177 
1872.] Rajendralala Mitra — Beef in Ancient India. 
a subject, and offended the feelings of their readers, had they not ample 
authority to be satisfied that their readers would go with them. 
Colebrooke noticed the subject in his essays on “ the Religious Cere- 
monies of the Hindus,” in which he says, “ it seems to have been anciently 
the custom to slay a cow on this occasion, (the reception of a guest) and a 
guest was therefore called a goghna or 1 cow-killer.’* * * § When noticing the 
mantra for the consecration of the cow at the marriage ceremony, he observes : 
“ The commentator whose gloss has been followed in tins version of the text, 
introduces it by the remark, that a guest, entitled to honorable reception, is 
a spiritual preceptor, a priest, an ascetic, a prince, a bridegroom, a friend, or, 
in short, any one to welcome whose arrival a cow must be tied for the pur- 
pose of slaying her; whence a guest is denominated goghna, or cow-killer. "f 
Manu authorises the consumption of animal food at all seasons with 
the slight restraint of first offering a bit of it to the gods, or manes, or guests. 
He says, “ having bought flesh meat, or obtained it by aid of another, he who 
eats it after worshiping the gods or manes commits no sin.” v. 32. But he 
does not expressly name beaf as an article of food. In his list of animals 
fit for human food he, however, observes ; “ the hedge-hog and porcupine, 
the lizard godhd (Guana) the gandaka (rhinoceros) the tortoise, and the 
rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful food among five-toed animals, 
and all quadrupeds, camels excepted, which have but one row of teeth. ”+ 
And this would include cows which were well known to him as animals 
having one row of teeth. Had he wished to exclude them, he would have for 
certain thought of them, and linked them with camels. It is, however, not 
necessary to infer what he intended by such a line of argument, as he is 
quite explicit in his directions about the use of beef on the occasion of a 
Brahmachdri’s return home. He says: “ Being justly applauded for this 
strict performance of his duty, and having received from his natural or spiri- 
tual father, the sacred gift of the Vedas, let him sit on an elegant bed, 
decked with a garland of flowers, and let his father honour him, before his 
nuptials, with the present of a cow, according to the Madhuparka rite.”§ 
In a subsequent passaged he recommends the JHadhvparka oi the honied 
meal” with beef for the reception of kings and other great dignitaries. 
Asoka, who in his first edict, says “ formerly in the great refectory and 
temple of the heaven-beloved king Piyadasi, daily were many hundred thou- 
sand animals sacrificed for the sake of meat food, "If does not specify the kind 
* Asiatic Researches VII, 288. 
t Ibid VII, 289. 
J Manu V., 18. 
§ Ibid III, 3. 
|| Ibid III, 119-120. 
If Journal, Vol. VII,. p. 249. 
