[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: animal slaughter in the Vedas
Dear friends: this is the second part of the conclusion(!!).
Dhruba refers to buffalo meat eating :
" tri yachChatA mahishshANAmagho mAstrI.." _RigVeda 5.29.8
The "straight" meaning of this quote would be " hey, Indra, when you have
eaten the meat of three hundred buffaloes..."
This sukta 5.29, has Indra as devata, and gaurIvItishAktya as the rishi.
This is in praise of Indra in the context of vr^travadha, i.e., killing
of vr^trAsura.
The real meaning is "oh Indra, when you have received three hundred
offerings of soma, you will be powerful to kill vr^tra".
Just as "ukshshNa" means bull as well as soma, "mahishsha" means buffalo
as well as another variety of soma plant. There are some twenty varieties
of soma plant.
As for eating goat meat Dhruba gives 1.162.3.
"eshshachChAgaH puro ashvena vAjinA...."
The "straight" meaning here is "the hornless goat has been brought in
front of the horse.."
The sukta 1.162 is known as the ashva sukta and is a praise of "ashva",
the sun. The rishi is the same as that of sukta 1.164, mentioned
earlier.The word"ChAga" should not be interpreted as "shr^ngarahita ajA",
"hornless goat", but it means the morning or the dawn fire that is lit
before the sun rises. The real meaning of the rik is "the morning fire is
lit before the sun, the giver of food rises.."
So, my friends, these verses donot refer to any commonly accepted
practices of meat eating. It is the misinterpretation of the "scholars"
that has caused the confusion among our people. I have given the
originals and the context in which they have to be understood, even at
the cost of being overly scholarly. I felt that it was necessary to do so
, when people quote from the vedas and proclaim that cow slaughter is
part of madhuparka, beef is offered at weddings, and that it was a common
practice to eat meat of bull, buffalo, and goat. As you can see these are
erroneous statements and do not represent the true spirit of the vedas. I
plead once again, please do not propagate erroneous information. Thanks
for your patience. With best regards,-Narahari Achar
