An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide: Past Cultural Practices & Traditions About The Use Of Dairy Products

For millennia, the use of milk and dairy products has been a part of Indian (and so, also of Jain) culture and diet. Milk and dairy products including milk, yoghurt, raita, paneer, ghee, butter, and hundreds of milk based sweets, are not only consumed directly as food but are also used in many Ayurvedic medicine systems as well as in Jain temples (for pooja, abhishek, prakshals, dipak, and arti). It has also found its use in terminologies such as Jain fund raising rituals called “ghee boli” in temples.

Milk and dairy products are used by Jain shravaks and shravikas as well as by sadhus and sadhvis. There is no taboo and as a result there has been very little debate about the origin and use of dairy in homes and in rituals.

For millennia, the cow was an economic engine (mostly in agriculturally based societies), was revered, was cared for humanely, and all its products (milk, cow dung, urine, leather and its male/oxen children) were used extensively in and by the Indian society.

Production of milk and other cow bye products were mostly humane. Cows were raised in homes, cared for till their full lives and were treated very humanely.