The Rashtrakutas and their Times c20.145

c20.145

The curse of the sin of the slaughter of a thousand cows, which has been mentioned in several inscriptions of our period referred to in the last paragraph, would attest to the immense veneration in which the cow was held in our age. Several Smritis of our period contain detailed rules about the reverence and consideration that was to be shown to the cow. (110) The term of detestation used with reference to the Muslims in our period was the cow-eaters. (111) In the 14th century capital punishment was inflicted in Hindu states upon a person who had committed the crime of killing a cow Ibn Batuta cites the concrete case of a Shaikh, who was given the lighter punishment of the mutilation of both the hands and feet for the slaughter of a cow because he was held in high veneration by the Hindus as well. (112) Beef eating was inconceivable, but in some localities like the Malabar, the pariah class was accustomed to eat it, if the cow had died a natural death. This practice was current in the 13th century at the time of Marco Polo, and it still prevails in many localities; but whether it existed in our period we do not know. In the 17th century it was regarded a sin to allow a cow to die in one's house. (113) The Smritis of our period do not share this belief and we may well doubt whether this notion existed in our period.