There are extensive quotes from the holy books about the consumption of non-vegetarian food in ancient times
A RECENT video by popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee elaborated on the food habits of Hindu deities, Lord Ram in particular. This generated a great deal of controversy. In the video, Rathee, whose videos are very popular and based on thorough research, stated that Lord Ram was non-vegetarian. His video (with 9.2 million views) contained extensive quotations from the Valmiki Ramayan and other sacred Hindu books. Based on scriptures, he also narrated the food habits of many deities, including the prevalence of meat and drinking of ‘Soma Ras’ (blissful nectar or tranquillizer) as part of their menu.
How could the Hindu deities eat non-vegetarian food? There are extensive quotes from the holy books about the consumption of non-vegetarian food. Swami Vivekanand in his book East and West, also endorses this view. Swamiji, while speaking to a large gathering in the US, said: “You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.” (Vivekananda speaking at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA (2 February, 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhistic India’, cited in Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 3 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536.)
This is corroborated by other research works sponsored by the Ramakrishna Mission established by Swami Vivekananda. One of these reads: “The Vedic Aryans, including the Brahmanas, ate fish, meat and even beef. A distinguished guest was honoured with beef served at a meal. Although the Vedic Aryans ate beef, milch cows were not killed. One of the words that designated cow was agonya (what shall not be killed). But a guest was a goghna (one for whom a cow is killed). It is only bulls, barren cows and calves that were killed.” (C Kunhan Raja, ‘Vedic Culture’, cited in the series, Suniti Kumar Chatterji and others (eds.), The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol 1 (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission, 1993), 217.)
Babasaheb Ambedkar also traces the history of dietary tradition to tell us that with the rise of Buddhism, Brahminism resorted to countering it by raising the slogan of ‘cow as mother’. Those who could not afford vegetarianism stuck to beef-eating and were made untouchables. As such, on the evolutionary scale, early human beings were hunter food-gatherers till the emergence of pastoral society. During this period, apart from dairy products, they continued eating animals. Animal sacrifice to please the deities became a norm. The sacrifice of cows and other animals to Hindu deities was resisted by Gautam Buddha. While Lord Mahavir was for totally giving up eating animals, Gautam Buddha did tell his disciples to accept even non-veg food given in bhiksha (charity), by a donor to the begging monk. Emperor Ashoka, a Buddhist, in one of the edicts, says that animal sacrifice should be stopped, but the animals and birds necessary for eating could be killed.
Animal sacrifice continues in many a temple even today. Temples of Kamakhya Devi (Assam), Dakshineshwar Kali Temple (West Bengal) and others are amongst the temples that continue this practice of sacrifice of meat and chicken. In Maharashtra, near Lonavala, at the Temple of Ekvira Devi, chicken and toddy (an alcoholic drink) are offered to the worshippers.
As per data by the Anthropological Survey of India, today in India, nearly 70% of the population is non-vegetarian. More Jains are vegetarians and only 45% of Hindus are vegetarians. Most of the population in coastal regions consumes fish as their first priority. In the Konkan region, this is called ‘Sagar Pushp’ while in regions of Bengal it is called ‘Sagar Fal’. Incidentally, in Bengal, fish has a place of importance in many customs.
Dietary habits are totally diverse from region to region across the world. Right in India, there is the Musahar community, which eats rats out of poverty compulsion. In the North Eastern states, the prevalence of beef-eating is higher than in many other parts of India.
As beef was made a political issue and lynching of Muslims and Dalits became common by Hindu nationalists, we heard Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) N Sreeprakash stating that if he is elected, he will ensure the supply of better-quality beef. In the teaser of the film, Kerala Story 2, we see a Muslim family forcibly feeding beef to a Hindu girl who has married a Muslim. What a parody. To dissuade Hindu girls from marrying a Muslim man, this is shown to discourage girls from making their choice in marriage. The fact is that beef is very common in Kerala as a food item.
Human history is replete with all types of dietary practices. Currently, the trend is towards veganism. This is on the ground that milk produced by animals is for their calves, not for humans. This is a welcome moral stand. Practically speaking, vegetarianism is better for environmental protection. That apart, the present practices of people have to be respected.
My friend and mentor, Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, used to tell me that Gandhiji (a vegetarian) was very open about offering non-vegetarian food to his guests without much hesitation. When requested to ensure a ban on cow slaughter, he said that the country belongs to people of diverse food practices, so it will be unfair to them to resort to such a law.
What is being popularised by communal forces is that Muslims are violent because of non-vegetarianism. The truth is that a good number of Hindus also consume meat or fish. As far as violent tendencies and non-vegetarianism are concerned, it is an absurd correlation. We have seen that the biggest mass murderer, Hitler, was a strict vegetarian after 1933 till his death, and advocates of peace like Nelson Mandela must have been meat eaters. There is no medical correlation between dietary habits and the psychological makeup of an individual.
The most dangerous distortion is to deny the consumption of meat in ancient times and the propaganda that Muslims are violent due to their dietary habits.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor of IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
