Deeply rooted in the Vedic tradition, animal sacrifice is a controversial issue associated with a larger discourse of violence and non-violence in South Asia. Most existent studies on Vedic killing focus on the polemics of ritual violence in six schools of Indian philosophy. However, insufficient attention has been paid to killing in Dharmaśāstric literature, the killing that is an indispensable element of a Vedic householder’s life. To fill in the gap, this paper analyzes the animal sacrifice in the Manubhāṣya of Medhātithi, perhaps the most influential exegesis of the Mānavadharmaśāstra. As an important but understudied Dharmaśāstric exegesis, the Manubhāṣya provides insights on how dharmaśāstrins as protagonists of Vedic tradition understand ritual killing while dialoguing with other traditions in the complex religious landscape of the ninth century Kashmir. By investigating Medhātithi’s commentary on Mānavadharmaśāstra 5.22–56, this paper interrogates how Medhatithi interprets sacrificial killing, and how his interpretation assists to buttress the authority of the Vedic tradition represented by the root text. I argue that Medhātithi’s exegesis of killing serves as apologetics that re-establishes the Vedic sacrificial tradition, which is challenged by popular non-Vedic practices. This study intends to contribute to a better understanding of animal sacrifice situated at the intersection of Vedic, Purānic and Tantric strands, and the way in which Dharmaśāstric exegesis as apologetics engages in the negotiation of violence.

深深植根于吠陀传统，动物祭祀是一个有争议的问题，与南亚更广泛的暴力和非暴力话语相关。大多数现有的关于吠陀杀戮的研究都集中在印度哲学的六个流派中关于仪式暴力的论战。然而，在佛法文献中，对杀戮却没有给予足够的重视，而杀戮是吠陀家庭生活中不可或缺的元素。为了填补这一空白，本文分析了Mānavadharmaśāstra的Manubhāṣya中的动物祭祀，这可能是Mānavadharmaśāstra中最有影响力的诠释。作为一个重要但未被充分研究的Dharmaśāstric注释，Manubhāṣya提供了关于dharmaśāstrin如何的见解作为吠陀传统的主角，他们在与 9 世纪克什米尔复杂的宗教景观中的其他传统对话时了解仪式杀戮。通过研究 Medhātithi 对 Mānavadharmaśāstra 的评论5.22-56，本文探讨了 Medhatithi 如何解释牺牲杀戮，以及他的解释如何帮助支持以根源文本为代表的吠陀传统的权威。我认为，Medhātithi 对杀戮的解释充当了重新建立吠陀祭祀传统的道歉，该传统受到流行的非吠陀习俗的挑战。本研究旨在有助于更好地理解位于吠陀、Purānic 和密宗交叉点的动物祭祀，以及作为辩护法的 Dharmaśāstric 解释参与暴力谈判的方式。