An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s1.433.1

c5.s1.433.1

from that time began always to make gifts of kine and to support himself on grains of barley and on cow-dung as his food and drink, and he began to sleep from that day on the bare earth, and gave up the practice of harnessing kine to his vehicles, and used cars drawn by horses (XIII, 76). Vaiçampāyana continued: 'Asked by Yudhishṭhira, Bhishma once more went into detail on the merits attaching to the gift of kine: a Kapilā cow is the best of all kine; Yudhishṭhira asked why; Bhishma said he had heard old men tell the following story: In days of yore Brahmán commanded Daksha to create living creatures; Daksha, in the first instance, created food; he drank amṛta, a fragrant eructation came out, and gave birth to the cow Surabhi, whose daughters came to be regarded as the mothers of the world; they were all Kapilās; some froth from the calves fell upon the head of Mahādeva, who, filled with wrath, turned his third eye towards them, which produced various complexions in them; some escaped to the region of Soma and retained their colour. Daksha informed Çiva that this froth was amṛta and not impure; Candramas (the Moon), after drinking the amṛta, pours it out again; but it is not, on that account, regarded as impure. Daksha then presented Mahādeva with a bull and certain kine; Mahādeva was gratified and made that bull his vehicle, and after the form of that bull adopted the device on his standard;