Sanjukta Gupta's guest appearances

Sanjukta Gupta

The Vegan Option - Vegetarianism: The Story So Far

Steven Pinker

Peter Singer

Andrew Knight

Benjamin Zephaniah

John Arnold

Deepak Kumar

Tristram Stuart

Jason BeDuhn

Ramachandra Guha

Aysha Akhtar

Dennis Kucinich

Chris Williamson

David Pearce

Armand D’Angour

Ruby Roth

OwlTail

Gaudiya Vaishnavism

When conquerors who profess Islam or Christianity rule over Indian vegetarians, the conversations about food ethics go both ways. Episode 8: Contacts Ian discovers the ecstatic dancing and singing shared by Sufis and Hindus – including westerners singing Hare Krishna in London’s main shopping street.  In Delhi, he finds out about the inquisition that started with European antisemitism and ended with Indians being forced to eat beef. And in the royal city of Agra, he visits a shrine built to commemorate a conversation about religion and vegetarianism between a Jain saint and the Mughal emperor Akbar. He uncovers the fascinating story of this heretic emperor who advocated vegetarianism. At the halfway point of this 15-part history of vegetarianism, the traditions of East and West come together. From hereon, it’s all one story. Play or download (52MB MP3 37min) (via iTunes) or read transcript.  Contributors:  Pius Malekandathil (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) Sushil Jain and Ashoka Jain, Agra Sanjukta Gupta (University of Oxford) Dr Peter Flügel, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) ISKON (“Hare Krishnas”):  Devotees of Radha Krishna Temple, Soho, London Prasad distributed by Food For All Ter Kadamba das (askamonk.org)    Readings  Andrea Corsali, Letter to Giuliano de Medici 1515 Emperor Jahangir, Memoirs (Translated by Alexander Rogers, 1914) Kabir, in the Guru Granth, translation assisted by Manvir Singh. Abu Fazl Allami’s Akbarnama, on the sayings of Akbar (see translation by Gladwin 1800) and on the Hall of Worship (from Rezavi and Blochman) Palatina Inscription Akbar’s Farmans (from Malcom’s Memoir of Central India 1832, Jhaveri, and the Bhanuchandra Gani courtesy of the Digital Library of India) Letter of Father Pinheiro, from Vincent Smith’s “Akbar the Great Mogul” 1917 Matteo Ricci, from “The Truth Meaning of the Lordof Heaven”. Francis Bacon, “The Partitions of Science”, discussing Proverbs Ch XII v10 (“A right-minded person cares for his beast”).  The Italian and Portuguese sources used the word “gentoo” (related to “gentile”, but from the perspective of Christians). Here I variously translated it as “Hindu” or “Infidel”, but I’m wishing I’d translated it as “pagan”. Special Bonus for Australian Listeners Andrea Corsali’s letter is famous for more than casually implying that Leonardo da Vinci was vegetarian. He was the first person to draw the constellation of the Southern Cross, which is part of the Australian flag. There is a copy of the letter (ironically on animal skin) in the State Library of New South Wales. Untranslated Vegetarian History I tried to find readings from some of the Sufis mentioned early in the show. But their words do not seem to be published in the vernacular, let alone in translation. So again, I’ll leave these footnotes here in the hope that scholarly specialists will one day come across them! Hamid ud-Din Nagori’s commitment to animals is mentioned on p221 of Sururu’s Sudur, which is in the Habibganj collection at Aligarh University. Nuru’d-Din’s admission that he considered meat-eating cruelty despite it being allowed under Shari’a is in the Asraru’l-Abrar (“The Secrets of the Pious”) by Dawud Mishkati (ff. 236a-b), published 1654. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. Kabir, Sikhs, and Vegetarianism There’s a well-worn debate about vegetarianism amongst Sikhs, including a seventeenth century account that the early Gurus (in the early sixteenth century) were vegetarian. There are arguments over whether particular verses condemn meat-eating, or just the ritual killings of Muslims and Hindus. Some of the strongest lines against eating animals seem to come from the poet Kabir. (He may have inspired the first Sikh guru, and the Sikh scriptures include his poetry.) But even Kabir’s rhetoric is open to interpretation; much of it seems directed at particular kinds of slaughter. It seems reasonable to assume he was vegetarian, but it’s not absolutely explicit (either in the poetry, or in my script). For example, there is one line of the Bījak quoted in Religious Vegetarianism from Hesiod to the Dalai Llama that seems to advocate vegetarianism, but I had no reasons to choose their translation of “You should not eat fishes or flesh over what grows in the fields” over the very different “You eat animals and fish as if they grew in the fields“. I’m grateful to Brianne Donaldson and Susan Brill for that discussion. The original Hindi text is online, should anyone wish to discuss the translation in the comments. The non-vegetarian interpretation of the Kabir lines in the show would be to claim that throat-cutting was about Islamic ritual slaughter, rather than killing in general. But Kabir obviously isn’t suggesting a different way of killing; he’s suggesting kichri. (“Kichri” is the name of the dish of rice and beans. Its seasoning of salt was described as “amrit”, literally “un-death”, which after talking to a helpful Sikh vegan I rendered as “bloodless salt”.) With time, I could have delved into Sikh vegetarianism more. As it happens, the oldest marathon runner in the world is a Sikh vegetarian who (like me) lives in East London. I didn’t go into detail in part because I couldn’t find a consistent strand that goes back to the sixteenth century; the movements towards vegetarianism within Sikhism are informed by its own sense of self-discipline, the conversation with the other religious traditions of India, and the basic principle of compassion. Emperor Jahangir Jahangir is Akbar’s son and successor. He kept lurking at the fringe of the story, barely doing enough to be properly featured. Most interestingly, there’s his complex relationship with Akbar. He ordered the murder of Akbar’s vizier (who described the Hall of Worship in this episode). His guilt over this might be a driver of his own dalliance with vegetarianism (see Findly). Which might be why he wrote so admiringly of the Rishis (also in the episode). He also ordered the death of the Sikh leader Guru Arjan, which pushed the Sikhs into becoming the martial religion we know today. Geek Reference of the Month “Ferengi” / “Farang” is the word for foreigner throughout Asia – not just in Hindi (and Tamil, which is what the Jesuit Roberto de Nobilis spoke with locals) – but in Persian and Thai and Chinese as well. It derives from “Franks”, which became the Arab name for Western Europeans back when Charlemagne’s Frankish empire was its main power. For most westerners, though, it was familiar for another reason. Writers chose the Asian word as the name of an acquisitive species in Star Trek who would rival the East India Companies for greed. Credits Archive Qawaali and Sikh Temple audio CC-BY Vintage Sense and Casa Asia, respectively. The theme music is by Robb Masters. The actors were Sandeep Garcha, Selva Rasalingham, and Jeremy Hancock. This episode is sponsored by Kickstarter backer Jaysee Costa. Bibliography A bar over a vowel (“ā”) lengthens it. I particularly recommend the chapter of Rizvi that deals with the interactions with Bakhtis – it’s on the Internet Archive.    		1630116 		 		X5UIHXD7 		 		 		                  items 		1 		chicago-author-date 		 		default 		asc 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		          		http://theveganoption.org/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/  		    Bramly, Serge. 1994. Leonardo: The Artist and the Man. London; New York: Penguin Books.    Truschke, Audrey Angeline. 2012. “Cosmopolitan Encounters: Sanskrit and Persian at the Mughal Court.” http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/item/ac:145903.    Jhaverī, Kr̥shṇalāla Mohanalāla. 1928. Imperial Farmans, A.D. 1577 to A.D. 1805, Granted to the Ancestors of His Holiness the Tikayat Maharaj. India: publisher not identified.    Jain, Shalin. 2012. “Interaction of the ‘Lords’: The Jain Community and the Mughal Royalty under Akbar.” Socialscientist Social Scientist 40 (3–4): 33–57.    Findly, Ellison B. 1987. “Jahāngīr’s Vow of Non-Violence.” Jameroriesoci Journal of the American Oriental Society 107 (2): 245–56.    Malcolm, John. 1824. A Memoir of Central India 2. 2. London.    Rezavi, S. A. N. 2008. “Religious Disputations and Imperial Ideology: The Purpose and Location of Akbar’s Ibadatkhana.” Studies in History 24 (2): 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300902400203.    ʻAzīz Aḥmad. 1964. Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment. Oxford: Clarendon Press.    Ahmad, Imtiaz, and Helmut Reifeld, eds. 2004. Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation, and Conflict. New Delhi: Social Science Press.    Rizvi, Saiyid Athar Abbas. 1978. A History of Sufism in India. Vol. 1. 2 vols. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. https://archive.org/stream/AHistoryOfSufismInIndiaVol.OneSaiyidAtharAbbasRizvi/.    Saraiva, António José, and H. P. Salomon. 2001. The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536 - 1765. Leiden: Brill.    O’Hanlon, Rosalind, D. A Washbrook, and St. Antony’s College (University of Oxford), eds. 2011. Religious Cultures in Early Modern India: New Perspectives. New Delhi: Routledge.

<p><em>When conquerors who profess Islam or Christianity rule over Indian vegetarians, the conversations about food ethics go both ways.</em></p> <h2>Episode 8: Contacts</h2> <p>Ian discovers the ecstatic dancing and singing shared by Sufis and Hindus – including westerners singing Hare Krishna in London’s main shopping street.  In Delhi, he finds out about the inquisition that started with European antisemitism and ended with Indians being forced to eat beef.</p> <p>And in the royal city of Agra, he visits a shrine built to commemorate a conversation about religion and vegetarianism between a Jain saint and the Mughal emperor Akbar. He uncovers the fascinating story of this heretic emperor who advocated vegetarianism.</p> <p>At the halfway point of this 15-part history of vegetarianism, the traditions of East and West come together. From hereon, it’s all one story.</p> <p><a href="http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/286188473-veganoption-veghist-ep08-contacts.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Play or download (52MB MP3 37min)</a> <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-vegan-option-internet/id472440610" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">(via iTunes) or </a><a href="https://theveganoption.org/2016/10/06/read-transcript-of-ep-8-contacts/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">read transcript</a>.<br/> </p><p></p> <h3>Contributors:</h3> <ul> <li>Pius Malekandathil (<a href="http://www.jnu.ac.in:80/FacultyStaff/ShowProfile.asp?SendUserName=pius" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi</a>)</li> <li>Sushil Jain and Ashoka Jain, Agra</li> <li>Sanjukta Gupta (University of Oxford)</li> <li>Dr Peter Flügel, SOAS (<a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff30946.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London</a>)</li> <li>ISKON (“Hare Krishnas”): <ul> <li>Devotees of <a href="http://www.iskcon-london.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Radha Krishna Temple, Soho, London</a></li> <li>Prasad distributed by <a href="http://foodforall.org.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Food For All</a></li> <li>Ter Kadamba das (<a href="http://askamonk.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">askamonk.org</a>)</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3>Readings</h3> <ul> <li>Andrea Corsali, Letter to Giuliano de Medici 1515</li> <li>Emperor Jahangir, Memoirs (<a href="http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D11001082%26ct%3D31" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Translated by Alexander Rogers, 1914</a>)</li> <li>Kabir, <a href="http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=Page&amp;Param=1374&amp;english=t&amp;id=58642#l58642" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">in the Guru Granth</a>, translation assisted by Manvir Singh.</li> <li>Abu Fazl Allami’s Akbarnama, on the sayings of Akbar (see <a href="https://archive.org/stream/ayeenakberyorins01abua#page/68/mode/2up" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">translation by Gladwin 1800</a>) and on the Hall of Worship (from Rezavi and Blochman)</li> <li>Palatina Inscription</li> <li>Akbar’s Farmans (from Malcom’s <a href="https://archive.org/stream/amemoircentrali03malcgoog#page/n174/mode/2up" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Memoir of Central India 1832</a>, Jhaveri, and the Bhanuchandra Gani courtesy of the Digital Library of India)</li> <li>Letter of Father Pinheiro, from Vincent Smith’s <a href="https://archive.org/stream/cu31924024056503#page/n299/mode/2up" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“Akbar the Great Mogul”</a> 1917</li> <li>Matteo Ricci, from “The Truth Meaning of the Lordof Heaven”.</li> <li>Francis Bacon, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/ofadvancementp00baco#page/382/mode/1up" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“The Partitions of Science”, discussing Proverbs Ch XII v10</a> (“A right-minded person cares for his beast”).</li> </ul> <p>The Italian and Portuguese sources used the word “gentoo” (related to “gentile”, but from the perspective of Christians). Here I variously translated it as “Hindu” or “Infidel”, but I’m wishing I’d translated it as “pagan”.</p> <h3>Special Bonus for Australian Listeners</h3> <p>Andrea Corsali’s letter is famous for more than casually implying that Leonardo da Vinci was vegetarian. He was the first person to draw the constellation of the Southern Cross, which is part of the Australian flag. There is a <a href="http://nationaltreasures.nla.gov.au/index/Treasures/item/nla.int-ex6-s29" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">copy of the letter</a> (ironically on animal skin) in the State Library of New South Wales.</p> <h3>Untranslated Vegetarian History</h3> <p>I tried to find readings from some of the Sufis mentioned early in the show. But their words do not seem to be published in the vernacular, let alone in translation.</p> <p>So again, I’ll leave these footnotes here in the hope that scholarly specialists will one day come across them!</p> <p>Hamid ud-Din Nagori’s commitment to animals is mentioned on p221 of Sururu’s Sudur, which is in the Habibganj collection at Aligarh University.</p> <p>Nuru’d-Din’s admission that he considered meat-eating cruelty despite it being allowed under Shari’a is in the Asraru’l-Abrar (“The Secrets of the Pious”) by Dawud Mishkati (ff. 236a-b), published 1654. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere.</p> <h3>Kabir, Sikhs, and Vegetarianism</h3> <p>There’s a well-worn debate about vegetarianism amongst Sikhs, including a seventeenth century account that the early Gurus (in the early sixteenth century) were vegetarian. There are arguments over whether particular verses condemn meat-eating, or just the ritual killings of Muslims and Hindus.</p> <p>Some of the strongest lines against eating animals seem to come from the poet Kabir. (He may have inspired the first Sikh guru, and the Sikh scriptures include his poetry.)</p> <p>But even Kabir’s rhetoric is open to interpretation; much of it seems directed at particular kinds of slaughter. It seems reasonable to assume he was vegetarian, but it’s not absolutely explicit (either in the poetry, or in my script). For example, there is one line of the Bījak <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SoRWx6kb0QoC&amp;pg=PA47&amp;lpg=PA47#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">quoted in <em>Religious Vegetarianism from Hesiod to the Dalai Llama </em></a>that seems to advocate vegetarianism, but I had no reasons to choose their translation of <em>“You should not eat fishes or flesh over what grows in the fields”</em> over the very different <em>“You eat animals and fish as if they grew in the fields</em>“. I’m grateful to Brianne Donaldson and Susan Brill for that discussion.</p> <p>The <a href="https://archive.org/stream/HindiBook-bijak.kabir.sahebByShriKhemrajShriKrishandasJi/HindiBook-bijak.kabir.sahebByShriKhemrajShriKrishandas#page/n391/mode/2up" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">original Hindi text is online</a>, should anyone wish to discuss the translation in the comments.</p> <p>The non-vegetarian interpretation of the Kabir lines in the show would be to claim that throat-cutting was about Islamic ritual slaughter, rather than killing in general. But Kabir obviously isn’t suggesting a different way of killing; he’s suggesting kichri.</p> <p>(“Kichri” is the name of the dish of rice and beans. Its seasoning of salt was described as “amrit”, literally “un-death”, which after talking to a helpful Sikh vegan I rendered as “bloodless salt”.)</p> <p>With time, I could have delved into Sikh vegetarianism more. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2013/oct/11/fauja-singh-worlds-oldest-runner-102" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">As it happens, the oldest marathon runner in the world</a> is a Sikh vegetarian who (like me) lives in East London. I didn’t go into detail in part because I couldn’t find a consistent strand that goes back to the sixteenth century; the movements towards vegetarianism within Sikhism are informed by its own sense of self-discipline, the conversation with the other religious traditions of India, and the basic principle of compassion.</p> <h3>Emperor Jahangir</h3> <p>Jahangir is Akbar’s son and successor. He kept lurking at the fringe of the story, barely doing enough to be properly featured.</p> <p>Most interestingly, there’s his complex relationship with Akbar.</p> <p>He ordered the murder of Akbar’s vizier (who described the Hall of Worship in this episode). His guilt over this might be a driver of his own dalliance with vegetarianism (see Findly). Which might be why he wrote so admiringly of the Rishis (also in the episode).</p> <p>He also ordered the death of the Sikh leader Guru Arjan, which pushed the Sikhs into becoming the martial religion we know today.</p> <h3>Geek Reference of the Month</h3> <p>“Ferengi” / “Farang” is the word for foreigner throughout Asia – not just in Hindi (and Tamil, which is what the Jesuit Roberto de Nobilis spoke with locals) – but in Persian and Thai and Chinese as well. It derives from “Franks”, which became the Arab name for Western Europeans back when Charlemagne’s Frankish empire was its main power.</p> <p>For most westerners, though, it was familiar for another reason. Writers chose the Asian word as the name of an acquisitive species in Star Trek who would rival the East India Companies for greed.</p> <h3>Credits</h3> <p>Archive Qawaali and Sikh Temple audio <a href="https://archive.org/details/www.VintageSense.com-Vintage-Indian-Music-90n" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CC-BY Vintage Sense</a> and <a href="http://freesound.org/people/CasaAsiaSons/sounds/240820/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Casa Asia</a>, respectively.</p> <p>The theme music is by Robb Masters. The actors were Sandeep Garcha, Selva Rasalingham, and Jeremy Hancock.</p> <p>This episode is sponsored by Kickstarter backer Jaysee Costa.</p> <h3>Bibliography</h3> <p>A bar over a vowel (“ā”) lengthens it.</p> <p>I particularly recommend the chapter of Rizvi that deals with the interactions with Bakhtis – it’s on the Internet Archive.</p>    		1630116 		 		X5UIHXD7 		 		 		                  items 		1 		chicago-author-date 		 		default 		asc 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		 		          		<a href="http://theveganoption.org/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://theveganoption.org/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/</a>  		    Bramly, Serge. 1994. Leonardo: The Artist and the Man. London; New York: Penguin Books.    Truschke, Audrey Angeline. 2012. “Cosmopolitan Encounters: Sanskrit and Persian at the Mughal Court.” <a href="http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/item/ac:145903" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/item/ac:145903</a>.    Jhaverī, Kr̥shṇalāla Mohanalāla. 1928. Imperial Farmans, A.D. 1577 to A.D. 1805, Granted to the Ancestors of His Holiness the Tikayat Maharaj. India: publisher not identified.    Jain, Shalin. 2012. “Interaction of the ‘Lords’: The Jain Community and the Mughal Royalty under Akbar.” Socialscientist Social Scientist 40 (3–4): 33–57.    Findly, Ellison B. 1987. “Jahāngīr’s Vow of Non-Violence.” Jameroriesoci Journal of the American Oriental Society 107 (2): 245–56.    Malcolm, John. 1824. A Memoir of Central India 2. 2. London.    Rezavi, S. A. N. 2008. “Religious Disputations and Imperial Ideology: The Purpose and Location of Akbar’s Ibadatkhana.” Studies in History 24 (2): 195–209. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300902400203" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300902400203</a>.    ʻAzīz Aḥmad. 1964. Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment. Oxford: Clarendon Press.    Ahmad, Imtiaz, and Helmut Reifeld, eds. 2004. Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation, and Conflict. New Delhi: Social Science Press.    Rizvi, Saiyid Athar Abbas. 1978. A History of Sufism in India. Vol. 1. 2 vols. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. <a href="https://archive.org/stream/AHistoryOfSufismInIndiaVol.OneSaiyidAtharAbbasRizvi/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://archive.org/stream/AHistoryOfSufismInIndiaVol.OneSaiyidAtharAbbasRizvi/</a>.    Saraiva, António José, and H. P. Salomon. 2001. The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536 - 1765. Leiden: Brill.    O’Hanlon, Rosalind, D. A Washbrook, and St. Antony’s College (University of Oxford), eds. 2011. Religious Cultures in Early Modern India: New Perspectives. New Delhi: Routledge.

VegHist Ep 8: Contacts. Indian Sufism, Bhakti, Akbar, Portuguese Christianity, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism

Deepak Anand

Ranjan Garavu

In the first millennium CE, Indian vegetarianism advances from an ascetic fringe to a mainstream high-status lifestyle. Episode 6: Hinduism How did vegetarianism permeate Indian society? Ian tracks the changes in India’s religious life during the first millennium, following the vegetarian strands of the tapestry that we now call Hinduism. Ian travels to a temple to Vishnu in eastern India to understand the importance of vegetarianism to his worshippers. He talks to theologians and historians in Oxford and Delhi about the factors that caused the change. He uncovers heated arguments about vegetarianism and animal advocacy in the leaves of India’s sacred texts. And he explores the medieval Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda, in the company of a lecturer from its modern namesake. Play or download (42MB MP3) (via iTunes) or read transcript.  Contributors:  Ranjan Garuva, Ananta Vasudeva Temple (Wikipedia), Bhubaneswar Prof KTS Saroa, University of Delhi Prof GC Tripathi Prof Richard Gombrich (Wikipedia) (University of Oxford) Sanjukta Gupta (University of Oxford) Dr Deepak Anand (blogger.com) (Buddhist University of Nalanda)  Readings  Rules for student Brahmins, from the Gautama Dharmasūtra. Translation by Muller. Extracts from Laws of Manu on vegetarianism (V26/7, V39, V48). Translation by Bühler Defence of the cow to be sacrificed by Brahmins from Manimekalai. The argument about the sacrifice of a goat, from The Anugita Parva of the Mahābhārata, based on the translation by Ganguli in consultation with John Smith. The half-golden Mongoose, from the Mahābhārata Extracts from Nīlakēci’s argument with Buddhist nun Kuṇṭalakēci, in the Tamil Jain epic Nīlakēci’s, translation by Katherine Ulrich Shaivite condemnation of Jains by Campantar and Appar, taken from the Teveram, translation by Katherine Ulrich The Lankavatara Sutra, translation by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki  Half-Golden Mongoose You might be wondering what the deal with the half-golden Mongoose in the Mahabharata was. He was looking for a perfect sacrifice to remove his curse (of being a half-golden Mongoose), and had hoped that the immense horse sacrifice at the end of this truly epic war might be it. But he learns that whatever makes an offering perfect, victory in war and animal sacrifice isn’t it. Pun of the Month One reading I didn’t get a time to include was from the Laws of Manu, about how meat-eaters will be consumed in return: “He whose meat in this world do I eat will in the other world me eat.“ Wise men say this is why meat is called meat. This is just because of the heroic act of punning that renders the Sanskrit folk etymology (“mamsa” = meat, “mam” = me, “sa” = he) into English in a way that still makes sense. (Alas, I’ve lost the name of the first translator to do this. ) Credits I’d like to thank Sanjeeb Kumar (YouTube) of the artistic Kanti Centre for practical help in Bhubaneswar. Katherine Ulrich and John Smith helped enormously with historical advice and translations. Music by Robb Masters. The actors were Sandeep Garcha, Chetan Pathak, and Selva Rasalingam. Bibliography Where there are no established Anglicisations (eg “ahimsa” for “ahiṃsā”), I have rendered Indic languages in Latin letters with marks called diacritics, loosely following the IAST standard explained at Jainpedia. For example “ś” is a soft “sh”, and a bar over a vowel lengthens it.		1630116				GH4SGBH6items		1		chicago-author-date				default		aschttp://theveganoption.org/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/De Bary, William Theodore. 1958. Sources of Indian Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press.  Basham, Arthur L, and Kenneth G Zysk. 1991. The origins and development of classical Hinduism. New York [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press.  Ulrich, Katherine E. 2007. “Food Fights.” History of Religions 46 (3): 228–61. https://doi.org/10.1086/513255.  Alsdorf, Ludwig, and Hanns-Peter Schmidt. 2010. The History of Vegetarianism and Cow-Veneration in India. Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies. London: Routledge.  Peterson, Indira V. 1998. “Śramaṇas against the Tamil Way: Jains As Others  in Tamil Śaiva Literature.” In Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History, edited by John E Cort. Albany (N. Y.): State university of New York press.  Davis, Richard H. 1998. “The Story of the Disappearing Jains: Retelling the Śaiva-Jain Encounter in Medieval South India.” In Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History, edited by John E Cort. Albany (N. Y.): State university of New York press.  Chakravarti, A, and Prākr̥ta Bhāratī Akādamī. 1994. Neelakesi. Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati Academy.  Hiltebeitel, Alf. 2001. Rethinking the Mahabharata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma King. University of Chicago Press.  Ganguli, Kisari Mohan, trans. 1883. “The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose.” In . Vol. 14. Calcutta: Bharata Press. http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/index.htm.  Smith, Brian K. 1990. “Eaters, Food, and Social Hierarchy in Ancient India: A Dietary Guide to a Revolution of Values.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion LVIII (2): 177–206. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LVIII.2.177.

<p><em>In the first millennium CE, Indian vegetarianism advances from an ascetic fringe to a mainstream high-status lifestyle.</em></p> <h2>Episode 6: Hinduism</h2> <p>How did vegetarianism permeate Indian society? Ian tracks the changes in India’s religious life during the first millennium, following the vegetarian strands of the tapestry that we now call Hinduism.</p> <p>Ian travels to a temple to Vishnu in eastern India to understand the importance of vegetarianism to his worshippers. He talks to theologians and historians in Oxford and Delhi about the factors that caused the change. He uncovers heated arguments about vegetarianism and animal advocacy in the leaves of India’s sacred texts. And he explores the medieval Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda, in the company of a lecturer from its modern namesake.</p> <p><a href="http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/272291409-veganoption-veghist-ep06-hinduism.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Play or download (42MB MP3)</a> <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-vegan-option-internet/id472440610" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">(via iTunes)</a> or <a href="https://theveganoption.org/2016/07/05/transcript-veghist-ep06-hinduism/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">read transcript</a>.</p> <p></p> <h3>Contributors:</h3> <ul> <li>Ranjan Garuva, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananta_Vasudeva_Temple" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ananta Vasudeva Temple (Wikipedia)</a>, Bhubaneswar</li> <li>Prof KTS Saroa, University of Delhi</li> <li>Prof GC Tripathi</li> <li>Prof Richard Gombrich (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gombrich" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>) (<a href="http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk:80/staff/isa/rgombrich.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Oxford</a>)</li> <li>Sanjukta Gupta (University of Oxford)</li> <li>Dr Deepak Anand (<a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/14702525494865105362" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">blogger.com</a>) (Buddhist University of Nalanda)</li> </ul> <h3>Readings</h3> <ul> <li>Rules for student Brahmins, from the Gautama Dharmasūtra. <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0266.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Translation by Muller</a>.</li> <li>Extracts from Laws of Manu on vegetarianism (V26/7, V39, V48). <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Translation by Bühler</a></li> <li>Defence of the cow to be sacrificed by Brahmins from Manimekalai.</li> <li>The argument about the sacrifice of a goat, from The Anugita Parva of the Mahābhārata, based on <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14028.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the translation by Gangul</a>i in consultation with John Smith.</li> <li>The half-golden Mongoose, from the Mahābhārata</li> <li>Extracts from Nīlakēci’s argument with Buddhist nun Kuṇṭalakēci, in the Tamil Jain epic Nīlakēci’s, translation by Katherine Ulrich</li> <li>Shaivite condemnation of Jains by Campantar and Appar, taken from the Teveram, translation by Katherine Ulrich</li> <li>The Lankavatara Sutra, <a href="http://www.fodian.net/world/0672_08.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">translation by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki</a></li> </ul> <h3>Half-Golden Mongoose</h3> <p>You might be wondering what the deal with the half-golden Mongoose in the Mahabharata was. He was looking for a perfect sacrifice to remove his curse (of being a half-golden Mongoose), and had hoped that the immense horse sacrifice at the end of this truly epic war might be it. But he learns that whatever makes an offering perfect, victory in war and animal sacrifice isn’t it.</p> <h3>Pun of the Month</h3> <p>One reading I didn’t get a time to include was from the Laws of Manu, about how meat-eaters will be consumed in return:</p> <blockquote><p>“He whose meat in this world do I eat will in the other world me eat.“ Wise men say this is why meat is called meat.</p></blockquote> <p>This is just because of the heroic act of punning that renders the Sanskrit folk etymology (“mamsa” = meat, “mam” = me, “sa” = he) into English in a way that still makes sense. (Alas, I’ve lost the name of the first translator to do this. )</p> <h3>Credits</h3> <p>I’d like to thank Sanjeeb Kumar (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkTLdFZhiDklXXFrBxBRtkQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">YouTube</a>) of the artistic Kanti Centre for practical help in Bhubaneswar. Katherine Ulrich and John Smith helped enormously with historical advice and translations.</p> <p>Music by Robb Masters. The actors were Sandeep Garcha, Chetan Pathak, and Selva Rasalingam.</p> <h3>Bibliography</h3> <p>Where there are no established Anglicisations (eg “ahimsa” for “ahiṃsā”), I have rendered Indic languages in Latin letters with marks called diacritics, loosely following the IAST standard <a href="http://www.jainpedia.org/resources/pronunciation-and-transliteration-guide.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">explained at Jainpedia</a>. For example “ś” is a soft “sh”, and a bar over a vowel lengthens it.</p>		1630116<br>		<br>		GH4SGBH6<br>items<br>		1<br>		chicago-author-date<br>		<br>		default<br>		asc<br><a href="http://theveganoption.org/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://theveganoption.org/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/</a><br>De Bary, William Theodore. 1958. Sources of Indian Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press.<br><br>  Basham, Arthur L, and Kenneth G Zysk. 1991. The origins and development of classical Hinduism. New York [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press.<br><br>  Ulrich, Katherine E. 2007. “Food Fights.” History of Religions 46 (3): 228–61. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/513255" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1086/513255</a>.<br><br>  Alsdorf, Ludwig, and Hanns-Peter Schmidt. 2010. The History of Vegetarianism and Cow-Veneration in India. Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies. London: Routledge.<br><br>  Peterson, Indira V. 1998. “Śramaṇas against the Tamil Way: Jains As Others  in Tamil Śaiva Literature.” In Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History, edited by John E Cort. Albany (N. Y.): State university of New York press.<br><br>  Davis, Richard H. 1998. “The Story of the Disappearing Jains: Retelling the Śaiva-Jain Encounter in Medieval South India.” In Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History, edited by John E Cort. Albany (N. Y.): State university of New York press.<br><br>  Chakravarti, A, and Prākr̥ta Bhāratī Akādamī. 1994. Neelakesi. Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati Academy.<br><br>  Hiltebeitel, Alf. 2001. Rethinking the Mahabharata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma King. University of Chicago Press.<br><br>  Ganguli, Kisari Mohan, trans. 1883. “The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose.” In . Vol. 14. Calcutta: Bharata Press. <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/index.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/index.htm</a>.<br><br>  Smith, Brian K. 1990. “Eaters, Food, and Social Hierarchy in Ancient India: A Dietary Guide to a Revolution of Values.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion LVIII (2): 177–206. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LVIII.2.177" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LVIII.2.177</a>.

VegHist Ep 6: Hinduism. On Indian Vegetarianism, Vaishnavism, Satvik, and Mahayana Buddhism