z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 03.indd MK SJ YS 21 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 112
112 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
What were the components of the Madhuparka ? Madhuparka literally means a ceremony in which honey is shed or poured on the hand of a person. This is what Madhuparka was in its beginning. But in course its ingredients grew and included much more than honey. At one time it included three ingredients—curds honey and butter. There was a time when it was made of five things curds, honey, ghee, yava and barley. Then it came to be a mixture of nine items. The Kausika Sutra speaks of nine kinds of mixtures, viz. Brahma (honey and curds), Aindra (of payasa), Saumya (curds and ghee), Mausala (saine and ghee, this being used only in Sautramani and Rajasuya sacrifices), Varuna (water and ghee). Sravana (sesame oil and ghee). Parivrajaka (sesame oil and oil cake). Then we come to the time of the Manava Grahya Sutra which says that the Veda declares that the Madhuparka must not be without flesh and so it recommends that if the cow is let loose, goat’s meat or payasa (rice cooked in milk) may be offered ; The Hir gr. i. 13.14 says that other meat should be offered ; Baud. gr. says (1.2.51-54) that when the cow is let off. the flesh of a goat or ram may be offered or some forest flesh (of a deer & c.,) may be offered, as there can be no Madhuparka without flesh or if one is unable to offer flesh one may cook ground grains. But in the final stage flesh became the most essential part of Madhuparka. In fact some of the Grihya Sutras go to the length of saying that there can be no Madhuparka without flesh. This they base upon an express injunction contained in the Rig-Veda (VIII. 101.5) which says “Let the Madhuparka not be without flesh”.
Flesh eating was thus quite common. From the Brahmins to the Shudras everybody ate meat. In the Dharmasutras numerous rules are given about the flesh of beasts and birds and about fishes. Gaut. 17.27 31. Ap. Dh. S. 1.5.17.35 Vas. Dh. S. 14.39-40. Yaj. I. 177. Vishnu Dh. S. 51.6. Sankha (quoted by Apararka p. 1167). Ramayana (Kiskindha
17.39). Markendey Purana (35.2-4) prescribe that one should avoid the flesh of all five-nailed animals except of porcupine, hare, svavidh (a boar of hedgehog), iguana, rhinoceros and tortoise (some of these works omit the rhinoceros). Gautama adds that one should also avoid the flesh of all animals with two rows of teeth in the two jaws, of hairy animals, of hairless animals (like snakes), of village cocks and hogs and of cows and bulls. Ap. Dh. S. 1.5.17. 29-31 first forbids the flesh of animals with one hoof only, of camels, of gavaya (Gayal), of the village hog, of the sarabha and of cows, but adds the exception that the flesh, of milch cows and of bulls may be eaten as the Vajasaneyaka declares the flesh of these to be pure. Ap. Dh. S. (II.2.5.15) forbids the use of flesh to a teacher of the Veda in the
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