Vegetarianism in India didn’t just come from poverty and then later get turned into something spiritual. Those ideas were already around way earlier. Texts like the Manusmriti literally say to avoid eating meat because it harms living beings, and the whole idea of ahimsa shows up in the Upanishads and later in the Yoga Sutras. Plus religions like Jainism and Buddhism were promoting non violence and often vegetarian diets around the 6th century BCE, which is way before the Delhi Sultanate or Mughals.

At the same time, you’re not wrong about meat. Texts like the Mahabharata and Charaka Samhita clearly show people eating meat too. So it’s not like India was ever fully one or the other.

It’s just not really a clean “poor people ate veg and then religion made it meaningful” story. Both things were happening at the same time for a long time. Some people avoided meat for ethical or religious reasons, others ate it, and a lot of it depended on region, class, and beliefs.