The ban on meat

[Extract from Dastur (Dr) Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla’s, An Autobio­­-gra­phy, 1946]

Fifty years ago on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of a building or while inaugurating it and on any such auspicious occasion, we were wont to sacrifice a goat or at least a chicken. Today happily we hardly ever do that. But merely to protect the fair name of our elders of about 50 to 75 years ago, it is wrong to indicate with baseless arguments that they never did so. According to the 11th verse of the Yajashne, as per age-old tradition, right up to the last century, we offered a goat’s tongue and his left eye in ceremonies dedicated to Hom Yazad. It is false to say that it is a misconception that our forefathers of the last century did any such thing or that should there appear any such references, they are merely allegorical. Today many of our families refrain from eating flesh on Bahman, Mohor, Gosh and Ram roz. They are doing so voluntarily now, but a hundred years ago it was obligatory on all. For, like a child’s fear of a school-master’s rod, the trustees of the Punchayet of those days kept our forefathers under their thumb. In 1796 the general body of the Anjuman of Bombay assembled and passed a resolution to the effect that should a behdin be caught making use of flesh on those four ‘Anroja’ days he would be fined a ‘doti’ and given a sacramental bath. Should a mobed be guilty of such a crime, he would be prohibited from practising his profession for a year. In 1823 they placed this resolution again before the community and amended it to read that perchance should ‘Chahram’ of a deceased person coincide with one of the four Anrojas, even on such an occasion meat should not be utilized. To protest against this resolution certain gentlemen approached the Anjuman at Navsari. They unanimously replied: "Should a Chahram fall on Bahman, Mohor, Gosh or Ram roz, you may certainly perform the ceremony with meat, and its fat be placed on the sacred fire with incense and agar. This would please the deities of the animal world.”

Today we neither place the fat on the sacred fire nor do we sacrifice a goat’s tongue or its left eye to the Hom Yazad as our forefathers in ignorance did for 300 years. But it is futile to nullify what has been recorded in history. What existed cannot be eradicated as non-existent. It is wrong to whitewash what came down to us through the ages. It is dangerous to blind and deafen ourselves to historical proof. It is a mistake to assign a latent and esoteric meaning to clear and straightforward statements. It is meaningless to try to establish every custom and tradition as valid and valuable. That is not a logical mode of study. It is not right.

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