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The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.86

The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.86

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English

c29.86

¹ Onions and garlic are regarded as impure by many castes. Onions, it is alleged, are supposed when cut to resemble flesh. Garlic, perhaps, was originally condemned as being a foreign innovation. Gopāditya, an ancient king of Kashmīr, punished Brahmans who ate garlic (Stein, transl. *Rājat.*, Bk. i, 342). Possibly the prohibition rests on deeper reasons, as expressed in Jain philosophy. 'Of course, onions, potatoes and all roots, being inhabited by more than one *jīva*, must never be eaten' (Stevenson, *The Heart of Jainism*, 1915, p. 213).