1872.] Rajcndralala Mitra — Beef in Ancient India. 175 
cation was so far successful that he was made to waver, # though the light of 
truth could not he altogether withheld from a scholar and critic like him. In 
a note in his translation of the Meghaduta, Professor Wilson said, “ the sacri- 
fice of the horse or of the cow, the gomedha or as'vamedha, appears to have 
been common in the earliest periods of the Hindu ritual. It has been con- 
ceived that the sacrifice was not real, hut typical ; and that the form of sacri- 
ficing only was performed upon the victim, after which it was set at liberty. 
The text of this passage, however, is unfavorable to such a notion, as the 
metamorphosis of the blood of the kine into a river certainly implies that 
blood was diffused. The expression of the original, literally rendered, is 
1 sprung from the blood of the daughters of Surabhi’ that is,kiue,Surabhi being 
a celebrated cow produced at the churning of the ocean, and famed for granting 
to her votaries whatever they desired. ‘ Daughter of Surabhi’ is an expression 
of common occurrence, to denote the cow.”f This argument of the learned 
Professor, however, had suggested itself to the people of this country long 
before his time, and it was met by some by the assertion that the word blood 
had been used only to complete the metaphor of the sacrifice. Others 
more amenable to the plain meaning of the old texts, but at the same time more 
daring, assume that the animals so sacrificed were immediately after invariably 
revived by the supernatural powers of the sacrifieers. Such a line of argu- 
ment, however satisfactory to the pious proletariat, takes the question so 
entirely out of the domain of reason, that it may fairly be left to itself ; but 
even the orthodox Hindu might fairly ask, how it is then that the venerable old 
poet and hermit Valmiki, when preparing to receive his brother sage Vas'ish- 
tha, the author of one of the original law books (Smritis) which regulates 
the religious life of the people, and a prominent character even in the Yedas, 
slaughtered a lot of calves expressly for the entertainment of his guests ? The 
revivification in that case must have followed the consumption of the meat 
of the slaughtered animals by them. The passage in which Yalmiki’s 
preparation for the reception of Vasfishtha is described in the TJttara-rama- 
charita is so remarkable, that I need not offer any apology to quote it entire. 
The scene is laid in front of the hermitage of Valmiki, where two disciples 
of the sage discom’se on the bustle within. 
“ BUndayma. Behold, Saudhataki, our humble dwelling ! 
Valmiki’s holy hermitage assumes 
The face of preparation ; he expects 
Unwonted guests to-day ; the wild deer feed 
* This was, however, done at the early part of his Sanskrit studies, when he had 
not come to the fountain-head, and was obliged to depend on his pandits. Sub- 
sequently he had no doubt whatever on the subject. Vide his note in the Uttara. 
Rama Charita, Hindu Theatre, I. 31. 
f Essays II., p. 353. 
