The first written use of the term vegetarian appeared in 1839, yet the practice of abstaining from meat stretches back thousands of years to the 9th century BCE. In ancient India, Parshwanatha and Mahavira, the 23rd and 24th tirthankaras of Jainism, revived and advocated ahimsa, the principle of nonviolence toward all living beings, between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE. This movement established the most comprehensive and strictest form of vegetarianism, forbidding monks from walking on grass to avoid crushing insects and requiring them to shun root vegetables to prevent killing microorganisms living underground. The earliest reliable evidence for vegetarian theory in Greece dates from the 6th century BCE, where the Orphics, a religious movement, promoted the practice as a form of ritual purification. Even Pythagoras, the famous Greek teacher who promoted the doctrine of metempsychosis, was linked to this diet, though historical records show he sometimes ate meat himself. For centuries, vegetarians in the English-speaking world were simply called Pythagoreans, a name that persisted until the word vegetarian was coined in the mid-19th century.
Society and The Word
The modern concept of vegetarianism crystallized in the 19th century with the founding of the Vegetarian Society in Manchester on the 1st of August 1847. Before this organization, the term vegetarian was used sporadically, with the earliest known instance appearing in a journal entry by Fanny Kemble in 1839, though the original manuscript has never been located. The word itself is an irregular compound of vegetable and the suffix -arian, meaning supporter or believer, and it gained general usage only after the society was established. The movement spread quickly to Germany and the Netherlands, and in 1886, a vegetarian colony called Nueva Germania was founded in Paraguay, though its existence was short-lived. By 1908, the International Vegetarian Union was formed to connect national societies, marking the transition from isolated religious sects to a global social movement. The history of the word also includes the Alcott House, a school opened in July 1838 by James Pierrepont Greaves on the north side of Ham Common in London, which published The Healthian and provided some of the earliest appearances of the term in print.Faith And The Flock
Religious traditions have long dictated dietary choices, with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity all containing sects that advocate for meat abstinence. In Hinduism, about 30 percent of followers are vegetarian, often due to the principle of ahimsa and the belief that the cow is a holy animal, making beef a taboo. The Vaishnavism sect follows the purest form of vegetarianism, while Shaktism and Tantric sects freely consume meat. In Buddhism, the Theravada tradition allows meat eating if the animal was not killed specifically for the monk, whereas Mahayana Buddhism encourages vegetarianism to develop compassion. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, founded in the 19th century, has been a major proponent of vegetarian health, with pioneers like John Harvey Kellogg developing breakfast cereals as a health food. The Adventist community in Loma Linda, California, is known as a Blue Zone where residents live 4 to 10 years longer than the average Californian, largely due to their low-fat vegetarian diet and lack of smoking or alcohol consumption. In Islam, while there are no strict dietary rules, figures like former Indian president Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam were famously vegetarian, and the Muslim Vegetarian/Vegan Society was formed in 1996 to support those who choose this path for ethical or health reasons.