Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.49

c14.49

As in all simple pastoral societies, the Aryan vocabulary is rich in names for every aspect of the herd, with special words for ‘a cow with a strange calf’, ‘a cow barren after calving’, ‘a three-year-old ox’, and so on – one may compare the infinity of Arab words for camels. Red, black, dappled, and light-coloured cows are mentioned, and herds were differentiated by distinctive nicks cut in the ears, following a well-known custom which survived in Wales, for instance, to the last century. Milk evidently formed an important item of diet, either fresh or as curds or butter, but there is no direct evidence of cheese-making, nor of the use of fermented mare’s milk (*koumiss*) in the ancient steppe tradition. The cows were milked three times a day, and castration was practised, oxen being used for the normal purposes of farm transport, and beef was freely eaten as the main meat dish. ‘Slaying cows for guests’ was an attribute of highest praise to an Aryan squire, and Indra was a champion beef-eater: the present-day Hindu doctrine of *ahimsa*, and the ritual prohibition of flesh food, is connected with the later (*post-Brāhmaṇa*) ideas of transmigration, which are entirely foreign to the earlier Aryan beliefs.