Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1881

c7.1881

2) *Three different names.* This sacred cow is sometimes called “Kāmadhenu”, at other times, “Surabhi” and also “Nandinī”. They are not three different cows, as some people suppose. See Bhāṣā Bhārata, Aranya Parva Chapter 9, Verses 7 and 17. There Surabhi and Kāmadhenu are names used for referring to the same cow. Again, in the Bhāṣā Bhārata, Ādi Parva, Chapter 99, Verse 14, we find the name Nandinī applied to Kāmadhenu. Thus we may conclude that Kāmadhenu had two other names, viz. Surabhi and Nandinī. But since the term “Surabhirgavī” occurs in Amarakośa, it follows that even ordinary cows may be called “Surabhi”.