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Question was how beefeater Brahmins became perfect vegetarians?

Blog experts have found following things about the query friend Vaidehi had sent to us with great expectations. I hope the information we have found shall satisfy her.

My team of experts investigated the topic of the question raised by Vaidehi. As a matter of fact she has asked quite a few questions and to get them all answered is a difficult work but they have tried to do it at the best they could do. After detailed investigation we found that the period and occasion that caused this fantastic changeover from perfect beefeater to perfect vegetarian was about the ninth century, the cause was the debate between high priest of Wrigvedi and Yajurvedi Brahmins called Adi Sankar to justify Brahmanism against Jainism and Pundit Mandanmishra, propagator for Jainism to justify propagation of Jainism. The story has some historical support and so we feel this version for the answer may be acceptable to our esteemed friend. The story goes like this.

It was a period of about eighth and ninth century AD. In India Jainism was spreading like wild fire all over the country. Brahmins were also being converted to Jainism and that was a matter of concern for all Brahmins. Here we say Brahmanism because word Hindu did not exist at that time. This word or nomenclature Hindu was introduced by Arabs during their conquest of the east. Actually people who are recognized as Hindus are non-Brahmin population of the country who were doing type of work other than priesthood. They never had any religion worth the name. They were worshiping some ancient gods such as Shiv and Shakti. Brahmins were mainly managing temples and were at the service of kings and such chieftains. Here Jainism was being spread to not only Brahmins but also to this population without religion. Source of income to Brahmins was dwindling sharply and living by priesthood was becoming very difficult. This situation made it essential to Brahmins that they fight back Jainism by some intelligent method and preserve the existence of Brahmanism. Adi Sankar was being the chief priest and revered by all sections of different Brahmin cults was requested to do the bidding. Adi Sankar accepted the challenge and moved all over the country to debate with Jain Moonies (monks) to prove the superiority of Brahmanism over Jainism. Adi Sankar was successful all over and as he went on defeating every Jain scholar in the debate his position was becoming higher in the minds of all the Brahmin sections of different cults.

There are four cults of Brahmins in India. They are divided based on the Ved they practice. Four Vedas are existing and they are Wrig-ved, Yajur-ved, Sama-ved and Atharva-ved. Out of these vedas first two were actually represented by Adi Sankar. Out of remaining two Sam-ved which propagated Bhakti-marg (devotional worship) and never practiced rituals like Wrig-vedis or Yajur-vedis Brahmins. The last, Atharv-ved, cult did not recognize Adi Sankar as anything at all. The first three were deeply impressed with the performance of Adi Sankar. It was a type of conquest nowhere in the world had ever experienced. People know of conquest by wars but conquest by debate was rather unusual and that unusual was done by this great savant Adi Sankar. Almost all the pundits from the Jain cult were defeated and now the last and the most powerful of all, the great Pundit Mandanmishra was remaining to be defeated. Once this great Pundit is defeated, the onslaught of Jainism was controlled and propagation of Brahmanism was freely possible. It is believed that this event of the great debate between Adi Sankar and savant Mandanmishra took place somewhere in the ancient city of Ujjain. At the time of the debate some contract was signed between the two parties, here we say two parties because both these savants were not debating for themselves but for the two cults namely Brahmanism and Jainism, and the contract said that if Mandanmishra is defeated all Jains shall accept Brahmanism and end of Jainism; if Adi Sankar is defeated all Brahmins shall accept Jain cult and the end of Brahmanism. If something else takes place then the negotiations will decide the fates of these two cults.  

The debate continued and it is believed that this debate continued for many days. Both parties were getting anxious to get to the end but since both the savant were very knowledgeable it was getting more and more difficult for each one of them to supersede the other. Finally at the end the great Jain Pundit was made speechless by the other great Pundit Adi Sankar. Adi Sankar gave him some time to answer and when the next day the gathering took place Mandanmishra accepted his defeat and Adi Sankar was declared triumphant. All the Brahmnis were very pleased and now as per the conditions they wanted Jains gathered on the other side to declare themselves as Brahmins of lower class or Gaud Brahmins. The Brahmins were preparing to offer best beef preparations to these new converts and the vegetarian Jains were in a fix. There was eerie silence all over. The meeting was about to be concluded and at that moment a sharp female voice rang from inner chamber of Mandanmishra’s house. That was wife of Mandanmishra. Everybody amongst Brahmins was surprised and annoyed to get this interruption. She said to all the gathering that according to Indian convention after a man marries he is divided between him and his wife and so wife is called half of the man. She gave example of the great concept of Ardhanari nateshwar (Lord Shiv as half man and half woman) and requested the gathering whether they accept her plea. The gathering accepted the plea and she being half of Mandanmishra had a right to continue the debate on his behalf. She proclaimed that unless she is defeated on her points, no body should consider Mandanmishra as defeated. Adi Sankar had developed tremendous confidence in his knowledgebility of shastras and so accepted that the debate can continue on ‘her points’ and not on the points on which Pundit Mandanmishra was defeated.

The great debate in the history of Brahmanism commenced on this note. Every body was absolutely confident that Adi Sankar can beat this woman in no time and so all the Brahmins were relaxing with the air of almost won. Interesting enough and for the shock to Adi Sankar this simple looking woman had started asking questions related to man and woman relationship. Well, the great Adi Sankar being a sanyasi or hermit obviously had no idea whatsoever about these matters. Questions after questions were pouring out of her side and Adi Sankar was nonplussed. He looked around for help but nobody came foreword to help him. Unfortunately for Adi Sankar and his cult of Brahmins he had never bothered to learn Kamashastra or the science and art of love and sexual relationship. Adi Sankar was sitting quietly and the Brahmins gathered were very disturbed while Jains were a little joyous. Finally Adi Sankar accepted that he is not in a position to continue the debate. Adi Sankar had lost the debate. All Jains were very happy and the Brahmins were very serious about the outcome of this debate. Now what is the final result? Is Adi Sankar won or defeated or Mandanmishra won or defeated? The whole gathering was in a fix. Mandanmishra and Adi Sankarcharya both respectful of each other realized that they have to find out what to do under such an awkward situation. Again, wife of Mandanmishra offered to help. Since she was instrumental for this situation, with respect they accepted her assistance in deciding about what to do.

She declared that since non is defeated properly, this is because Adi Sankar being a sanyasi is not expected to answer her questions but because the understanding amongst them at the beginning of the debate was that any subject shall be taken for questioning as ‘her point’, she was right in asking the questions and Adi Sankar had boastfully and so wrongly had declared that he shall debate with ‘whole of Mandanmishra’, she was justified in entering the debate. Adi Sankar never realized that his ‘whole of Mandanmishra’ will be interpreted this way, neither Jains will become Brahmins and Brahmins will become Jains but since technically Brahmins are defeated they shall stop eating any meat and fish and show respect to Jain principle of Ahimsa (non-violence and not killing of living beings even for food). The declaration was accepted and ever since that meeting Brahmins became perfect vegetarians.

Initially only Wrig-vedi and Yajur-vedi Brahmins became vegetarians but later on Sama-vedis followed suit in appreciation of Adi Sankar but Atharva-vedis never accepted the condition and until today they are meat eaters. Atharva-vedi are close to Shakta and worship Kali or Shakti aspect of the universe.

Folks, this is the story of Adi Sankar’s last defeat, it is well recorded in the history and so it should answer Vaidehi’s first question. About other question we need more time to get the answer.

Before I end temporarily on the subject I have to clear some of the probable queries those may be arising in the minds of the readers and they could be, what difference is between Hindu and Brahmin as concepts? Hindus are non-Brahmin Indians. They have no religion but they have culture. After this incidence Brahmins started attending house puja in Hindu houses. Prior to that they were holding worships in temples only. They also allowed many intelligent Hindus in the Brahmin fold as gauda Brahmins. Gauda means secondary. Many vaishya or business communities were included as Gauda or Devadnya (meaning by the wish of God) Brahmins and that way they were stopped from being converted to Jainism. Adi Sankar had fought debate wars with Buddhists prior to this incidence. In those debates all Buddhists were defeated. As a reward Adi Sankar demanded that all the important shrines of Buddhists be managed by Brahmins. Ever since, in India, these shrines are being controlled by Brahmins until today. One will wonder why Adi Sankar did not ask Buddhists to convert to Brahmanism? The reason is that usually Buddhists were converted from lower class of people (Hindus) while Jains were converts from upper class such as Brahmins and vaishyas. Brahmins are a business community and their business is to control places of worship. In Bihar until recently some mosques and madrasaa were managed by Brahmin priests. There they would conduct mosque prayers in place of a mullah and teach reading of Koran. Of course, recently they were replaced by Muslim mullahs. Presently, Brahmins are having good control over Hindus in India. They do super impose upon Hindus and try to insist upon to represent Hindus wherever possible. At the time of Vedas and in later period prior to formation of Brahmanism by king Janaka one ancient practice existed and that may be called Kshatriya Dharma or religion. Today Kshatriya religion is obsolete. It is said that the book called Bhagwatgita is actually the book of Kshatriya religion. Philosophy told by a king (Krishna) to another king (Arjun) and so it is the book of Kshatriya cult. Brahmin religion is detailed in book called Manusmruti.

We have answered questions numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 remotely out of ten she has put up. Ninth question asks, whether present day Brahmins know that their ancestors were pure beefeaters?

 No, they mostly do not know.

2. Why they hate meat, meat eaters and insist upon propagating for vegetarianism and hatred for non-vegetarianism like fanatics?  Answer not found.

5. When and why did cow become a god animal? Answer not found.

8. Why non-Brahmin Hindu is better behaved (civilized) than Brahmins? Answer not found.

Remaining three questions (2, 5, 8) given above are difficult to answer. May be, we can do it at some later time! Hope so!

Readers can try to answer these questions.

“Future of our vehicular fuel” will continue in the next posting.

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