulluka, Nandana and Ramacandra), V. N. Mandalika (ed.), Bombay: Ganpat Krishnaji’s Press, 1886, pp.604, 613. [38] Visvarupa on Yajnavalkya, I. 108. See Yajnavalkyasmrti (with the commentaryBalakrida of Visvarupacarya), Mahamahopadhyaya T. Ganapati Sastri (ed.), Delhi: 2ndedn, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982, p.97. [39] Mitaksara on Yajnavalkya, I. 108. See Yajnavalkyasmrti with Vijnanesvara’s Mitaksara, Gangasagar Rai (ed.), Delhi; Chowkhamba Sanskrit Pratisthan, 1998, p.54. [40] Haradatta on Gautama, XVII.30. [41] Krtyakalpataru, Niyatakalakandam, trtiyabhagam, K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Baroda: Oriental Research Institute, 1950, p.190 [42] P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, III, Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1973, p.929. [43] R. L. Mitra, op.cit., p.384. [44] Mitra Misra on Yajnavalkya, I. 108. [45] Palapiyusalata Gourisayantralaya, Darbhanga, Samvat 1951. [46] Atrismrti, verse 314 in Astadasasmrtyah (with Hindi tr by Sundarlal Tripathi, Khemraj Shrikrishnadas, Venkateshwar Steam Press, Bombay, Saka 1846. [47] Romain Rolland, The Life of Vivekanada and the Universal Gospel, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, Eleventh Impression, August 1988, p.44 fn. 3. [48] M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth,Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad, 1927, reprint 2000, p.324. Gandhi saw a five-footed “miraculous” cow at the Kumbha Mela at Allahabad in 1915, the fifth foot being nothing but “a foot cut off from a live calf and grafted upon the shoulder of the cow” which attracted the lavish charity of the ignorant Hindu (ibid., p.325). [49] India Today, 15 April 1993, p.72. [50] Visnusmrti, LIV.7; Atrismriti, verse 297, etc. [51] A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, Delhi, Rupa & Co., 27th Impression, 1996, p.319. |
October 29, 2010
Extracts from D.N.Jha’s Myth of the Holy Cow. [And download it free – an external link]
[ADDENDUM: I've found a free download for this book: Download it from here].
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(Source: here)
(concluding chapter of DN Jha’s The Myth of the Holy Cow)
Several points emerge from our limited survey of the textual evidence, mostly drawn from Brahmanical sources drawn from the Rgveda onwards. In the first place, it is clear that the early Aryans, who migrated to India from outside, brought along with them certain cultural elements. After their migration into the Indian subcontinent pastoralism, nomadism and animal sacrifice remained characteristic features of their lives for several centuries until sedentary field agriculture became the mainstay of their livelihood. Animal sacrifices were very common, the most important of them being the famous asvamedha and rajasuya. These and several other major sacrifices involved the killing of animals including cattle, which constituted the chief form of the wealth of the early Aryans. Not surprisingly, they prayed for cattle and sacrificed them to propitiate their gods. The Vedic gods had no marked dietary preferences. Milk, butter, barley, oxen, goats and sheep were their usual food, though some of them seem to have had their special preferences. Indra had a special liking for bulls. Agni was not a tippler like Indra, but was fond of the flesh of horses, bulls and cows. The toothless Pusan, the guardian of the roads, ate mush as a Hobson’s choice. Soma was the name of an intoxicant but, equally important, of a god, and killing animals (including cattle) for him was basic to most of the Rgvedic yajnas. The Maruts and the asvins were also offered cows. The Vedas mention about 250 animals out of which at least 50 were deemed fit for sacrifice, by implication for divine as well as human consumption. The Taittiriya Brahmana categorically tells us: Verily the cow is food(atho annam vai gauh) and Yajnavalkya‘s insistence on eating the tender (amsala) flesh of the cow is well known. Although there is reason to believe that a brahmana’s cow may not have been killed, that is no index of its inherent sanctity in the Vedic period or even later.
The subsequent Brahmanical texts (e.g. Grhyasutras and Dharmasutras) provide ample evidence of the eating of flesh including beef. Domestic rites and rituals associated with agricultural and other activities involved the killing of cattle. The ceremonial welcome of guests (sometimes known as arghya but generally as madhuparka) consisted not only of a meal of a mixture of curds and honey but also of the flesh of a cow or bull. Early lawgivers go to the extent of making meat mandatory in the madhuparka — an injunction more or less dittoed by several later legal texts. The sacred thread ceremony for its part was not all that sacred; for it was necessary for a snataka to wear an upper garment of cowhide.
The slaughter of animals formed an important component of the cult of the dead in the Vedic texts. The thick fat of the cow was used to cover the corpse and a bull was burnt along with it to enable the departed to ride in the nether world. Funerary rites include the feeding of brahmanas after the prescribed period and quite often the flesh of the cow or ox was offered to the dead. The textual prescriptions indicate the degree of satisfaction obtained by the ancestors’ souls according to the animal offered — cow meat could keep them content for at least a year! The Vedic and the post-Vedic texts often mention the killing of animals including the kine in the ritual context. There was, therefore, a relationship between the sacrifice and sustenance. But this does not necessarily mean that different types of meat were eaten only if offered in sacrifice. Archaeological evidence, in fact, suggests non-ritual killing of cattle. This is indicative of the fact that beef and other animal flesh formed part of the dietary culture of people and that edible flesh was not always ritually consecrated.
The idea of ahimsa seems to have made its first appearance in the Upanisadic thought and literature. There is no doubt that Gautama Buddha and Mahavira vehemently challenged the efficacy of the Vedic animal sacrifice, although a general aversion to beef and other kinds of animal flesh is not borne out by Buddhist and Jaina texts. Despite the fact that the Buddha espoused the cause of ahimsa, he is said to have died after eating a meal of pork (sukaramaddava). Asoka’s compassion for animals is undeniable, though cattle were killed for food during the Mauryan period as is evident from the Arthasastra of Kautilya and Asoka’s own list of animals exempt from slaughter, which, significantly, does not include the cow. The Buddhists in India and outside continued to eat various types of meat including beef even in later times, often inviting unsavoury criticism from the Jainas. In Lahul, for example, Buddhists eat beef, albeit secretly, and in Tibet they eat cows, sheep, pigs and yak.
Like Buddhism, Jainism also questioned the efficacy of animal sacrifice and enthusiastically took up the cause of non-violence. But meat eating was so common in Vedic and post-Vedic times that even Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is said to have eaten poultry. Perhaps the early Jainas were no strict vegetarians. A great Jaina logician of the eighth century tells us that monks did not have objection to eating flesh or fish given to them by the laity. In spite of all this, there is no doubt that meat became a strong taboo among the followers of Jainism. Its canonical and non-canonical literature provides overwhelming evidence on the subject. The inflexibility of the Jaina attitude is deeply rooted in the basic tenets of Jaina philosophy, which, at least in theory, is impartial in its respect for all forms of life without according any special status to the cow. Thus, although both Buddhism, and, to a greater extent, Jainism contributed to the growth of ahimsa doctrine, neither seems to have developed the sacred cow concept independently.
Despite the Upanisadic, Buddhist and Jaina advocacy of ahimsa, the practice of ritual and random killing of animals including cattle continued in the post-Mauryan centuries. Although Manu (200 BC-AD 200) extols the virtue ofahimsa, he provides a list of creatures whose flesh was edible. He exempts the camel from being killed for food, but does not grant this privilege to the cow. On the contrary, he opines that animal slaughter in accordance with Vedic practice does not amount to killing, thus giving sanction to the ritual slaughter off cattle. He further recommends meat eating on occasions like madhuparka and sraddha. One may not be far from the truth if one interprets Manu’s injunctions as a justification for ritual cattle slaughter and beef eating, as indeed a later commentator does.
Next in point of time is the law book of Yajnavalkya (AD 100-300) who not only enumerates the kosher animals and fish but also states that a learned brahmana (srotriya) should be welcomed with a big ox or goat, delicious food and sweet words. That the practice of flesh eating and killing cattle for food was customary right through the Gupta period and later is sufficiently borne out by references to it found in the Puranas and the Epics. Several Puranictexts, we are told, bear testimony to the feeding of brahmanas with beef at the funeral ceremony, though some of them prohibit the killing of a cow in honour of the guest and others recommend buffalo sacrifice for the goddess atDurga Puja, Navaratri, or Dasara.
The evidence from the epics is quite eloquent. Most of the characters in the Mahabharata are meat eaters.Draupadi promises to Jayadratha and his retinue that Yudhisthira would provide them with a variety of game including gayal, sambara and buffalo. The Pandavas seem to have survived on meat during their exile. TheMahabharata also makes a laudatory reference to the king Rantideva in whose kitchen two thousand cows were butchered each day, their flesh, along with grain, being distributed among the brahmanas. Similarly the Ramayanaof Valmiki makes frequent references to the killing of animals including the cow for sacrifice and for food. Ramawas born after his father Dasaratha performed a big sacrifice involving the slaughter of a large number of animals declared edible by the Dharmasastras. Sita, assures the Yamuna, while crossing it that she would worship the river with a thousand cows and a hundred jars of wine when Rama accomplishes his vow. Her fondness for deer meat drives her husband crazy enough to kill Marica, a deer in disguise. Bharadvaja welcomes Rama by slaughtering a fatted calf in his honour.
Non-vegetarian dietary practices find an important place in the early Indian medical treatises, whose chronology broadly coincides with that of the law books of Manu and Yajnavalkya, the early Puranas and the two epics.Caraka, Susruta and Vagbhata provide an impressive list of fish and animals and all three speak of the therapeutic uses of beef. The continuity of the tradition of eating beef is also echoed in early Indian secular literature till late times. In the Gupta period, Kalidasa alludes to the story of Rantideva who killed numerous cows every day in his kitchen. More than two centuries later, Bhavabhuti refers to two instances of guest reception, which included the killing of heifer. In the tenth century, Rajasekhara mentions the practice of killing an ox or a goat in honour of a guest. Later Sriharsa mentions a variety of non-vegetarian delicacies served at a dazzling marriage feast and refers to two interesting instances of cow killing. At that time, however, Somesvara shows clear preference for pork over other meats and does not mention beef at all.
While the above references, albeit limited in number, indicate that the ancient practice of killing the kine for food continued till about the twelfth century, there is considerable evidence in the commentaries on the Kavya literature and the earlier Dharmasastra texts to show that the Brahmanical writers retained its memory till very late times. Among the commantators on the secular literature, Candupandita from Gujarat, Narahari from Telengana in Andhra Pradesh, and Mallinatha who is associated with the king Devaraya II of Vidyanagara (Vijayanagara), clearly indicate that, in earlier times, the cow was done to death for rituals and hence for food. As late as the eighteenth century Ghanasyama, a minister for a Tanjore ruler, states that the killing of cow in honour of a guest was the ancient rule.
Similarly the authors of Dharmasastra commentaries and religious digests from the ninth century onwards keep alive the memory of the archaic practice of beef eating and some of them even go so far as to permit beef in specific circumstances. For example, Medhatithi, probably a Kashmiri brahmana, says that a bull or ox was killed in honour of a ruler or anyone deserving to be honoured, and unambiguously allows eating the flesh of cow (govyajamamsam) on ritual occasions. Several other writers of exegetical works seem to lend support to this view, though sometimes indirectly. Viswarupa of Malwa, probably a pupil of Sankara, Vijnanesvara who may have lived not far fromKalyana in modern Karnataka, Haradatta, also a southerner (daksinatya), Lakshmidhara, a minister of theGahadwala king Hemadri, Narasimha a minister of the Yadavas of Devagiri, and Mitra Misra from Gopacala(Gwalior) support the practice of killing a cow on special occasions. Thus even when the Dharmasastracommentators view cow killing with disfavour, they generally admit that it was an ancient practice but to be avoided in the kali age.
While the above evidence is indicative of the continuity of the practice of beef eating, the lawgivers had already begun to discourage it around the middle of the first millennium when society began to be gradually feudalized, leading to major socio-cultural transformation. This phase of transition, first described in the epic and puranicpassages as the kaliyuga, i.e. kalivarjyas. While the list of kalivarjyas swelled up over time, most of the relevant texts mention cow slaughter, as forbidden in the kaliyuga. According to some early medieval lawgivers a cow killer was an untouchable and one incurred sin even by talking to him. They increasingly associated cow killing and beef eating with the proliferating number of untouchable castes. It is, however, interesting that some of them consider these acts as no more than minor behavioural aberrations.
Equally interesting is the fact that almost all the prescriptive texts enumerate cow killing as a minor sin (upapataka), not a major offence (mahapataka). Moreover, the Smrti texts provide easy escape routes by laying down expiatory procedures for intentional as well as inadvertent killing of the cow. This may imply that cattle slaughter may not have been uncommon in society, and the atonements were prescribed merely to discourage eating of beef. To what extent the Dharmasastric injunctions were effective, however, remains a matter of speculation; for the possibility of at least some people eating beef on the sly cannot be ruled out. As recently as the late nineteenth century it was alleged that Swami Vivekananda ate beef during his stay in America, though he vehemently defended his action. Also, Mahatma Gandhi spoke of the hypocrisy of the orthodox Hindus who
October 28, 2010
Victory for Hindu fundamentalists: Education council unhappy with move
Victory for Hindu fundamentalists: Education council unhappy with move
Jun. 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
SHAIKH AZIZUR RAHMAN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Calcutta—References to the beef-eating past of ancient Hindus have been deleted from Indian school textbooks following a three-year campaign by Hindu hardliners.
For almost a century, history books for primary and middle schools told how in ancient India, beef was considered a great delicacy among Hindus — especially among the highest caste — and how veal was offered to Hindu deities during special rituals.
"Our past" chapters in the texts also detailed how cows used to be slaughtered by the Brahmins, or upper caste Hindus, during festivals and while welcoming guests to the home.
The passages that offended the Hindus, who now shun beef, have been deleted from new versions of the books delivered to schoolchildren last week.
However, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, which is responsible for the texts, now seems unhappy with the changes that were agreed to by a former council director.
Council lawyer Prashant Bhushan said ancient Hindus were indeed beef-eaters, and the council should not have distorted historical facts by deleting the chapters.
Noted Calcutta historian Ashish Bose added: "NCERT has committed a mistake by dropping those facts from the textbooks. It is a victory for Hindu fundamentalists who have lodged a misinformation campaign. Historians should unite against this cowardly move by the council."
Hardline Hindu activists, who consider cattle holy and have been seeking a ban on slaughter by Muslims and Christians, said the beef-eating references were meant to insult Hindus.
In 2003, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party held federal power, the educational council decided to delete the references. Congress and leftist opposition parties protested, but the move was approved by Jagmohan Singh Rajput, then council director.
The process took longer than expected, however, and Hindu fundamentalists alleged last year that the council was dragging its feet.
Two activists asked the Delhi High Court to order the immediate deletion of the chapters from new textbooks, but the court has not ruled on the suit.
When the litigation was filed, firebrand Hindu leader Praveen Togadia, general secretary of the World Hindu Council, declared: "Most of the facts in the chapters are not true. Some low-caste dalit (untouchable) Hindus used to eat beef. Brahmins never ate it."
Accusing textbook author Ram Sharan Sharma of shoddy research, Togadia said: "The chapter is poisoning the minds of little children. They will not respect their own religion in future. They will not turn out to be good Hindus and it will cause harm to the nation."
Dwijendra Narayan Jha, a history professor at Delhi University, says there is plenty of evidence showing ancient Hindus, including the Brahmins, slaughtered cows and ate beef.
"There are clear evidences in the Rig Veda, the most sacred Hindu scripture (from the second millennium BC), that the cow used to be sacrificed by Hindus during religious rituals. Ancient Hindu text Manusmriti lists the cow as one of several animals whose meat can be eaten by Hindus. The great epic, the Mahabharata, too speaks of beef being a delicacy served to esteemed guests," he said.
Jha's 2002 book, The Myth of the Holy Cow, presented historical evidence that Hindus ate beef long before the Muslim invasions in the 10th century, and provoked such a furor it was banned. The professor, himself a Hindu, feared attacks by fundamentalists and was given police protection.
The slaughter of cattle is banned in most Indian states, but not in Kerala, West Bengal and seven northeastern states. However, Muslims — the largest minority in the country — sometimes ignore state bans and slaughter cattle, which can spark communal tension.
October 28, 2010
Proofs that beef was eaten by ancient Hindus and is eaten by many Hindus today
I started this website in 2011 to compile and assess the evidence for or against beef eating in ancient India. By mid-2014 I had formed a CONCLUSIVE VIEW on this matter, summarised in the following statements:
1) The meat of barren cows (no longer able to give milk) was LEGAL AND WIDELY EATEN – as documented in the Arthashastra.
2) Male calves and bulls were regularly eaten in ancient India.
3) Any cattle that naturally died could be eaten/ its meat dried and sold.
4) There has NEVER been any restriction on eating buffalo meat in Hinduism.Â
MY COMPILATION OF PROOFS -Â THAT HINDUS ATE (AND EAT) BEEF
Download my manuscript that compiles my findings (including archaeological) below (in Microsoft Word):
I am one of the few GENUINE Hindus left in the world – a man sworn to SCEPTICISM in the tradition of Charvaka and Chanakya. AÂ scientific Hindu.
ADDENDUM
ADDENDUM
I found a free internet download link for DNÂ Jha’s book, Myth of the Holy Cow. Download here.
ADDENDUM
A nice take on the recent beef ban in India. Five years for eating beef, but you can become PM of India if manage to get a lot of people killed. [Download my book on Modi: The Truth about Modi]
@chintskap Mr Kapoor, I saw the shooting of Bobby twice in 1972 – I was 13 then. You’ve grown enormously in my mind with this statement. 1/
— Sanjeev Sabhlok (@sabhlok) March 19, 2015
ADDENDUM
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India the world’s largest beef exporter.
November 24, 2010
Mistranslation of Vedas – comments
Comment by Krishna Mohan on Facebook (here)
Sanjeev Ji, I know quite a bit of Sanskrit and I have myself noticed so many mistranslations not only of the Vedas but also of Gita. The reason being that Sanskrit and modern languages have a huge difference in their semantic structure.
For example, 'go' in Sanskrit means "anything that moves about freely"
Depending on context it can refer to different things. 'go' when used in context of agriculture means 'cow', when used in context of controlling oneself it means 'sense organs', when used in context of vision it means 'light' and in different contexts 'go' means different objects.
This is a property of every Sanskrit word.
Another example, 'Yog' means "combination". In chemistry it would mean 'a compound', in spirituality it would mean 'experiencing or combining in God', in the context of health it means 'yoga' where in-going and out-going breaths combine.
This property of Sanskrit in which a word represents "an idea" and not "an object" makes translating Sanskrit accurately very difficult for a person who did not study Sanskrit Vyakaran and Nirukti.
Hence we see in British translations of Vedas that "the so-called Aryans used to kill Cows". Max muller and other Indologists assumed that 'go' means "cow" even if it was used in the context of 'sense organs'. The actual context in Vedas probably was "Control your Sense organs" which was mistranslated to "Kill Cows". This is just one example. I have found so many English mistranslations in Bhagawad Gita itself, let alone Vedas which have more complex Sanskrit.