In the Ganges plain in Northen India in the middle of the first millennium BCE, the idea of “ahimsa” – non violence – emerges. Episode 1: Ahimsa Ian visits the intellectual hub of iron age India – the Kingdom of Magadha. He discovers a subculture of vagabond philosophers that developed two world religions; and the vegetarian order of monks and nuns who became the torchbearers of ahimsa. Play or download (41MB MP3) (via iTunes) or read transcript. Contributors: Sadhvi Yasājhe Maharaj Interpreter: Dr. Smita Bagrecha James Serpell (University of Pennsylvania) “One Man’s Meat: On The Evolution of Animal Food Taboos” (blog post) Prof Richard Gombrich (Wikipedia) (University of Oxford) Prof Dwijendra Narayan Jha (Wikipedia) Prof GC Tripathi Dr Priyadarshana Jain (University of Madras) Dr Peter Flügel, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Locations: Veeryatan, Bihar BL Institute, Delhi Recording diary I’d only been told about Rajgir the day before arriving. I was staying at the refounded University of Nalanda for a couple of nights, where I interviewed two people who lived in the block in which I was staying. Institutions like that are fantastic for my research. But one interviewee – Deepak Anand – told me the real place I… more The post VegHist Episode 1: Ahimsa first appeared on The Vegan Option.