History of Vegitarianism and Cow Veneration in India

Author(s): Willem B Bollee
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd

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HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM IN INDIA
The second possibility is chosen by the pious tradesman Tulādhāra in his famous instruction of the ascetic Jājali.109 After he has delivered a long sermon on ahimsā, in which he condemns agriculture and cattle-breeding, culminating in the statement: 'There is no higher piety than non-violation of living beings,'110 Jājali raises in Mbh. XII 265, 1-3 the objection that all men, including Tulādhāra, live from agriculture and cattle-breeding and, as without both no offering can be given, he is a nihilist (nāstika). Tulādhāra protests his high esteem for sacrifice - but of the 'brahmanic' kind, because the (present-day) brahmins have given up their' sacrifice and taken on the ksatriya sacrifice, which was developed by avaricious nihilists in ignorance of the true Veda teaching. 111 [38]
The proper sacrifice is made 'with reverence as the sacrifical meal and Veda study as the herbal juices'. 112 According to vs 18, it is an 'offering of truth and self-restraint' (satya and dama). The offering potion poured into the fire ascends to the sun and comes back from there as rain, from which sustenance and progeny result;113 in this manner the ancestors attained all their wishes, whereby farming was unnecessary, because 'unploughed, the earth let her fruits ripen; through mere prayers, the plants flourished'. 114 In vs 24 it is said of the pious that they 'walk along the path of the righteous and present the ahimsā of all living beings as an offeringʻ.115
Immediately after the story of Tulādhāra and Jājali follows in Mbh. XII 257 (cr. ed.; Deussen 1922: 436f.) the Vicakhnugītā, the protest of the king Vicakhnu against a cowslaughter on the place of the sacrifice. Here we read the daring words:
The pious Manu has instructed ahimsā in all the rituals ... the ahimsā is to be regarded as the highest of all obligations.
vah ved-bhāg rāksas kā banāyā hai, and what is written there about meat
eating, that part of the Veda is made by the devil'. 109 Mbh. XII 254ff., Deussen 1922: 423ff.; Winternitz I 1962: 365ff. 110 Mbh. XII 254, 29: na bhūtānām ahimsāyā jyāyān dharmo ‘sti kaścana. 111 Vs 5f.: sva-yajñam brāhmaṇā hitvā kşātram yajñam ihâsthitā) // lubdhair vitta
parair, brahman, năstikaiḥ sampravartitam / veda-vādān a-vijñāya satyâbhāsam
ivânytam. 112 Vs 8: namaskāreņa havişā svâdhyāyair ausadhais tathā. 113 On these teachings cf. Lüders 1951 ch. IX, on p. 314 our vs 11 is quoted
which is almost identical with Manu 3,76. 114 Vs 12: a-krsta-pacyā prthivī, āsīrbhir vīrudho 'bhavan. 115 satām vartmânuvartante yajante câvihimsayā. The critical edition reads ...
yatha-balam a-himsayā, but the well attested yajante câvio (v.1. °te to avio, oti tv avio) appears to me to be preferred.
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