HISTORY
ANCIENT INDIA
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Hindus believe that the god Vishnu sometimes appears as a cow and other animals. In Hinduism, beef is forbidden because one of Vishnu’s avatars was a cow.
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Hindus believe the cows are sacred animals and that all living things are part of the Brahma.
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Hindus believe that cows are unclean and should only be eaten by the lower castes.
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None of the above
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Detailed explanation-1: -Hindus do not consider the cow to be a god and they do not worship it. Hindus, however, are vegetarians and they consider the cow to be a sacred symbol of life that should be protected and revered. In the Vedas, the oldest of the Hindu scriptures, the cow is associated with Aditi, the mother of all the gods.
Detailed explanation-2: -According to these texts, “the cow is food.” Even when one passage in the “Shatapatha Brahmana” (3.1. 2.21) forbids the eating of either cow or bull, a revered ancient Hindu sage named Yajnavalkya immediately contradicts it, saying that, nevertheless, he eats the meat of both cow and bull, “as long as it’s tender.”
Detailed explanation-3: -In a large part of the Hindu society, the taboo against eating beef is such that consuming the meat of a cow could lead to being disowned if people in the family became aware of it.
Detailed explanation-4: -Unfortunately beef-eating, instead of being treated as a purely secular matter, was made a matter of religion. This happened because the Brahmins made the cow a sacred animal. This made beef-eating a sacrilege.