Vedic Mythology c7.s3.2

c7.s3.2

B. The Cow. — Owing to its great utility on earth, the cow naturally enters largely into the conceptions of Vedic mythology. The beams of Dawn are personified as cows⁵, which draw her car (p. 47). The rain-cloud is personified as a cow, the mother of a (lightning) calf (pp. 10. 12). This cloud-cow is individualized as Pṛśni⁶, the mother of the Maruts (VS. 2, 16), her milk (6, 48²²) and udder being several times referred to (cp. p. 125). The bountiful clouds are doubtless the prototypes of the many-coloured cows which yield all desires (*kāmadughā*) in the heaven of the Blest (AV. 4, 34⁸) and which are the forerunners of the Cow of Plenty (*kāmaduh*) so often mentioned in post-Vedic poetry⁷. Iḍā, the personification of the offering of milk and butter, has a tendency to be regarded as a cow (p. 124). Aditi also is sometimes spoken of as a cow (p. 122). The gods are sometimes called cow-born, *gojātāḥ*. The most frequent application of the cow is, however, in the myth of the kine released from the rock by Indra (pp. 59. 61).