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HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM IN INDIA
death, in truth, do they lead (the animal) which they lead to the sacrifice.'301
But apart from these more general conceptions the whole ritual is pervaded by acts meant for immediately eliminating any killing and injury - the acts of appeasing (śānti).302 They do not refer only to the offerings but to any kind of injury committed in the course of the sacrifice. These rites are of special interest for the problem under discussion since in their and similar contexts we meet with the earliest occurrences of the word ahimsā (attested only in the final dative ahimsāyai). A few examples will suffice to illustrate the working of these rites.
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When the tree that is to serve as the sacrificial post in the animalsacrifice is felled, precautionary measures are taken to prevent it from being injured:
'O plant, protect it, he (the adhvaryu) says in order to protect it. 'O axe, do not injure it' - with these words he puts this (blade of darbha 303 - grass) between it (the tree) and the thunderbolt - the axe is, in truth, a thunderbolt - so that there be no injury.304
In a parallel text śāntyai is given in place of ahimsāyai. 305 Here the injury done to the tree is diverted to the blade of grass.
The tree itself, when falling down, is liable to injure the worlds:
The sacrificial post is, in truth, a thunderbolt; these worlds are afraid of it when it is being hurled down since being hurled down unappeased it is capable of injuring these worlds. When he says: 'With your top do not injure the sky, with your middle (do not injure) the intermediate world, become united with the earth, go to radiance', he thus
301 $B 3, 8, 1, 10 na va etam mrtyave nayanti yam yajñaya nayanti. 302 The material has been collected and discussed in detail by D. J. HOENS,
Santi I (Thesis Utrecht 1951). 303 Read: kusa- (WB). 304 MS 3,9, 3 osadhe trāyasvainam, ity aha trātyā eva svadhite mainam himsīr iti
vajro vai svadhitir vajrad vāvāsmā etad antardadhāty ahimsāyai. 305 TS 6,3,3, 2.
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