I have been thinking recently about our state of temples. They have changed their forms from being cultural and binding factors to just business centres. mostly people who are visiting the temples are doing mechanical things. how can we revive the temples as discussion forums for arts, culture, social responsibilities from being just "transactional" in nature. there are satsangas being organized in the temples, but they just follow the bhakthi movement. how can we revive usage of sanskrit, learning of vedas, and then to create a more responsible generation than ours? ideas are welcome...
Go hatya has been treated as highest of sins by puranas. I am not sure about vedas.
ReplyDeleteCow killing is not mentioned in Vedas, nor its prohibition. But the most satisfying evidence is the Hymn of food, that talks about rice cakes, milk, vegetable, but not beef or meat. This shows that beef or flesh have not been part of Aryan diet in Rig Veda.
ReplyDeleteIn many of Rig Vedic mantras, cow is said to be aghnya, but actually the "go" may not mean cow, rather it may stand for clouds or solar rays.
The popular quote of "hanvam gAvo" from Rig Veda soma - sUryA marriage is such an example, where go means solar rays or clouds.
Goghna comes in Panini's Ashtadhyayi, not in Vedas.
It may stand for the cultural taboo of releasing cows when a guest comes to house, probably as that mentioned in Ashvateyana Grhya sUtra 1.24.25.
Goghna, anyway, means guest.
Beef eating emerged as a practice when ritualization of Vedas started, probably at the Early Upanishadic period. The Early Upanishads seem to have been created to defend the spirituality of Vedas against the ritualist Srautins. But, the voice of Upanishads were depressed by the strong voices of contemporary Buddhism and Jainism. Buddhism and Jainism went to establish that Vedas were ritualistic mucks, and rejected the Vedas, and theism itself. The ritualists also believed that Vedas were full of rituals, but they believed in the efficacy of sheer rituals, so couldn't defend themselves.
Soon, the whole Aryan community changed from Vedic to Buddhist and Jains, isolating the conservative Srautins, and the actual Vedic followers, the Upanishadic sages.
The Upanishads couldn't defend against Buddhism, for Srautins strongly believed in animal sacrifices, and continued to do so.
A great dilemma arose before the left over people, who wanted to defend theism. The new theists probably were influenced by Greeks who came in c.300 BCE and started creating epics and incarnation stories. The incarnation stories helped to draw a large people out of the Aryan mainstream into the religion. The new religion thus was based on the non Vedic gods and incarnations, and based on local customs and beliefs, than Vedas. These people, but had to draw upon Vedic names and places, and make people believe in Vedic divinity, though the practices were actually against Vedas. To appease the non Vedic people, the incarnations had to conquer Vedic Gods, and local gods were held superior to Vedic Gods.
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The Ramayana
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Ramayana does not have beef eating in particular, but has eating of several other meats. Animal sacrifices continued to be held. The Dasaratha's Asvamedha was a typical Srautin ritual with Kausalya cutting the horse, and sleeping with the dead horse. (Though it has nothing to do with actual Vedas) Dasaratha symbolically smells the cooked flesh, which is said to be equivalent to eating.
In the forest, there is an instance in Valmiki Ramayana, where Sita and Rama sit near the meat-roasting fire, and Rama tells Sita about the purity and taste of the cooked flesh.
Another instance is when Sita tells Hanuman the symbolic instance, "aTayALa vAkya" in which, a crow (accused to be Jayanta), desiring meat, peck's Sita's meat pieces.(which she was drying in the sun, according to certain other Ramayanas)
Uttara Ramayana has an instance in which Rama, lost in the royal happiness, watching the female dancers, takes wine and also gives wine to Sita, "as if Indra to Shaci". The succeeding verse tells that not only wine, but also Sita was fed by "pure tasty meats" and "different fruits" by Rama.
No special mention of beef can be found.
In a verse, Hanuman tells Sita that Rama had stopped eating meat after Sita's abduction, due to grief.
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ReplyDeleteThe Mahabharata
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One instance in Mahabharata shows calves being fattened and killed for special guests. The Asvamedha in Mahabharata is much more violent, and represents the actual intended riual of Srautin ritualists.
Meat eating was so popular, that "Hadn't I fed you with rice and meat?" became a phrase among parents. (Remarkably, in a DhrtaraStRa - duryOdhana conversation)
Beef was an important offering in ShrAddha.
A king called Rantideva had 20000 cows killed in his kitchen daily. He was reputed to distribute food with meat daily.
(Vana Parva)
But, some instances of vegetarianism too pop up, in the BhiSma yudhiSThira dialogues. But non vegetarianism too comes, making Mahabharata full of contradictions.
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Manu smrti
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In Manu smrti, however, vegetarianism seems to get amplified more, and consumption of flesh is limited to sacrificial remains. Still, Manu makes a clause that Brahmins who refuse to partake sacrificial meat, shall be born as animal in rebirths.
But Manu also contradicts by saying that the man who performs Ashvamedha and the man who abstains from taking meat for lifetime, both reap the same.
In the later Puranas, the Vedas were rejected theoretically, and the whole religion became non Vedic, with Vedic mantras used in wrong contexts or by Srautins only.
Sayana, Mahidhara, Adi Sankara, all have asserted the nature of sacrifice in their times as involving killing of animals.
Later, the sacrifices became more non violent, with Srautins substituting rice cakes instead of animals. The rice cakes were still "suffocated" before offering into fire. The practice, but had originated since late Mahabharata, where a verse tells that aja is not goat, but the name of a grain, and that Vedas never advocate killing.
Since the Krsna stories, people had gained more good attitude towards cow, and had to also defend against the "pAkhaNDis", the Buddhists and Jains, who continuously mocked about violence and meat eating.
At a point of history, meat eating had to be avoided again.
In the Puranas, gohatya is a sin, along with Brahmahatya. Instance of people suffering from gohatya are even seen in Shiva Purana, pradoSa mAhAtmyam etc.
Still, many Brahmins of East and North India eat meat, though not beef.
Their claim is again from Manu, which regards certain fishes (importantly pAThIna) and small animals as OK for Brahmins.
Anyway, Vedas do not encourage nor have undisputed instances where beef is a part of the human diet.
KIRON KRISHNAN
ReplyDeleteExhaustive.