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Re: animal slaughter in the Vedas
Dear friends,
I am really sorry, my post is in such bad format. Obviously my internet
skills are nothing to be proud of. So I am retyping the whole thing so
you can read it better.
This is the second and concluding part of my response(retyped, of
course!) to Dhruba's post where he wrote:
"However, I read that scholars refer to several verses to support the
animal eating practices. I am not able to judge either the verses or the
merits of the translations, but here are some of the references:
Bull (vrisha) eating (1.164.43, 10.86.13-14), buffalo meat eating
(5.29.8) goat meat eating(1.162.3) etc. appear to be socially accepted
practices in the straight meaning of these verses".
In sanskrit, the "straight" meaning some times does not make sense, for ,
many a time words have more than one meaning and one has to choose the
one that is appropriate in the context. As an example, there is a
subhasita:
" keshavaM patitaM dr^shshtvA pAndavAH harsha nirbharAH
rudanti kauravAssarve hA keshava hA keshava"
The "straight meaning of this sloka would be,
" after seeing keshava ( Krishna) , fall down, all the pAndavAs rejoiced.
However, all the kauravAs cried in grief, oh keshava,oh keshava".
Does this make sense? After all Krishna is the best friend of Pandavas.
How can they rejoice at his fall? and how can kauravas feel sorry for
Krishna? It goes against all that we have learnt from Mahabharata and
Bhagavata.
Yes, there is another more appropriate meaning. "ka" means water,
"pAndava" means crane, "kaurava" means crow, and "shava" means a dead
body. So, the meaning is " after seeing a dead body fall in to water, the
cranes rejoiced. However, all the crows cried, alas, the dead body is in
water, dead body in water".
We do not need a "scholar" explaining that the Pandavas actually hated
Krishna in their heart of hearts and this was the way to express their
true feelings.
It is the same way with the verses referred to by Dhruba, and I quote the
relevant parts:
"...ukshANam pr^shnimapachanta vIrAH..." -RigVeda 1.164.43
Here, the "straight" meaning would be " the warriors are killing the
bulls.."
But, does this make sense? Is this appropriate in the context?
Sukta 1.164, also called "asya vAmIya" sukta, is a very profound sukta
consisting of 52 riks (verses), the rishi being dIrghatamA auchitya, ( he
is also the rishi for sukta 1.162 that Dhruba quotes for goat meat
eating). The sukta is addressed to several deities and different parts of
the sukta are in different chandas.
This is the same sukta, in which rik 27 says that the cow is "aghnyA",
not killable, and I had quoted this earlier. Some very famous quotations
are taken from this sukta:
"..ekaM sadviprA bahudhA vadanti.." "There is only one, the learned call
Him by different names"
" dwA suprNA..." a very famous metaphor of two birds in philosophy,
representing the jIvAtma and paramAtma, is also taken from this sukta.
Parts of this sukta are used in daily worship, "..gaurImimAya
salilAni..".
If the "straight" meaning is read, 1.164.43 would be contradictory to
1.164.27.
The word "ukshshNa" has another very common meaning, that it is a variety
of soma vine. SAyaNa explains, "vallIrUpaH somaH", The part of the verse
quoted means:
"the performers of the sacrifice are cooking the soma plant with a view
to extract soma juicefor the ceremony". This verse does not mean that
"bulls are being cooked".
"ghasatta indra ukshshaNaH priyam..." -RigVeda 10.86.13
" ukshshaNo hi me panchadasha sAkaM pachanti viMshatiM."-RigVeda 10.86.14
The "straight" meaning of these quotations would be :
"indra, eat your favorite bull.." and " "they are cooking fifteen and
twenty bulls for me.".
The sukta 10.86 is called aindra sukta, and is in the form of a
conversation between Indra, IndrANi and vR^shshAkapi. The chandas is
panchapada pankti, and the rishis are Indra, IndrANi and vR^shshAkapi.
Every rik in this sukta ends with the burden ""vishvasmAdindra uttaraH".,
"Indra is superior to every one else in this world"
The purport of this sukta is to make Indra powerful. It is the tradition
that Indra becomes powerful by partaking of soma.
In rik 10.86.13, IndrANi tells Indra, "please partake of your soma
quickly.." In 10.86.14, Indra replies, " they are preparing soma for
offering fifteen and twenty times..."
There is a yajna called agnishshToma, consisting of four parts. In the
second part, they offer fifteen "stomas" and in the third part, they
offer twentyone "stomas".i.e., special Ahutis of soma. Again the word
ukshshNa means soma plant and not bull.
Please pardon me, I will post the rest in my next posting. _Narahari
The
