The _karma_ notion begins to appear in the Brahmanas, but not in the _sams[=a]ra_ shape of transmigration.

It was surely not because the Hindu was afraid of eating his deceased grandmother that he first abstained from meat.

For, long after the doctrine of _karma_ and _sams[=a]ra_[47] is established, animal sacrifices are not only permitted but enjoined; and the epic characters shoot deer and even eat cows.

We think, in short, that the change began as a sumptuary measure only.

In the case of human sacrifice there is doubtless a civilized repugnance to the act, which is clearly seen in many passages where the slaughter of man is made purely symbolical.