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HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM IN INDIA
6. Among other vows the brahmacārin, the Vedic student has to keep that of ahimsā: He is to avoid honey, meat, perfumes, garlands, spices, women, everything turned sour and injury to animate beings. 278
Himsā is mentioned in the same context by Gautama: The student has to abstain from gambling, low service, taking something not offered to him, and injury.279
Though ahimsā is not referred to by the older Dharmasūtras in connection with the rules for the brahmacārin, it is presupposed in Pāraskara-Gșhyasūtra where the student is to fetch fire-wood from the woods without injuring trees.280 The condition that the firewood must not be cut off from living trees but must have fallen spontaneously is not mentioned elsewhere, but it can be assumed that the vow of ahimsā is implied by the initiation ceremony. On this occasion the teacher commits the pupil to all the gods and to all the beings so that he may not be hurt.281 These formulas [640] occur already in the Satapatha-Brāhmaṇa, where the sentence is added: "Thus his disciple does not suffer any harm. 282
It is true that in these passages the brahmacārin's practising ahimsā is not explicitly stated; they only say that the student himself is to be protected from injury. But from Pāraskara's rule it can be inferred that the student, in his turn, had to avoid injuring any animate being.
7. Ahimsā is one of the means to remove sins, one of the austerities (tapas) or penances to be performed by the penitent:
An oblation in the fire together with the 'great utterances' (bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ) must daily be made by (the penitent) himself. He must practise non-injury, truth, freedom from anger, and uprightness.283
Baudhayana, too, mentions ahimsā as one of the means of penance:
278 M 2,177 varjayen madhu māmsam ca gandham mālyam rasān striyaḥ, śuktāni
yani sarvāṇi prāņinām caiva himsanam. 279 Gaut 2, 17 dyūtam hīnasevām adattādānam hissām. Cf. M 2, 179. 280 PGS 2, 5, 9 ahimsann aranyät samidha āhrtya. 281 PGS 2, 2, 21 athainam bhūtebhyah paridadāti ... viśvebhyas tvā devebhyah
paridadāmi sarvebhyas tvā bhūtebhyah paridadāmi aristyā iti. 282 SB 11, 5, 4,344 tathā hāsya brahmacārī na kāñcanartim ārcchati. 283 M 11, 223 mahāvyāhịtibhir homaḥ kartavyaḥ svayam anvaham, ahimsām satyam
akrodham ārjavam ca samācaret.
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