There is copious evidence that the Vedic Aryans sacrificed cows and ate beef. In the Vedas there are references to various kinds of sacrifice in which cows were killed and its flesh was eaten. This practise continued in the post-Vedic period, up to the pre-Mauryan period. Gradually, from the Mauryan period onwards references to cow killing begin to figure less in our sources. The Brahmins, who were the main proponents of the sacrifices, now began to discourage and even disapprove of the killing of the cow. Their disapproval was linked with the idea of Kaliyuga, which is first enunciated in the Mahabharata and the early Puranic texts belonging to the post-Mauryan and Gupta period.

Why Hindus stopped eating beef and began to worship cows