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.s1.433.3

c5.s1.433.3

Yudhishṭhira asked what is the most sacred of all sacred things in the world, and which is the highest of all sanctifying objects. Bhishma said: Kine are the most excellent of all objects, etc.; Māndhātr, etc. (λ), always used to give away kine in thousands, and have attained to such regions as are unattainable over the gods; he quoted a discourse delivered of old. Çuka (having finished his morning observances) asked R. Vyāsa what is the foremost of all sacrifices, and was instructed by him, who praised kine and described the region of kine which the blessed only attain; Aps. always entertain there; those regions that have for their lords Pūshan and the Maruts are attained to by givers of kine; they attain to wealth like that of Varuṇa himself; one should daily recite these mantras (μ) declared by Prajāpati himself. [In this section *Yudhishṭhira* has repeatedly been addressed instead of *Çuka*.] The man who, for a month, subsists upon the gruel of barley picked up every day from cow-dung, becomes free of sins as grave as the slaughter of a brahman: after their defeat at the hands of Dai., the gods practised this penance, owing to which they regained their position; the efficaciousness of the *Gomatī mantras*.—*Bhīshma* said: From that time *Çuka* began to worship kine every day (XIII, 81). *Yudhishṭhira* asked how it is that the dung of the cow is possessed of *Çrī*.