History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.144

v3.c43.144

It appears that on account of the high merit associated with the gift of cows, donors sometimes passed old and weak cows on to donees. The Kaṭhopaniṣad I. 1. 3 appears to contain a condemnation of such practices.²⁰⁵⁴ "He who makes gifts of cows that simply drink water and eat grass, but yield no milk and do not possess strength (to conceive and produce calves) reaches those worlds called 'anandāḥ' (without delights)." The Mahābhārata (Anuśāsana 77. 5-6) echoes the very words of the Kaṭhopaniṣad. In the Anuśāsana-parva 66. 53²⁰⁵⁵ it is said that one should not bestow on a brāhmaṇa a cow which is lean or is without her calf, which is barren and diseased, which is wanting in a limb or is exhausted. Hemādri (Dāna, pp. 448-449) quotes this and other passages of similar import that state that the man who makes a gift of such a useless cow enters into the darkness of hell.