The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23.8

c23.8

In early life Asoka is believed to have been a Brahmanical Hindu, specially devoted to Siva, a god whose consort delights in bloody sacrifices; and he appears to have had no scruple about the shedding of blood. Thousands of living creatures used to be slain on the occasion of a banquet (*samāja*) to supply the kitchens of the overgrown royal household with curries for a single day. As he became gradually imbued with the spirit of Buddhist teaching, this wholesale daily slaughter became abominable in his eyes, and was stopped; only three living creatures at the most, namely, two peacocks and one deer, being killed each day; and in 257 B. C. even this limited butchery was put an end to.²