Forget eating, beef was ayurvedic medicine in ancient India, claims veteran scientist

Veteran scientist PM Bhargava, who returned his Padma Bhushan to protest rising intolerance in the country, had written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee. In the letter, he said that ancient Indian scriptures didn’t prohibit beef eating and ayurveda itself prescribes beef as medicine.  

He quoted the Charaka Samita saying: “The flesh of the cow is beneficial for those suffering from the loss of flesh due to disorders caused by an excess of vayu, rhinitis, irregular fever, dry cough, fatigue, and also in cases of excessive appetite resulting from hard manual labour.”

Bhargava also hit out at the Modi government ‘the least knowledgeable and least concerned about science’. He said that the ‘climate of religious conservatism was a major obstacle in the functioning of science’.

The history of cow slaughter is complicated. The perception that cow slaughter was introduced in India by Mughal rulers is fallacious. Early texts suggest that even our gods liked cattle meat. Indra liked bull’s meat while Agni preferred cow’s and bull’s meat, which explains why they were routinely sacrificed and even used as medicine.  (Read Prof Ram Puniyani’s explanation in The Hindu about how beef-eating habits changed in ancient India)