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During his recent visit to India, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, King of Nepal, made an offering of animals for sacrificial purposes at the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, the capital of the north-eastern Indian state, Assam. This ancient temple is unique in the sense that its inner sanctum is occupied by Yoni (vulva, regarded as a symbol of divine procreative energy) carved out on a circular rock and is always seen dripping wet, possibly due to some hidden water source under the rock. The Nepal king and his consort, Komal Rajyalakshmi, had chosen to offer prayers at the Kamakhya temple because of its association with Lord Shiva, the god of destruction in the Hindu pantheon. According to a legend mentioned in books giving a description of holy places in India, a tribal woman living in the Neelanchal mountains surrounding Guwahati had taken a fancy for Lord Shiva. Since Lord Shiva already had a consort, Parvati, he would secretly visit the Neelanchal mountains for his tryst with the tribal woman. Unlike other temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and where Shiva’s lingam is the object of veneration, the Kamakhya temple is dedicated to his ladylove. Instead of Shiva’s lingam, Yoni occupies the inner sanctum where the devout offer prayers. The king and his queen had only performed the Panchabali ceremony to pray for peace and prosperity in their kingdom.

The Panchabali, a ritual involving the sacrifice of a buffalo, a goat, a sheep, a pigeon and a duck is a common practice in the Kamakhya temple. Orthodox Hindus praying for their prosperity regularly do so without any one raising even a little finger of protest. In fact, buffaloes, goats and other animals and birds are often lined up on the route to the temple for sale to the devout who wish to offer them as sacrifices to the presiding deity in the temple. Nobody has ever protested against the offering of animals for sacrificial purposes.

But an animal rights group, getting wind of the impending visit of the Nepal king, had lodged a report with the Halukbari police station in Guwahati, calling upon the custodians of law and order in the area to prevent the "illegality" of sacrificing animals in a public place in contravention of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Actually, lodging the complaint with the area police station was not so much intended to prevent the King of Nepal and his Queen from making the sacrificial offering but only to exploit the incident for publicity. Had the animal rights group been sincere in its objective, demonstrations against the killing of animals at the Kamakhya temple would have been a regular feature. But the so-called friends of animals were merely trying to drag the Nepal king and his queen into the controversy so that they could get free publicity. Fortunately, there was no protest demonstration on the last day of the Nepal king’s six-day visit to India when he went to the Kalighat temple in south Kolkata to offer prayers for peace in his kingdom. By way of offering to the deity, he also gave to the priest presiding over the temple a goat, which was sacrificed after the monarch’s departure. Even in Kamakhya temple, animals given by the king to the temple priest were slaughtered in accordance with the prevalent custom after the king and his queen had left.

Actually, what to talk of sacrificial offering of animals at a number of temples located at different places in the country, even offering of liquor at Bhairon’s temple in Ujjain and at several other places is a common practice deriving sanction from the Vedas which governed Aryan society over 2,500 years ago. The religion of the Aryans consisted of yagna or sacrifice. The sacrifice was a means to enter into the godhead of the gods, and even to control the gods. The traditional sacrifices were 21 in number divided into three classes of seven each. The offering of butter, milk and corn at the temple was the first sacrifice. The second involved offering of Soma, liquor, to the gods, and the third category of sacrifices called for offering of animals. According to old Hindu belief, sacrifice helps one win eternal holiness.

The sacrifice was not meant as an aid to the acquirement of heavenly bliss alone. Many of the great sacrifices were for the gaining of good things on earth. Brahmanic India knew no thanksgiving sacrifice. Ordinarily the gain is represented as a compensating gift from divinity for the one who makes the sacrificial offering. The sacrifice begins with the recitation of mantras, which translated into English, say: "Do thou give to me (and) I (will) give to thee; do thou bestow on me (and) I (will) bestow on thee." The ceremony of sacrifice is awe-inspiring. Every word the priests utter is pregnant with consequences. Every sacrifice means a fee to the priest. The priest’s fee for performing the sacrifice in the olden days would consist of valuable garments, horses or gold. The priests had built up a system of formalities to be gone through for performing every sacrifice.

But all this changed when Siddharth Gautama, who later became the Buddha, came on the scene. What Buddha preached was aimed at reforming Hindu society. He called for an end to the killing of living things, opposed sacrifices of animals for appeasing gods. He could clearly see that the Brahmins encouraged sacrifices only to have an easy access to the meat so that they could eat it and enjoy themselves. The Brahmins were very upset over its growing popularity. In order to check people from embracing Buddhism, they also started preaching against animal sacrifices. They went to the extent of declaring the cow a holy animal.

But the fall of Buddhism in India was brought about not by the Brahmins alone. The Muslim invaders were also responsible for it. Islam came out as the enemy of Buddhism, which had come to be known as a religion of idol worshippers. Muslim invaders attacked both Brahminism and Buddhism. Since Brahminism had State support those days, therefore it managed to survive. Brahminism was the religion of many Hindu kings. But Buddhism had no such support. The support to Brahminism lasted till Islam had become a quiet religion and the flames of original fury as a mission against idolatry had died down. The Buddhist priesthood in India perished by the sword of Islam and could not be resuscitated.