[Advaita-l] Advaitic Foods - the nAstIka influence

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Satishji,

Why then Manu Smriti has a verse advising people to sanctify meat before eating? Even today the custom of sanctifying the raw meat by offering that to the Lord Mrigendra (Lord Vishnu as Mrigendra is in Veda) by chanting a Vedic verse is being followed by some people. Literally Mrigendra means Lion, the kings of beasts. In puranas also there are stories, where the severely emaciated rishis, after their severe austeriries, went to the kings place and the kings used to offer them meat dishes. In ancient Ayurvedic texts like Charaka samhita there are references as to the wholesomeness of meat and is said to be the best for recuperating health. In some of the ritiuals, related to the Manes, meat was sacrificed. Brahmins ate the sacrificial meat and those offered to them by the
 ksjatriyas but they did not hunt or kill animals and that was left to the Kshatriyas. Kshatriyas honed their military skills through the huntings and that way they also secured meat needed for recuperating their body after battles as well as for maintaing such a sturdy body suitable for warfare. The situation has changed with passage of time and thus the meateating also declined. 

Of course, a vegetarian may contest this by saying that the vegetarians can also be sturdy. May be in some places meat eating might have declined due to the influence of Jainism. Any person interested in further details has only to look up the relevant literatur please.

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Fri, 12/17/10, Satish Arigela <satisharigela at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Satish Arigela <satisharigela at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Advaitic Foods - the nAstIka influence
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Friday, December 17, 2010, 4:46 AM

namaste,

>> brAhmaNa-s
 refraining from eating meat is more because of bauddha and jaina 
>> influence.

>That is certainly the refrain of modern Indologists who wish to minimize the 
>worth of the Vaidika traditions and ascribe all good qualities to the 
>>Judeo-Christian faiths as far as possible, or at least to Buddhism and Jainism 
>where not. 

You are right about the majority of indologists.  But I for one certainly is not 
the kind who would blindly quote material dished out by these biased 
indologists. 


There is sufficient internal evidence within Hinduism itself that in ancient 
days, brAhamaNa-s ate meat and that it declined over time.

Not just indologists even traditional scholars believe that the nAstIka mata-s 
did have clear role in brAhmaNa-s giving up meat.

Such positions were taken by brAhmaNa-s as a result of debates with bauddha-s 
and the jaina-s in vidvat
 sabha-s over a time period of couple of centuries.

But like to emphasize that they are not the only reason. Abstaining from mAmsa 
and maithuna and from other pleasures was there among brAhmaNa-s from very 
earlier times.

Regards



________________________________
From: Shrisha Rao <shrao at nyx.net>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Fri, December 17, 2010 3:32:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Advaitic Foods

El dic 16, 2010, a las 2:53 p.m., Satish Arigela escribió:

> brAhmaNa-s refraining from eating meat is more because of bauddha and jaina 
> influence.

That is certainly the refrain of modern Indologists who wish to minimize the
 
worth of the Vaidika traditions and ascribe all good qualities to the 
Judeo-Christian faiths as far as possible, or at least to Buddhism and Jainism 
where not.  However, it is not correct in any obvious sense.  Buddhists have 
never been vegetarians themselves -- the Buddha himself is said (by Buddhists) 
to have died by choking on a bone in his food, and Buddhists have always eaten 
all kinds of flesh, as may be seen even today.  The Buddhists criticized animal 
sacrifices as part of their all-round condemnation of Vedic rites, but this was 
not because of their concern for the pain and suffering of animals.

With the Jaina tradition there is the actual practice of vegetarianism and 
concern for the suffering of animals, but there is no significant scholarly 
basis (the absurd fantasies of people like Zydenbos notwithstanding) to say that 
said tradition has had a significant influence on the
 Vaidika-s.  There is 
sufficient reason to hold that the Vaidika ethos is sui generis.

Regards,

Shrisha Rao

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