History of Vegitarianism and Cow Veneration in India

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

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fundamental sentence: 'There should not be any killing of a living being here for sacrifice.'153 A little later are seen the often quoted sentences:
Formerly many hundreds of thousands of living beings were being killed to make curry in the kitchen of the godbeloved king Piyadassi; (50) now, after the decree of this religious edict not more than three living beings were killed, two peacocks and one gazelle, but later even these three living beings will not be killed any more.154
More than once non-violence to living beings 155 appears in a list of virtues recommended to the people and, in the eighth Rock Edict, the emperor contrasts his pilgrimage to the abode of Buddha's enlightenment to the hunting expeditions of earlier rulers. The inscription in the Greek language, found in Afghanistan in 1958, even asserts that hunting and fishing were discontinued in the realm of Asoka and, without further ado, makes him a vegetarian156 using the phrase àntéxetai Tôv čuyúxov common in the Greek discussion about vegetarianism. Here at least the assertion about hunting and fishing should be taken no more literally than the 'many hundreds of thousands of animals slaughtered daily in the imperial kitchens. The passage of the fourth Rock Edict, where the emperor boasts that due to his moral teaching the non-killing and non-violation of living beings (mentioned first in a list of virtues) had increased to such an extent as had not been the case for many hundreds of years. That he would support a further increase and hoped that his descendants would act similarly, is quite an impressive proof of historical development. 157
153 hida no kimci jīvam ālabhitu pajohitaviye. 154 puluvam mahānasasi devânampiyasa Piyadasine lajine anudivasam bahūni
pāna-sata-sahasāni alabhiyisu sūpathāye. se aja adā iyam dhamma-lipi likhitā timni yeva panāni alabhiyamti, duve majūlā eke mige, se pi cu mige no dhuvam;
etāni pi cu timni pānāni pachā no ālabhiyisamti. 155 Rock Edict. III jīvesu anālambhe sādhu (Kalsi: pānānam anālambhe sādhu); IX
pānesu (pānānam) samyame; XI pānānam anālambhe. 156 Journal Asiatique 1958: 3. 157 adise bahūhi vasa-satehi no hūta-puluve, tādise aja vadhite devânampiyasa
Piyadasine lajine dhammânusathiya an-ālambhe pānānam avihisā bhūtānam nātisu sampațipati samana-babhanesu sampatipati māti-pitu-susūsā. esa amne ca bahuvidhe dhamma-calane vadhite, vadhayisati ceva devânampiye Piyadasi lāja dhamma-calanam imam ...
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