History of Vegetarianism and Cow-Veneration in India

Ludwig Alsdorf (1904 – 1978) was one of the most influential Indologists of his generation. He had wide range of interests and worked on Prakrit, Apabrahmsa and Pali literature, in particular on Jaina universal history and prosody. His pioneering metrical analyses of ancient Indian literature prepared the ground for great advances in the dating of texts and the reconstruction of the history of Indian philosophy. One of his most influential studies is the present work. Willem Bollée is Professor Emeritus at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.Bal Patil is an independent researcher, journalist and Chairman of the Jain Minority Status Committee, Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha, a century old Jain organization in India. He is the co-Author of Jainism (1974, with Colette Caillat and A.N. Upadhye), and his English translation of Ludwig Alsdorf’s Les Etudes Jaina, Etat Present et Taches Futures, edited by Willem Bollée was published in 2006. His translation of Hiralal Jain’s Jainism Through the Ages from Hindi into English is due for publication.

• Introduction. Abbreviations 1. Contributions to the History of Vegetarianism and Cow Veneration in India 2. Bibliography. Appendix I: Review of Alsdorf by Jan Heesterman. Appendix II: Classical follow-up article by H.-P. Schmidt, ‘The Origin of Ahimsà. Appendix III: do, Ahimsà and Rebirth. Appendix IV: H.R. Kapadia’s Critical Review of Western Interpretations of Early Jaina Vegetarianism: ‘Prohibition of Flesh Eating in Jainism’