The dharmashastras permit consumption of meat. The dharma codes themselves do not consider meat-eating a sin. It has nothing to do with strict codes meant for religious life.
Sir.. its interesting.. may i know which dharma shastra allows consumption of meat? and do they allow consumption of beaf also?
Buddhism and Jainism were the actual "religions" that came up with the idea of vegetarianism. Brahmins adopted vegetarianism for reasons ranging from creating a puritanical basis for themselves, to not loosing the masses to the appeal of the other religions.
To my knowledge, its only jainism which advocated extreme ahimsa.. Budhism did not advocate vegetarianism initially.. Buddha himself accepted pork from a dasi family and died of food poisoning.. (some say, he knew the pork was not suitable for consumption, but still, its the dharma to accept alms for a monk)
I agree to your point.. brahmins would have adopted vegetarianism to counter jainism.. but can we say its on ideological basis and NOT for appealing masses.. It should be for appealing the rulers.. Secondly, i think its NOT brahminism which took on jainism.. rather its the bhakthi movement which took on jainism in tamilnadu.. (Please correct me if i am wrong).. Can we say, its only in the bhakthi movement, the vegetarianism would have adopted?
More over, bhakthi movement had participants from all communities.. How many nayanmars are brahmins?
So in my opinion, its NOT just for image sake.. but a restructure of the life style based on the bhakthi movements..
Brahmins today consider vegetarianism as an indication of their purity. It is a part of their ritual-purity that creates the ideology of superiority in their mindset.
Whats wrong in that purity? In my community, eating beef will lead to excommunication from the caste.. its one of the gravest sin.. (few decades back.. not now
) .. one will lose the status of kudiyanavan, if he kills a cow or eats beef..
I think, here purity is associated with racial purity.. its not.. purity refers to cultural purity, and i feel, there's nothing harm in that.. Even if brahmins felt superior, what's wrong in that.. in my opinion, they deserve to be superior.. did brahmins started persecuting others who ate meat? Never.. they only kept themselves away from others.. and that's why, its for all other castes to easily discriminate and offend brahmins, because there would be no physical retaliation..
To me, it is illogical to connect diet with superiority. And even more illogical to claim that "low-castes" are "low" on account of their birth, diet and occupation. That sir, in my view is the very basis of discrimination.
Sir.. the higher caste and lower caste is a very complex subject, which we can discuss in separate forum.. but in my view, its pretty much logical to connect diet with superiority.. because diet influences character and in traditional indian society, those who have noble qualities are considered superior and high..
Again, the term superiority should not be equated with racial.. here by superiority, it means cultural.. As a velala, i myself accept the superiority of the brahmins in terms of character, and life style.. I cannot follow that life, nor any of my community members..
Who is "imposing malign intent behind every social custom"?
Sir.. i did not intend to offend you.. i am sorry if i appeared like that.. what i meant is that by stating that vegetarianism is used for discriminating lower caste, we are imposing a malign intent on the forefathers.. to quote an analgoy, one may beat me out of spontaneous anger, but if i say, he intendly attacked me, then its imposing malign intent..
Am most interested in this. Can you please tell me how did it evolve "unintentionally"?
Sir.. we can understand if we look at the fundamental purpose of vegetarianism, and how older generations of brahmins viewed it.. Vegetarianism is a religious following.. brahmins follow this only for religious purpose.. am i right? or is there any brahmins from older generation, who followed vegetarianism just for discriminating others?
Lets take the priests.. for what purpose he is following vegetarianism? is it for discriminating others? Can a priest have power to discriminate? Suppose, if there is no one to discriminate, will he discard vegetarianism?
