Who were the first vegetarians?

By Mahipali

Every schoolchild has heard of Pythagoras. Some say they remember him as one of their tormentors because of the theorem that goes by his name. But how many would know that, geometry apart, he was one of the earliest attested vegetarians in history? His date is usually given as c. 580- 500 B.C. A native of the Mediterranean island of Samos, he finally established himself in Croton, one of the Greek cities of southern Italy.

Although little authentic information is available on Pythagoras, it seems certain that he was influenced by the Orphic cult, whose members studied astronomy, music, medicine and mathematics. He himself was a mathematician as well as a religious prophet. Bertrand Russel says that "in both respects he was immeasurably influential and the two were not so separate as they seem to a modern mind". The connection was by means of an ethic that praised the contemplative life which included the disinterested pursuit of science (and hence mathematics).

Interestingly, some of the ideas of Pythagoras definitely sound like an echo of Indian beliefs, although there is no evidence of any contact between India and the Mediterranean world in which he lived. An ancient Greek account of him says that he taught that whatever comes into existence is born again "in the revolutions of a certain cycle" - the wheel of birth from which the true philosopher must learn to release himself. When we hear these words, the Indian idea of Samsara and liberation from it readily comes to mind.

This belief of Pythagoras in the transmigration of souls was the basis of the way of life he recommended to his followers. He taught that all things that are born with life in them ought to be treated as kindred. One might recall that in Twelfth Night when Malvolio is asked to give the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl, he replies "that the soul of our grandam might happily inhabit a bird". This was one reason why Pythagoreans were vegetarians; they thought that in eating some animal one might well be eating one's parent or grandparent of a previous existence. So animals were not to be eaten. They were taught that to attain spiritual and physical health it was necessary to adopt a lifestyle that included simple clothing, an ordered daily regimen and a vegetarian diet. Strangely, however, one of the precepts of the Pythagorean order was to abstain from eating beans!

Around the time that Pythagoras was propounding his views in Greece, there appeared in North India the great religious teacher Mahavira (traditional date 599- 527 B.C.). He was the founder of Jainism and contemporary of the Buddha, and, like him, critic of many of the views of the Brahmins of their time. Hinduism as we know it had as yet not come into being. The elitist Brahmin contemporaries of the Buddha and Mahavira were followers of the sacrificial Vedic religion. This was a time of large-scale slaughter of animals in the Vedic sacrifices. With the spread of the doctrine which linked animals and humans in the same cycle of birth, death and rebirth, many thoughtful people began to oppose the needless killing of animals in a supposedly religious act. The Buddha and Mahavira were two of the greatest leaders of this burgeoning movement. Jainism is one of the most gentle of the religions of mankind. Like Buddhism it is also a non-theistic religion. Jains believed that all living things, animals not excluded, had a soul or jiva which was liable to be entrapped by karma, a contaminating form of subtle matter which is an after-effect of one's desires and attachments. The religious duty of every individual is to liberate the jiva from this bondage of karma. For this it was necessary to lead an austere life and practice Ahimsa or refraining from harming any living being in any way whatsoever.

The Jains followed the principle of Ahimsa rigorously going to extreme lengths to avoid killing or harming even the smallest living thing. They in fact were history's first advocates of animal rights.

Jainism is the first Indian religion that called upon its adherents to adopt the vegetarian way of life. Unlike Buddhism, Jainism managed to co-exist in India with Hinduism up to the present day. It is particularly influential among the traders and merchants of Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is said that Mahatma Gandhi's advocacy of Ahimsa was in no small measure the result of a strong tinge of Jain influence in his family circle in Gujarat. If that is so, the spirit of Jain Ahimsa may well be regarded as having had an impact on modern vegetarianism of which Gandhi was undoubtedly a leading light.

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