Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/321

 The Veneration of the Coiv in India. 299

Brahmans who are notoriously careful in their ritual ob- servances. The only occasion on which the Nambutiri Brahmans of Malabar eat meat is when, as part of a solemn rite on recovery after sickness, they eat the flesh of a sacrificed goat.^^ The Deshasth Brahmans of the Deccan are ordinarily vegetarians, except when, at long intervals, they eat the residue of a goat offered in sacri- fice.^*'*^ In these cases the goat has probably replaced the older cow victim. In Mysore and other parts of India high-caste Hindus seldom eat animal food except that of victims offered in sacrificc^'^^ The Kolis, a low Punjab tribe, do not touch beef, but they gladly eat the flesh of a buffalo which has been offered to one of the goddesses.^*'^ In Bengal goats and sheep sacrificed in immense numbers to the goddess Durga are eaten by Brahmans.^^^ A modern Hindu, who protests strongly against such practices, writes: " In these later ages, when degeneracy has made rapid strides amongst the people of the country, the original intention of the founder of the institution [of sacrifice] being lost sight of, a perverted taste has given it an essentially sensual character. Instead of offering sacrifice from purely religious motives, it is now made for the grati- fication of carnivorous appetite." '^^^

We thus arrive at the conclusion that the eating of the " sacred " flesh is an act of ritual, a form of the communal sacrifice. I proceed to suggest an explanation of the modern fanatical veneration of the cow.

"^Thurston, op. cit., vol. v., p. 235. '^^'^ Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. xvii., p. 51.

^"1 F. Buchanan, A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, vol. iii., p. 107.

i^^H. A. Rose, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 554.

103 YV. Ward, A VirM of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos (2nd ed.), vol. ii. , pp. 11 1-4.

i^^Shib Chunder Bose, The Hindoos as they are, pp. 104-5; cf. W. R. Smith, op. cit., p. 354.