Everyone has heard that a cow is a sacred animal in India. But why not everyone knows how this status is expressed in life. Meanwhile, the attitude of the Indians towards cows is an interesting phenomenon. Of course, these animals are not killed, even if they are terminally ill or very old. Literally, there is no worship of a cow in Indian culture. Attitude towards her is more like respect and gratitude than idolatry.
Is a cow revered only in India?
Not only the culture and religion of India are distinguished by a special attitude towards cows. All people who professed Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism revered these animals. They were respected in cultures that were not related to these religions.
Respect for animals was experienced by the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire. It was in the last state that the steady speech expression โsacred cowโ arose. It characterizes immunity and is widespread in everyday life to this day.
What does the cow represent for the Hindus?
The sacred Indian cow is the personification of goodness and sacrifice without any self-interest. This animal in Hinduism is associated with purity, kindness, holiness, prosperity.
She is perceived as a "mother figure." And the bull represents the masculine beginning. Animals are identified with the "higher castes" - the brahmanas. This is a priest, a clergyman. A person belonging to the brahmana caste is inviolable in every sense. Accordingly, sacred and identifiable with this status - temple utensils, sacrifices to the gods and, of course, cows.
What deities do Indians associate cows with?
Indian cow is associated with many deities. For example, animals accompany the devas. These are the lesser deities opposed to asuras. But they are also associated with higher deities.
For example, Shiva is often portrayed as riding a bull. Indra is closely associated with a special sacred cow that fulfills desires. She herself is actually a younger deity. A fulfilling, sacred Indian cow is Kamadhenu. The animals also accompanied Krsna. This god, according to legend, spent his youth engaged in shepherding. He grazed calves near Vrindavana.
How did authorities treat cows before? What is your attitude now?
Historically, the Indian cow has always been protected by law. For example, in ancient times, killing a clergyman in India in severity was similar to killing this animal. In the first millennium, when the natives of the Gupta dynasty ruled, retribution for killing a cow in the form of execution was legislated.
In modern days, the legal status of animals has been preserved in Nepal and India. Today, cows, like millennia ago, are under the supervision and protection of public authorities. Of course, the mentality of the locals has endless respect for them. It is expressed in all areas of life. For example, Hindu professors do not eat beef under any circumstances.
How long have cows been honored in India?
The Vedic religion, which is the first, germinal form of such a belief system as Brahmanism, and which in fact was the basis for Hinduism, is inconceivable without the image of a cow. The ancient sages, for example, Gautama and Vasishtha, forbade to harm them, much less eat their flesh. The cow of Nandini lived in the Vasishtha ashram. This animal gave food to everyone who needed it, and also fulfilled secret desires deeply hidden in human hearts.
The mathematician and philosopher Baudhayana (the one who first derived the number Pi), in addition to the sciences, was also involved in the compilation of acts regulating both secular life and religious rites. The collections of legislative acts he compiled detail the types of punishments for people who dare harm these animals. An Indian scientist supposedly lived in the VI century, respectively, at that time cows were already universally revered in India.
Have animals ever been euthanized?
In the early stages of Vedism, during its formation, there was a custom of cow sacrifice. However, to call this act killing is rather difficult.
The right to sacrifice sacred animals on the altar of the gods was reserved only to selected, especially respected brahmanas. Very old, ill-feeling and seriously ill animals were sacrificed to the gods. Moreover, the meaning of this action was to help the cow reborn to life in a new body.
By the sixth century, this rite was no longer held. Any killing, including on the altar, was a crime.
Why was the cow revered?
The Indian cow is noted in all sacred texts, in mythology and various chronicles. For example, the texts of the Rig Veda describe herds of tens of thousands of heads. They are compared with the deities of the rivers and are a symbol of wealth. There are texts describing the process of bottling milk in Saraswati. Many legends represent Aditi, that is, the supreme, maternal power of nature in the form of a cow. In the so-called Puranic texts in this form, earthly deities appear.
Why, then, did people in India honor them from the past, and not from any other animals? For example, other sacred animals, zebu, are not always venerated. Photos of cows, by the way, still adorn the walls of the offices of many officials in India. The answer to this question lies in the combination of climate and basic occupations of people at the dawn of the formation of civilization.
For centuries, agriculture has been a priority on the Indian continent. Following him came gathering, poultry and livestock. Due to the climate, heavy, long-digesting and poorly digested meat foods that provide energy and warm, were not suitable for human nutrition. But light dairy products, which are a source of animal proteins and calcium, so needed by the human body, have become an integral part of the diet.
In addition to milk products, which became the basis of people's nutrition on the Indian continent in ancient times, manure was also important. It was used not only as a fertilizer, at times increasing the volume and quality of the crop collected by people, but also as fuel. As fuel, manure is used in various Indian regions to this day.
The source of all these benefits was a cow. People felt gratitude to her as a nurse, were afraid to remain without this animal.
An important factor was the fact that the cow in ancient times was associated with a woman who kept the hearth and prepared food, giving birth to children. The bull, respectively, was a symbol of male strength and endurance.
For these reasons, it was the cow, and not any other farm animal, that entered the beliefs, mythology and culture of the Hindus.