If one were To Seek The Source Of Vegetarianism[s] one has to go the root traditions and religions of ancient holy India. It is an ageless faith of Hindus[ Indians] that killing animals was a grave sin and that the lowest castes practiced beef eating etc.
Even during the time of the Vedic Yajna-s vegetarianism was considered highly laudable
" go hathya maha paapam" [ Killing a cow is a great sin ]
“jeeva hathya mahaa paapam” [ Killing Life is a great sin ]
“samyag sasyaahaaram maamsam vina divyam nithyam paapa-viheenam” [Good Vegetarian food without meat is divine eternal free from sins ]
“ahimsa maha dharmam para brahma tatvam”
[ Ahimsa is a Great Dharma ~ The Tatva[ Essence] of Parabrahman ]
With the advent Buddhism and Jainism the Divine tenets of Vegetarianism becomes more violently prounounced. [ It may be observed that the Gautama Buddha was the 28th Buddha according to Buddhist eschatological traditions: Vardhamaana Mahaavira was the twenty fourth Thirthankara according to Jaina traditions ] So what the Gautama Buddha taught and Vardhamaana Mahavira taught was a continuation of the great Indian traditions. Pranava, Mantra, Yoga, Tantra, Yantra Mandala etc. overlapped these distinct pathways. Let us note that according to Buddhist way of cosmic perception of Ahimsa, to save an ant from drowning is a much more laudable act than finding an empire and ruling it. The Jaina tradition too carried Ahimsa to great extremes. In some Buddhist sects especially those that went out of India circumstantially some meats are eaten. But I personally think without Ahimsa there is no Buddhism !
We can safely say that there are innumerable castes and sects of India that have been vegetarians from times immemorial. Indians alone can claim and feel proud of such a higher aesthetic of food habits motivated by Dharma and Ahimsa !
If you exclude the Christians and Muslims about 75% of Indians are vegetarians.
About sixty to seventy percent of modern vegetarians are Indians.
In fact Indian Vegetarian ideals with the Vedic-Upanishadic wisdom must have spread to the Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans and later to Greek Thinkers and even Christian Gnostics and later even to the Sufis.
But outside India Vegetarianism was an exception: But here in holy India, it was the Higher Law for the higher beings. I think India Should declare Itself as the First Vegetarian Nation. It will be a divine event, surely a prelude to the Apocalypse!
The modern Vegetarian movements in Europe ~ A brief Note
Etymology
The first Vegetarian Society founded in 1847 claims to have “created the word vegetarian from the Latin ‘vegetus’ meaning ’lively’ (which is how these early vegetarians claimed their diet made them feel) …"[7] However, the Oxford English Dictionary and other standard dictionaries state that the word was formed from the term “vegetable” and the suffix “-arian”.[8]The Oxford English Dictionary also gives evidence that the word was already in use before the foundation of the Vegetarian Society:
1839 - “If I had had to be my own cook, I should inevitably become a vegetarian.” (F. A. Kemble, Jrnl. Residence on Georgian Plantation (1863) 251)
1842 - “To tell a healthy vegetarian that his diet is very uncongenial with the wants of his nature.” (Healthian, Apr. 34)
But it also notes that “The general use of the word appears to have been largely due to the formation of the Vegetarian Society at Ramsgate in 1847.”
[edit] History
Main article: History of VegetarianismThe earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant amount of people concern ancient India[9] and the ancient Greek civilization in Southern Italy and in Greece in the 6th century BCE.[10] In both instances the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence towards animals (called ahimsa in India) and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers.[11] Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire in late antiquity, vegetarianism practically disappeared from Europe.[12] Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat for ascetic reasons, but none of them eschewed fish.[13] Vegetarianism was to reemerge somewhat in Europe during the Renaissance.[14] It became a more widespread practice in the 19th and 20th centuries.In 1847 the first Vegetarian Society was founded in England;[15] Germany, the Netherlands and other countries followed. The International Vegetarian Union, a union of the national societies, was founded in 1908. In the Western world, the popularity of vegetarianism grew during the 20th century as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently, environmental and economic concerns. Today, Indian vegetarians, primarily lacto vegetarians, are estimated to make up more than 70% of the world’s vegetarians. They make up 20–42% of the population in India, while less than 30% are regular meat-eaters.[16][17][18] Surveys in the U.S. have found that roughly 1–2.8% of adults eat no meat, poultry, or fish.[19][20][21][22]
From ~