Anushasanika Parva — The mysteries of the gifts of kine

Vaishampayana said King Yudhishthira gifted with humility, once again asked the royal son of Shantanu on the subject of gifts of kine in full.

The king said Do you, O Bharata, once more describe to me in full merits of giving away kine. Indeed, O hero, I have not been satiated with hearing your nectarlike words.

Vaishampayana said Thus accosted by king Yudhishthira the just, Shantanu's son began to describe to him once again, in full, the merits of the gift of kine.

Bhishma said By giving to a Brahmana a cow having a calf, gifted with docility and other virtues, young in years and covered round with a piece of cloth, one is purged of all his sins.

There are many regions which have no sun. One who makes the gift of a cow has not to go there.

That man, however, who gives to a Brahmana a cow that cannot drink or eat, that has her milk dried up, that has weakened senses and that is diseased and overcome with decrepitude, and that may, therefore, be compared to a tank whose water has been dried upindeed, the man who gives such cow to a Brahmana and thereby inflicts only pain and disappointment upon him, has certainly to enter into dark Hell.

That cow which is wrathful and vicious, or diseased, or weak, or which has been brought without the price agreed upon having been paid, or which would only afflict the twiceborn recipient with distress and disappointment, should never be given. The regions such a man may acquire would not give him any happiness or energy.

Only such kine as are strong, gifted with good behaviour, young in years, and possessed of odour, are highly spoken of by all. Indeed, as Ganga is the foremost of all rivers, so is a Kapila cow the foremost of all kine.

Yudhishthira said Why, O grandfather, do the righteous highly speak of the gift of a Kapila cow when all good kine that are given away should be considered as equal? O you of great power, I wish to hear what the superiority is of a Kapila cow. You are indeed, competent to discourse to me on this subject.

Bhishma said I have, O son, heard old men recite this history about the circumstances under which the Kapila cow was created. I shall recite that old history to you.

Formerly the Selfcreate Brahman commanded the Rishi Daksha, saying, Do you create living creatures, For doing good to creatures, Daksha, first of all created food.

As the deities live upon nectar, so all living creatures, O powerful one, live upon the food assigned by Daksha.

Among all objects mobile and immobile, the mobile are superior. Among mobile creatures, Brahmanas are superior. The sacrifices are all set upon them.

It is by sacrifice that Soma is got. Sacrifice has been fixed upon kine. The gods become pleased through sacrifices. The means of livelihood were created first, creatures came next.

As soon as creatures were born, they began to cry aloud for food. All of them then approached their creator who was to give them food, like children approaching their parents.

Approved of the desire of all his creatures, the holy lord of all creatures, viz., Daksha, for the sake of his creatures, himself drank a quantity of nectar.

He became pleased with the nectar, he drank and thereupon an eructation came out, spreading an excellent odour all around. That cruciation, Daksha saw gave birth to a cow which he named Surabhi. This Surabhi was thus a daughter of his, that had come out of his inouth.

That cow called Surabhi gave birth to a number of daughters who became the mothers of the world. They were goldhued, and were all Kapilas. They were the means of livelihood for all crcatures.

As those kine, whose complexion resembled that of nectar, began to pour milk, the forth of that inilk arose and began to spread on all sides as when the waves of a running river dashing against one another, sufficient froth is produced that spreads on all sides.

Some of that froth fell, from the mouths of the calves that were sucking, upon the head of Mahadeva who was then sitting on the Earth. The powerful Mahadeva thereupon, stricken with anger, looked at those kine.

With that third eye of his which adorns his forehead, he seemed to burn those kine as he espied them. Like the Sun living masses of clouds with various colours, the energy that, came out from the third eye of Mahadeva produced, O king, various complexions in those kine. Those amongst them, however, which succeeded in escaping from the looks of Mahadeva by entering the region of Soma, remained of the same colour with which they were born, for no change was produced in their colour. Seeing that Mahadeva had become highly wroth, Daksha, the lord of all creatures, addressed him, saying, You have, O great deity, been drenched with nectar. The milk or the froth that escapes from the mouths of calves sucking their dams is never considered as impure. The Moon, after drinking the nectar, pours it once more. It is not, therefore, regarded as impure.

Likewise, the milk that these kine give, being born of nectar, should not be considered as impure. The wind can never become impure. Fire can never become impure. Gold can never become impure. The Ocean can never become impure.

The Nectar, even when drunk by the gods, can never become impure. Likewise, the milk of a cow, even when her udders are sucked by her calf, can never become impure. These kine will support all these worlds with the milk they will give and the clarified butter that will be inade from it.

All creatures wish to enjoy the sacred wealth, at one with nectar, that kine possess. Having said these words, the lord of creatures, Daksha, made a present to Mahadeva of a bull with certain kine.

Daksha pleased Rudra, O Bharata, with that present. Mahadeva, thus pleased, made that bull his career, And it was after the form of that bull that Mahadeva adopted the emblem on the standard floating on his battlecar. Therefore it is that Rudra came to be known as the bullbannered deity.

It was on that occasion also that the celestials, in a body, made Mahadeva the lord of animals. Indeed, the great Rudra became the Master of kine and is named as the bullemblemed deity.

Hence, O king, the gift of kine is considered as primarily desirable of Kapila kine which are endued with great energy and possessed of unchanged colour.

Thus are kine the foremost of all creatures in the world. It is from them that the food of all the worlds has emanated. They have Rudra for their lord. They yield (nectar) in the form of milk. They are auspicious and sacred, and grantors of every wish and givers of life. A person by making a gift of a cow is considered as making a gift of every article that is to be enjoyed by men.

That who, wishing to acquire prosperity, reads with a pure heart and body these Verses on the origin of kine, becomes purged of all his sins and acquires prosperity and children and wealth and animals.

man He who makes a gift of a cow. O king, always succeeds in winning the merits of gifts of Havya and Kavya, of the offer of oblations of water to the departed Manes, of religious acts whose performance brings peace and happiness, of the gift of vehicles and cloths, and of cherishing of children and the old.

Vaishampayana said Hearing these words of his grandfather, Pritha's son, viz., the royal Yudhishthira of Ajamidha's race, uniting with his brothers, began to make gifts of both bulls and kine of different colours to foremost of Brahmanas.

Indeed, for getting regions of felicity in the next, and acquiring great fame, king Yudhishthira celebrated many sacrifices and, as sacrificial presents, gave away hundreds of thousands of kine to such Brahmanas.