Sadar Pranam to the God within you @HartoshSinghBal ji. You are absolutely wrong. It’s a false claim that ancient Indians ate beef & Harappans weren’t Vedic. Read thread & you may respond in your full capacity. Cc @Sanjay_Dixit @sankrant @ShefVaidya @RituRathaur @TajinderBagga https://twitter.com/HartoshSinghBal/status/1093007552806350848

2/n Let me start with how this notion became popular & then I will bust the related myth. There is no mention of beef eating in Vedas or any Sanatan scriptures. After the Islamic invasion in India,sultans tried to hurt and demean the Hindu sentiments through cow slaughter.

3/n Though Akbar & Humayun stopped the practice to keep off the wrath.
@iraghuvansh the great pundit of RJD said in an election rally on October 2015, “It’s written in Vedas that Rishi-Maharshi also used to eat beef… There is no point discussing it at present.”

4/n I’m not sure whether this political stooge of pseudo secularism does know the Sanskrit language or had he gone through the Vedas at least once. & media morons ran after him & clandestinely spread this misconception all around about ‘Cow slaughter’ & ‘Beef eating’ in Vedas.

5/n Another self styled expert in Vedas & Hindu scriptures Dwijendra Narayan Jha (whom u mention) a prominent member of the Communist school, exhorts the gibberish about same beef eating and cow slaughter without understanding the Vedas, Hindu scriptures & Indian values.

6/n Engineered by his love for beef and appeasement of few community, he has written a book titled as “The Myth of the Holy Cow” in which he tried only to customize the beef eating in the denying Hindu society.

7/n His opinion was highlighted by ‘BBC Hindi section’ under a caption, भारत में गोहत्या कब, कैसे पाप बना (When and how cow slaughter counted as a sin in India). This article is full of untruth and just a propaganda for beef eating without giving any reference from scriptures.

8/n He appeared in the media like ‘Daily O’ through another beef lover Ursila Ali under a caption Why Hindus stopped eating beef and began to worship cows. His articles are full of concoction of anti-Hindu politics and the propagation for cow killing.

9/n Veda exponent Adi Shankara, Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati or Shri Aurobindo categorically declared cow as holy being and never included as any purpose of slaughter anyway anywhere in the scriptures like Vedas and authenticated Puranas.

10/n There has been larger conspiracy behind demeaning the scripture. I’ll explain it in later thread but prior to that I’m explaining how Beef Eating isn’t part of Scriptures. Concentrate

11/n हि॒ङ्कृ॒ण्व॒ती व॑सु॒पत्नी॒ वसू॑नां व॒त्समि॒च्छन्ती॒ मन॑सा॒भ्यागा॑त् । दु॒हाम॒श्विभ्यां॒ पयो॑ अ॒घ्न्येयं सा व॑र्धतां मह॒ते सौभ॑गाय ॥ RV 1.164.27
Interpretation
जैसे पृथिवी महान् ऐश्वर्य को बढ़ाती है वैसे गौयें अत्यन्त सुख देती हैं, इससे ये गौयें कभी किसीको मारनी न चाहियें

12/n यः पौरु॑षेयेण क्र॒विषा॑ सम॒ङ्क्ते यो अश्व्ये॑न प॒शुना॑ यातु॒धान॑: । यो अ॒घ्न्याया॒ भर॑ति क्षी॒रम॑ग्ने॒ तेषां॑ शी॒र्षाणि॒ हर॒सापि॑ वृश्च ॥ RV 10.87.16

13/n Interpretation:
तेजस्वी नायक को चाहिए कि जो राष्ट्र में पीड़ा पहुँचानेवाले प्राणी मनुष्य के मांस को खाकर अपने को पुष्ट करते हैं या अच्छे घोड़ों को नष्ट करते हैं, गौवों के दूध छीनते-सुखाते हैं-दूषित करते हैं उनके शिरों और उनके प्रमुख जनों को नष्ट करे ॥१६॥

14/n अनागोहत्या वै भीमा कृत्ये
मा नो गामश्वं पुरुषं वधीः | AV 10.1.29

Interpretation:
निर्दोषों को मारना निश्चित ही महा पाप है | हमारे गाय, घोड़े और पुरुषों को मत मार |

15/n घृतं दुहानामदितिं जनायाग्ने मा हिंसी:
YV 13.49

सदा ही रक्षा के पात्र गाय और बैल को मत मार |

16/n आरे गोहा नृहा वधो वो अस्तु
RV 7.56.17

Interpretation
गौ- हत्या को जघन्य अपराध घोषित करते हुए मनुष्य हत्या के तुल्य मानता है और ऐसा महापाप करने वाले के लिये दण्ड का विधान करता है |

17/n ब्रीहिमत्तं यवमत्तमथो माषमथो तिलम्
एष वां भागो निहितो रत्नधेयाय दान्तौ मा हिंसिष्टं पितरं मातरं च

AV6.140.2
हे दांतों की दोनों पंक्तियों ! चावल खाओ, जौ खाओ, उड़द खाओ और तिल खाओ |
यह अनाज तुम्हारे लिए ही बनाये गए हैं | उन्हें मत मारो जो माता – पिता बनने की योग्यता रखते हैं |

18/n RV 6.28 translates to following:
1. Everyone should ensure that cows are free from miseries and kept healthy.
2. God blesses those who take care of cows.
3. Even the enemies should not use any weapon on cows
4. No one should slaughter the cow

19/n 5. Cow brings prosperity and strength
6. If cows keep healthy and happy, men and women shall also keep disease free and prosperous
7. May the cow eat green grass and pure water. May they not be killed and bring prosperity to us.

20/n Above tweets (11/n to 19/n) clearly explain Vedas didn’t promote beef eating but Cow Protection & Care. Yet should you have a myth that certain Richa or Mantras promote so, share it with me. I’ll interpret & translate it perfectly for you. Further

21/n Now let’s go thru more documentation to understand India’s stand about meat eating:

India is a strange country. People do not kill any living creatures, do not keep pigs and fowl, and do not sell live cattle.

—Faxian, 4th/5th century CE [Chinese pilgrim to India]

22/n Hindus, like early Christians and Manichaeans, forbade the killing and eating of meat.

—Abū Rayḥān Al-Biruni, 1017–1030 CE [Persian visitor to India]

23/n They would not kill an animal on any account, not even a fly, or a flea, or a louse, or anything, in fact, that has life; for they say these have all souls, and it would be sin to do so.

—Marco Polo, III.20, 13th century [Venetian traveler to India]

24/n These quotes from visitors to India show that meat-eating of any kind was not common, what to speak of beef-eating, dating back thousands of years.

Bhagavad Gita, it is mentioned:

25/n Farming, cow protection and business are the natural work for the vaisyas, and for the sudras there is labor and service to others. Bg 18.44

26/n The guiding principles of Vedic culture is to keep life simple, engage in improving oneself and respect others according to their qualities.

Now, let me give you socio cultural aspect that further suffice that yes India is and should be non-Beef eating land

27/n First thing to be clear is that there is nothing sacrilegious about it, If you know Hinduness deep enough and well enough, you can see that there is no"Thou Shall not" in Sanatana Practice.

28/n People in Ancient India always relied on improving Human Intelligence & Consciousness where they would naturally make good choices rather than simple belief systems, that's the beauty of Hindu way of life and it should remain so.

29/n Let’s look at more reasons

REASON NO: 1 - BIG THREE

In Indian culture, we see Cow from mammals, Snake from reptiles and Crow from birds as very close to human beings in evolution in terms of emotional display, intelligence etc.,

30/n Snake:
Even now it is common that you don't kill a snake in India, if you do, you have to perform rites & rituals as you would do for a Human.

Crow:
Almost every form of rituals done to ancestors ends with an offering to a Crow.

31/n Cow:
India which is largely an agrarian culture in the past relied heavily in the Milk, Butter and other dairy products. All the homes gave individual names to the cows they reared and they are treated like a family member.

32/n A cow has a strong emotional display and shall actually shed tears if someone in the home dies or terminally ill. these incidences can be easily seen in rural areas.That's why Indians have a huge love for Cows in the same way many people love Dogs for it's emotional display.

33/n So Usage & Love for Cows is one of the prime reasons why Cows were not killed in India. Cow is a very versatile animal when alive, almost everything from it can be used beautifully including it's dung & urine.

34/n REASON NO: 2 - INDIAN FOOD CULTURE
The basic thumbrule of Indian food culture is that a Human being should consume food which is as far away from him as possible in evolutionary scale. i.e. it should start with Plant life, then sea food, then poultry,..contd

35/n ... then animals which are routed in the body, and so on. (More in terms of Darwin's theory of evolution)

This is the reason why even now over 40% of Indian are Vegetarian.

36/n Capability of a human being to digest the food will be much better if the food consumed is a simple life as opposed to a life which is higher up in evolutionary scale.There is another spiritual dimension to it which can be left out from this answer as it is not that relavant

37/n REASON NO: 3 - BASIC HUMANITY

When we were born,we drink milk from our Biological mother.When we grow up,we mainly drink milk from the Cow.If we just drop all our belief systems, conditions etc & just look honestly, we can even say with gratitude that Cow is 2ndmother to us

38/n
Is it really necessary to slaughter an animal which is versatile, useful, cries for you, nourishes you in every way to satisfy your hunger?, that's the basic question for which Indians say 'No, it's not necessary' and they are labelled as fundamentalists. Fantastic !!!

39/n Indologists like Macdonald, Weber, Winternitz have pronounced the Vedas to be barbaric and concluded that ‘Hanyante Gaavaha’ meant that cows were slaughtered in marriage rituals.

40/n Our Scholars on the basis of this info frm these Indologists pronounced us to be beefeaters. Macdonald has misconstrued the word HanyanteGaavahaa by saying that in a marriage ritual a cow is slaughtered on the day of the magha lunar asterism& everyone feasts on the cow meat

41/n The Rigveda states the following in relation to the Sun God’s marriage.

Suryaayaa Vahatuha Praagaat Savitaa Yamavaasrujat
Aghaasu Hanyante Gaavorjunyoha Puryuhyate – Rigveda 10.85.13

42/n Meaning: Savita gifted the moon who was his daughter’s to be father-in-law with a cow on the auspicious day of Maghaasterism and performed the ritual of giving away of the bride (kanyadan) of Surya on the Falgun lunar asterism.

43/n Clarification: The word Aghaasu is Maghaasu in the Atharvaveda . There is no difference of opinion about these words among our ancient translators. In a marriage Agha( Magha) and Arjuni (Falguni) asterisms are important.

All deities are present in Cow (Gomata)

44/n Godaan is offering of a cow and Govikartaa means a cowherd !

This is the meaning that these westerners give. The word ‘go’ means ‘hair’.

Godaan: This word comes from the Rigveda and Smrutigranth. ‘Go’ means hair and ‘daan’ means to cut thus Godaan is cutting of hair.

45/n In the Shrout and gruha traditions importance is given to tonsuring. Also the ritual of Chudaakarma means the cutting of hair. Godaan is actually the ritual of ‘Keshant’ as is clearly given by Smurtikar. Chudaakaran, godaan and jataakaran are all synonymous words.

46/n Govikarta : Govikarta means a barber and not a cowherd.

Gopati means a bull!

Max Mueller has derived that ‘gopati’ means a bull though ‘go’ means rays and ‘pati’ means the master of the rays that is the Sun.

Ref for 41-46
Gurudev Dr. Kateswamiji (Sanatan Chintan , Year1

47/n @HartoshSinghBal ji there are lots of myths which linger to be busted but I call it an end here, though below I give you history of this distortion should you really want to bat for truth

48/n In Independent India, conspiracy was hatched to justify the eating of beef and cow-slaughter in the name of Vedas. Articles &papers were written published, quoting Vedic richas.

49/n It was all deliberate as they translated the word ghrit (clarified butter) into “fat implying tallow of cattle” and Mahisha (buffalo) into cow. They also invoked the richas regarding funeral fire and forest fire into their kitchens.

50/n The story is an old one. It was the allegation of fat i.e. tallow of cows and pigs were being used in cartridges which were one of the reasons for the First War of Independence in 1857.

51/n Now it alerted the British. They tried to lower down the image of the cow and its reverence and prove that they were as much foreigner as the Hindus are. So it was their plan to invent the evidence of beef eating in Vedic culture.

52/n It has always been the game plan of the west to field mercenaries as scholars and elites and through them propagate their own view point. Even today we witness such award winners working as a tool to vested interests and multinationals (need not say the names )

53/n They ascribed this job to European and some Indian nationals to invent evidence in the Vedas favouring cow slaughter and beef-eating.

54/n Rajendra Lal Mitra published “Beef in Ancient India” in the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1872. Go-Raksha was in vogue. So to face it, a swami was recruited. He was Swami Prakashanand He appeared on the scene and published the same essay in a booklet form.

55/n A Sanskrit to Sanskrit dictionary in six volumes was used for this purpose. Pt Taranath,a prof. of Vyakarana at Sanskrit college Calcutta was made to translate the word Goghn as killer of cow.

56/n This was a deliberate attempt at distortion so as to prove that beef was eaten in Vedic age. H. H. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati in “The true History and Religion of India“ explains that goghn actually stands for the guest who receives cow as gift.

57/n He quotes Panini n3.4.73. as authority to justify that it only means the receiver of the gift of cow and nothing else but Tarachand overrules even the authority of Panini and the British agree. Why?

58/n The reality is that in 1866, the Bengal government had granted a commitment in advance to purchase 200 copies of his books @ 50/ per book to a total of 10,000/rupees (.vide letters no 507 dated 26 01-1866.)

59/n Even the governor vide letter no 1480 dated 12. 12 1870 granted extension of time to them for completing Vachaspatyam, the proposed Sanskrit dictionary... The income was assured and they had to justify what the payers wanted. The game goes on but with a changed garb.

60/n I call it an end here @HartoshSinghBal with 59 tweets in regards to your false claim that ancient Indians ate beefYou May try to justify Beef was eaten by ancient India. And this is thread that demolishes claim that Harappans weren’t Vedic. https://twitter.com/aabhas24/status/1087158626085564416?s=21

N/n In the thread(60tweets) I bust the myth that ancient Indians ate beef & Harappans were not Vedic (quoted thread in 60/n). @HartoshSinghBal shud apologise for propagating fake information in case he fails to justify. Cc @MahimaShastri @mini_707070 @KarunaGopal1 @GitaSKapoor

@HartoshSinghBal Ji, Sadar Pranam! I still await your response to my thread (check above & quoted),where I demolished your claim that “Vedas prescribe cow eating”. Kindly delete your ill informed tweet asap if you don’t have capacity to respond. https://twitter.com/aabhas24/status/1093081532997103616?s=21