History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.61
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.61
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(goddess). It appears that the cow was being raised to the status of divinity and there was a great revulsion of feeling about the cow. The great usefulness of the cow and the ox for agricultural purposes, in the family economy and as means of exchange must have powerfully contributed to making the cow a divinity. In the gṛhya sūtras (like Āśv. I. 24. 25), Ṛg. VIII. 101. 15 is prescribed as the mantra when in the Madhuparka ceremony the cow is let loose by the guest. The Artharvaveda (XII. 4) fully recognises the cult of the holiness of the cow. That the cow continued to be offered in sacrifices follows from several Brāhmaṇa passages e. g. Tai. Br. III. 9. 8. In the Śat. Br. III. 1. 2. 21 it is stated that the great sage Yājñavalkya was wont to eat the meat of cows and oxen provided it was ‘aṁsala’¹⁸⁵⁰ (tender?). The Ait. Br. (6. 8)¹⁸⁵¹ states that the horse, the ox, the goat and ram are sacrificial animals while the kimpuruṣa, gauramṛga, gavaya, the camel and śarabha (a mythical animal with eight feet) were not sacrificial and their flesh should not be eaten. The Śat. Br. I. 2. 3. 9 contains a similar prohibition. The Śat. Br. XI. 7. 1. 3 declares that ‘meat is the best kind of food.’ The work of Mr. L. L. Sundara Ram (Madras, 1927) on ‘Cow Protection in India’ contains an exhaustive treatment of the subject from Vedic times and cites the attitude of other nations and religions towards cow-killing.
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The veneration for the cow has been so great that pañcagavya prepared from the five substances due to the cow viz. her milk, curds and ghee of her milk, her urine and dung mixed with water in which kuśa blades had been placed was looked upon as¹⁸⁵² purification for many lapses. Yāj. III. 314 mentions the ingredients of pañcagavya. The Baud. gṛ. śeṣa-sūtra (II. 20) contains an elaborate note on the preparation of pañcagavya, the quantities of the five ingredients, the Vedic verses to be recited when preparing it. Parāśara XI. 28-34, Devala 62-65, Laghuśātātapa 158-162, Matsyapurāṇa 267. 5-6 and other works contain similar rules. Parāśara prescribes that the urine, dung, milk, curds and ghee should be of cows the colours of which are respectively dark, white, copper-red, dark-red and brown or that all ingredients may be of a brown (kapilā) cow. There is some difference of view about colours and also about the quantities. According to Parāśara urine, ghee, and water should be one part each, curds three parts, milk seven parts and cowdung as much as the thumb. According to Atri. 299 dung, urine, ghee and milk were to be respectively 1, 2, 4 and 8 parts and curds also 8 parts. When mixing the ingredients, urine is taken with the sacred Gāyatrī, cowdung with ‘gandhadvārām’ (Tai. Ār. X. 1), milk with ‘āpyāyasva’ (Ṛg. I. 91. 16), curds with ‘dadhikrāvṇo’ (Ṛg. IV. 39. 6), ghee with ‘tejosi śukram’ (Vāj. S. 22. 1) and kuśa water with ‘devasya tvā’ (Ait. Br. 37. 3, Vāj. S. 22. 1).
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The pañcagavya thus prepared is to be placed near the fire, then it is to be stirred to the accompaniment of ‘āpo hi ṣṭhā (Ṛg. X. 9. 1-3) and then the mantra ‘mā nastoke’ (Ṛg. I. 114. 8) is to be repeated over it, it may be then offered into fire with green darbhas not less than seven to the accompaniment of ‘Irāvatī’ (Ṛg. VII. 99. 3), ‘idam Viṣṇur’ (Ṛg. I. 22. 17), ‘mā nastoke’ (Ṛg. X. 114. 8), and the śaṁvatī verse (Ṛg. X. 9. 4) and then the remainder is to be drunk by one who prepares it with the verse noted below.¹⁸⁵³ The vessel in which the pañcagavya is to be prepared must be of copper or gold or of palāśa or lotus leaves (Par. M. II. 1 p. 434 quoting Prajāpati). Viṣṇu Dh. S. 54. 7 and Atri 300 say that a śūdra drinking pañcagavya and a brāhmaṇa drinking surā (liquor distilled from flour) are equally sinful and fall in hell. But Devala 61 and Parāśara XI. 3 and 27 allow śūdras (and women) to take pañcagavya but without Vedic mantras. Therefore the digests like Śūdrakamalākara (p. 42) say that a śūdra can take pañcagavya only as a prāyaś-citta (penance) for a sin and not otherwise. Pañcagavya is also called *brahmakūrca*. Atri 301 declares that the dung of a cow that eats unclean things is not to be employed for purification. A smṛti passage declares that he in whose house there is not even one cow with her calf becomes devoid of all maṅgalas (auspicious things) and darkness does not leave him.
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A cow was said to be holy in all limbs except her mouth (Medhātithi on Manu V. 128 quotes 'gāvo medhyā mukhād-ṛte') and so Manu V. 124 requires food smelt or licked by a cow to be purified. Manu XI. 79 says that if one sacrifices one's life in defence of brāhmaṇas and cows one becomes free from the sin of even brāhmaṇa murder. Viṣṇu Dh. S. 16. 18 declares that even an untouchable (bāhya) went to heaven by giving his life in defence of brāhmaṇas, cows, women and children. Vide Viṣṇu Dh. S. 3. 45 also. In Gaut. IX. 13-14 the cow is referred to as *devatā*. As early as the 2nd century A.D. we have the collocation of the words 'go-brāhmaṇahita' (the welfare of cows and brāhmaṇas) in an inscription of Rudradāman (E. I. vol. VIII. p. 44). Vide Gupta inscriptions p. 89 (for 'go-brāhmaṇa-purogābhyaḥ sarvaprajābhyaḥ). These words also occur frequently in the Rāmāyaṇa (Bālakāṇḍa 26. 5, Araṇya 23. 28) and in the Matsyapurāṇa 104. 16. The Kapilā (brown) cow was said to be the most auspicious and meant for providing milk for agnihotra and brāhmaṇas, and the śūdra who used its milk was deemed to go to hell (vide Vṛddha-Gautama p. 568).