From Yajna to Ahimsa: Dietary Transformations in Ancient India and the Pork Paradox
From Yajna to Ahimsa: Dietary Transformations in Ancient India and the Pork Paradox Ancient India’s dietary practices evolved from the meat-heavy Vedic period (c. 1500–500 BCE) to the vegetarian ethos of later Hinduism, shaped by religion, caste, and economics. Vedic rishis consumed beef in rituals, as described in the Rigveda, while the Ramayana and Mahabharata depict meat-eating alongside emerging ascetic vegetarianism. Jainism and Buddhism’s ahimsa (c. 6th century BCE) pressured Brahmins to adopt vegetarianism, formalized by the Manusmriti (c. 200 BCE–200 CE), with the cow becoming taboo by c. 200 CE. Pork, rarely used in rituals, was stigmatized as impure, a trend amplified by Islamic rule (c. 1206–1857 CE), though pre-Islamic Hindu norms and ecological factors played key roles. Early Buddhism permitted meat, but Mahayana sects in China and Japan embraced vegetarianism, unlike Theravada regions. This essay explores these shifts, highlighting the irony of Buddhism’s influe...