Thread by @shrikanth_krish

While the Hindu insistence on avoiding consumption of beef is well known, reading Al Biruni from the 11th century throws interesting light on the nature of meat consumption back in NW India

Very different from the pattern today

Today the most common forms of "non veg" food in India are poultry, eggs and fish.

If AL Biruni is anything to go by, two of these three were forbidden, at least for the Dvija groups in the 11th century

Here is Al Biruni on Food in India -

"Animals the killing of which is allowed are sheep, goats, gazelles, hares, rhinos, buffaloes, fish, water and land birds, as sparrows, doves"

"That which is forbidden are cows, horses, mules, ...., tame poultry, all kinds of eggs and wine"

This is pretty interesting

Today the average meat eater in India hardly ever eats a goat or a gazelle.

But is inured to the consumption of eggs and chicken

Would like to hear if anyone is aware of traditional injunctions against poultry in any Indian text that can corroborate Al Biruni

Since when did poultry become this pre-eminent Indian "non veg" dish, which it clearly wasn't some 1000 yrs ago?

Is the consumption of poultry and eggs an outcome of Islamic influence, which had a telling effect on the nature of meat consumption among meat eaters in India?

While I am a vegetarian, I do find Al Biruni's statements interesting and actually more effective in restricting meat eating than the patterns we see today

After all - you don't get to hunt a gazelle or a goat everyday...so that naturally limits meat consumption

It makes sense to discourage poultry and eggs as they are way too common, and also they lend themselves to large scale consumption unlike the occasional gazelle hunting - where you at least give the animal a chance to run away and elude you

This reminds me of a remark by a Rajput that I heard from an uncle of mine -

"We only eat the meat that we have hunted down"

To me that makes a lot of sense...

You earn your meat with a good hunt. As opposed to farming meat

Postscript : One of the tweets in the middle made strange reading. Gazelles are hunted yes, but not goats :)

Sorry about pairing the two in the same sentence