[Advaita-l] Animal Sacrifice

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 6 Jul 2011, Rajaram Venkataramani wrote:

> Let me reword. My question is whether kalpa sutras describe animal
> killing and eating in srauddha karma.

Yes.  But note that an enterprising Bhagavata can contend those references 
are misinterpreted too.  Instead lets look at some of the historical and 
literary evidence.

In Kosambi, UP (a major city in ancient times) archaeologists 
excavated a syenachitta (a hawk-shaped altar) as used in the agnichayana 
yajna which conforms to the specifications in shrauta and sulva sutras. 
Animal bones were also found at the site.

In the Dashavatarastuti in the Gita Govinda of Kavi Jayadeva says,

Nindasi yajnavidherahaha shrutijaatam |
sadayahrdaya darshitapashughaatam |
keshava dhrtabuddhashareera jaya jagadeesha hare || 9 ||

"You vehemently criticized the sacrificial rituals taught in Shruti when
your pure heart beheld the killing of animals therein.  Keshava! You took
the form of Buddha.  Victory to Hari Lord of the world!"

Apart from being the first example in history of the "Buddha as Hindu 
reformer" meme, this shows that he agrees that pashughaatam is 
shrutijaatam.  And I needn't tell you of the influence he had on later 
Vaishnavas.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>