vazA cows

[Narahari Achar]

Thompson wrote:
>
>Narahari Achar's reference to AV 10.10 is very suggestive and provocative.
>Perhaps we will forever disagree, but I hope to be able to find ways to
>agree.
>

Here is a summary of my position,limiting its scope only to vedas, leaving
aside the brAhmaNAs and the grihya sUtrAs:

In the vedas themselves there is no unambiguous reference to eating beef.

My reasons:
(i) In the vedas there appears to be a difference between the cow (bull
included) and other animals,cow is "aghnyA" (aghnya, for the bull).
(ii)The bovine sacredness appears to be common with other IE settings.
(iii) out of more than 10000 rks, only about half a dozen are thought to refer
to "beef"
(iv)These can be interpreted differently,cognizant of "aghnyaa"
(v)controversy persists because the same word has many meanings,there are many
words with the same meaning;the references are allegorical, metaphorical or
whatever. Even the accent changes the meaning some times.

Re: RV 8.43.11 again

The complete rk runs like this:

ukSAnnAya vaZAnnAya somapriSTAya vedhase
stomairvidhema

Because of "somapriSTAya", rsi VirUpa was perhaps thinking of soma at this
point. ukSa=soma, vaZA=milk mixed with soma would fit with this thought
(keeping in mind aghnyA).

I will shut up for now and hope to address the issues of brAhmaNas and grihya
sUtrAs at some later date. I thank every one for the patience and especially,
George. With regards,
-Narahari Achar
>
>