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Famous Vedic philosopher Yajnavalkya on beef eating
by Guest Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:00 pm
“I, for one, eat it, provided it is tender.” This declaration from one of ancient India’s greatest sages is something today’s Hindu nationalists would rather forget—if, indeed, they are even aware of it, a response from Yajnavalkya, one of Hinduism’s most revered minds, to the assertion: “Let him (the priest) not eat the flesh of the cow and the ox.”
The source of this exchange is a 1906 work called History of India: Volume 1—From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century B.C. by Romesh Chunder Dutt, an economist and historian in the service of the old Baroda state. But you can find references to Yajnavalkya’s insistence on eating beef in a number of historical works that examine the Shatapatha Brahmana, where the sage’s riposte is contained.
The Shatapatha Brahmana is one of the chief sources of information about the Vedic age, a period roughly between 1,500 and 500 years before Christ, a time that saw the composition of some of Hinduism’s oldest scriptures, the Vedas. It is an era that many Hindus believe to be their golden age, attributing to it a pureness of scripture and spirit (and unsullied, of course, by the coming of Islam).
Yajnavalkya, an argumentative man who clearly revelled in challenging established wisdom, evolved many of the personal laws that Hindus use today. His approach to beef-eating, at a time when it was receding, is symptomatic of the questioning attitude that created one of the world’s oldest religions. But history’s nuances are difficult to shoehorn into Hinduism’s modern dogmas.
Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Lo6qAmGyVgy62SVqzjdW2I/In-search-of-Yajnavalkyas-lunch.html?utm_source=copy
The source of this exchange is a 1906 work called History of India: Volume 1—From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century B.C. by Romesh Chunder Dutt, an economist and historian in the service of the old Baroda state. But you can find references to Yajnavalkya’s insistence on eating beef in a number of historical works that examine the Shatapatha Brahmana, where the sage’s riposte is contained.
The Shatapatha Brahmana is one of the chief sources of information about the Vedic age, a period roughly between 1,500 and 500 years before Christ, a time that saw the composition of some of Hinduism’s oldest scriptures, the Vedas. It is an era that many Hindus believe to be their golden age, attributing to it a pureness of scripture and spirit (and unsullied, of course, by the coming of Islam).
Yajnavalkya, an argumentative man who clearly revelled in challenging established wisdom, evolved many of the personal laws that Hindus use today. His approach to beef-eating, at a time when it was receding, is symptomatic of the questioning attitude that created one of the world’s oldest religions. But history’s nuances are difficult to shoehorn into Hinduism’s modern dogmas.
Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Lo6qAmGyVgy62SVqzjdW2I/In-search-of-Yajnavalkyas-lunch.html?utm_source=copy
Guest- Guest
Re: Famous Vedic philosopher Yajnavalkya on beef eating
by Guest Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:04 pm
A professional indologist has written the following on another forum:
Perhaps the most notorious instance of beef-eating in Vedic is
YAjJavalkya's at Zatapatha BrAhmaNa 3.1.2.21 [besides being referred to in
the "Vedic Index" of Macdonell & Keith [II.145], Renou cites the passage
with clear amusement and perhaps even a little awe ["Religions of Ancient
India", p.45; further discussion of the passage is surveyed by Alsdorf in
his "Beitraege zur Geschichte von Vegetarismus und Rinderverehrung in
Indien", pp.611f.]. In this ZB passage it is debated whether or not it is
permissible to eat the flesh of cows and oxen. It seems clear that the
author of the passage is reluctant to admit it, but he quotes Y. as saying
that, yes, he ate the flesh of these animals, "as long as it is tender."
It is the sort of passage that has given Y. the reputation of being a great
Vedic iconoclast [pace Alsdorf and Rau, who argue that Y. was no
iconoclast: beef-eating outside of the ritual sphere was in fact the norm at the time]
Perhaps the most notorious instance of beef-eating in Vedic is
YAjJavalkya's at Zatapatha BrAhmaNa 3.1.2.21 [besides being referred to in
the "Vedic Index" of Macdonell & Keith [II.145], Renou cites the passage
with clear amusement and perhaps even a little awe ["Religions of Ancient
India", p.45; further discussion of the passage is surveyed by Alsdorf in
his "Beitraege zur Geschichte von Vegetarismus und Rinderverehrung in
Indien", pp.611f.]. In this ZB passage it is debated whether or not it is
permissible to eat the flesh of cows and oxen. It seems clear that the
author of the passage is reluctant to admit it, but he quotes Y. as saying
that, yes, he ate the flesh of these animals, "as long as it is tender."
It is the sort of passage that has given Y. the reputation of being a great
Vedic iconoclast [pace Alsdorf and Rau, who argue that Y. was no
iconoclast: beef-eating outside of the ritual sphere was in fact the norm at the time]
Guest- Guest
Re: Famous Vedic philosopher Yajnavalkya on beef eating
by Guest Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:08 pm
http://www.outlookindia.com/article/A-Brahmins-Cow-Tales/213159
Guest- Guest
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