ABSTRACT
Snake worship is both old and widespread on the Indian subcontinent, where Hindu traditions have long regarded snakes as divinities linked with water, fertility, and anthills. Among the complex cosmic cycles propounded by Hindu traditions, Luis Gonzlez-Reimann suggests that the yugas, which provide a mythological and historical framework, have emerged as particularly relevant with respect to social circumstances and everyday life. The yugas devolve from the Kta Yuga, the first and perfect age, to the Kali Yuga, the final, most degraded, and present epoch, which is often called the dark age or the age of discord. In an essay examining aspects of animal slaughter in Sanskrit textual sources and the development of a vegetarian ethic, Edwin Bryant details the colorful karmic retributions outlined in the epics and puras for those who kill or torture animals. The Kali Yuga was also explicitly invoked as a rationalization for nga dam; speaking in English, one Brahmin father of two daughters put it succinctly.
