Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India

  For these last four weeks of free reading, I chose to read the Sacred Tales of India by D. N. Neogi. I am going to be doing my reading notes over part D today.

The Wife Who Cooked Beef

• a Brahman had a daughter in law
• he was having a large feast and asked her to cook a variety of curries
• one of which was made of tortoise flesh
• the lady asked her maid to try the curry to see if it was good
• the maid just so and much more
• she ended eating everything that was cooked
• the lady was in great distress for she knew her father in law would never forgive her
• she and her maid set out to the forest to find any sort of meat
• the maid found a calf and cut it into three pieces and presented it to her lady
• without looking at what meat it was, the lady took it and began to cook it
• the meat would not boil and the lady began to worry
• she could not even begin to think that this meat was beef
• she was scared it was some prohibited meat and knew she could not feed it to the men
• the lady told her maid that when carrying the food she would pretend to slip and fall and would need her maid's assistance
• as the guests arrived and it was time to feast, the lady walked out with a plateful and slipped
• her maid ran over to assist her
• the men saw a woman of a lower caste helping and touching their food and they refused to eat it
• they left empty stomached
• the maid eventually told the lady that it was a calf that she had killed and used at the meat
• the lady almost burst into flames out of anger
• the only way to repent of this sin was to talk the carcass and place it with flowers where they worship their goddess
• this was done and the calf was brought back to life
• this had freed her of her calf killing sin

Bibliography Sacred Tales of India. D. N. Neogi. The Goddess Who Devoured Elephants. Part D

(Image of a baby calf taken by Cynthia Baldauf)