There is “lot of discussion”:http://www.ashoo.org/blog/archives/cat_india.html#000109 going onin the Indian Blogosphere about the decision of the central govt. to ban cow slaughter. The book I am reading now “Gem in the Lotus”:http://penguinbooksindia.com/Books/aspBookDetail.asp?ID=2951 by Abraham Eraly has the following passage about beef eating during the Vedic times.
bq. Amongst meats, beef “was a normal article of contemporary Brahmin
diet”, notes Kosambi. A guest in ancient India was called goghna, one for whom the cow was killed. To serve a feast of beef to guests, especially revered guests like sages was a matter of honor for the Aryan gentry. The great sage Yajnavalkya is said to have had a particular weakness for the tender flesh of the milch cow, but normally only sterile cows or old cows were slaughtered for meat, for the milch cow, termed aghnya not to be killed, was too valuable an econmic asset to be squandered
This is from the chapter titled “Vedic India”. The other meats that were eaten at that time were horse meat, and goat.
If Germany has laws to prevent the “killing of ants”:http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_775325.html, then why can’t we have laws banning cow slaughter.
Holy Cow!
Published
JK, the issue here is not protection of an animal for ecological reasons (as in ant’s case). The motive behind cow slaughter ban is cited as religion by BJP. You were in right in citing a source on Vedic beef-eating habits. There are no such prohibition according to Hindu religion. People are against it because of a few political parties are trying to gain mileage out of this.
L.
>>People are against it because of a few political parties are trying to gain mileage out of this.
I am not too sure of that reasoning either. If I remember correctly, BJP was not that big a party when I was growing up. Nor did any party have cow slaughter ban as a issue. But still almost all Hindus considered beef eating against the religion.
As far I know, it was not any political party (at least not in my times) that propogated the belief that beef is not for Hindus.
Hm.. an interesting article:
[Paradox of the Indian Cow: Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India]
http://www.ercwilcom.net/~indowindow/sad/godown/history/dnjha.htm
Srijith, The issue is with making cow slaughter illegal by the Govt. If Hindus don’t want to eat beef it is fine. There are so many people who like to eat beef (including Hindus). So why should they be denied. The problem is with the state trying to make religious laws.
JK, my sentiments exactly.
(I’m supposedly a libertarian, which explains it, I suppose.)
PS: Your TABINDEX for th form is not in the right order.
Madman, What does Your TABINDEX for th form is not in the right order mean ? What should I do ?
Uh-oh, you don’t build web pages for fun or for a living, I take it.
What that means, in plain English, is that when I press the Tab key to go from one field to the other (Name-Email-URL-Comments-Cancel-Preview-Post), it should go in that order. Instead, when I press Tab after the comments box (like a power user), I get taken to the first hyperlink on the page.
How to fix it? Well, a detailed explanation, while easy enough to implement, would take longer than asking you to mail me the template for your comments page so I can fix it.
Email: webguru [at] vsnl [dot] net