Kamadhenu - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the album by Merzbow
Merzbow
is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...

see Kamadhenu (album)
Kamadhenu (album)
Kamadhenu is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It is the first volume of the Merzcow trilogy. It is limited to 300 copies in a Digipak....

Kamadhenu ( kaːməˈd̪ʱeːnʊ ), also known as Surabhi , is a divine bovine-goddess described in Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology

Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...

as the mother of all cows. She is a miraculous "cow of plenty" who provides her owner whatever he desires and is often portrayed as the mother of other cattle as well as the eleven Rudras
Rudras
Rudras are forms and followers of the god Rudra-Shiva and make eleven of the Thirty-three gods in the Hindu pantheon. They are at times identified with the Maruts - sons of Rudra; while at other times, considered distinct from them.-Birth and names:...

. In iconography, she is generally depicted as a white cow with a female head and breasts or as a white cow containing various deities within her body. All cows are venerated in Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

as the earthly embodiment of the Kamadhenu. As such, Kamadhenu is not worshipped independently as a goddess, and temples are not dedicated to her honor alone; rather, she is honored by the veneration of cows in general throughout the observant Hindu population.

Hindu scriptures provide diverse accounts of the birth of Kamadhenu. While some narrate that she emerged from the churning of the cosmic ocean

Samudra manthan

In Hinduism, Samudra manthan or Ksheera Sagara Mathanam, Churning of the Ocean of Milk is one of the most famous episodes in the Puranas...

, others describe her as the daughter of the creator god Daksha

Daksha

In Hinduism, Daksha, "the skilled one", is an ancient creator god, one of the Prajapatis, the Rishis and the Adityas. Daksha is said to be the son of Aditi and Brahma...

, and as the wife of the sage Kashyapa. Still other scriptures narrate that Kamadhenu was in the possession of either Jamadagni

Jamadagni

Jamadagni is one of the Saptarishis in the seventh, i.e. the present Manvantara. He was a descendant of the sage Bhrigu, one of the Prajapatis created by Brahma, the God of Creation...

or Vasistha

Vasistha

Vashist in the seventh, i.e the present Manvantara, and the Rajpurohit / Rajguru of the Suryavansha or Solar Dynasty. He was the mānasaputra of Brahma. He had in his possession the divine cow Kamadhenu, and Nandini her child, who could grant anything to their owners...

(both ancient sages), and that kings who tried to steal her from the sage ultimately faced dire consequences for their actions. Kamadhenu plays the important role of providing milk and milk products to be used in her sage-master's oblations; she is also capable of producing fierce warriors to protect him. In addition to dwelling in the sage's hermitage, she is also described as dwelling in Goloka

Goloka

Goloka is the eternal abode of Krishna, Svayam bhagavan according to some Vaishnava schools, including Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the Swaminarayan Sampraday....

- the realm of the cows - and Patala

Patala

Patala is a town and a nagar panchayat in Ghaziabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.-Demographics: India census, Patala had a population of 9730. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Patala has an average literacy rate of 61%, higher than the national average of...

, the netherworld.

Names and epithets

Kamadhenu is often addressed by the proper name Surabhi, which is also used as a synonym for an ordinary cow. Professor Jacobi considers the name Surabhi—"the fragrant one"—to have originated from the peculiar smell of cows. According to the Monier Williams

Monier Monier-Williams

Sir Monier Monier-Williams, KCIE was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England...

Sanskrit–English Dictionary (1899), Surabhi means fragrant, charming, pleasing, as well as cow and earth. It can specifically refer to the divine cow Kamadhenu, the mother of cattle who is also sometimes described as a Matrika ("mother") goddess. Other proper names attributed to Kamadhenu are Sabala—"the spotted one"—and Kapila—"the red one".

The epithets "Kamadhenu", "Kamaduh" (कामदुह्) and "Kamaduha" (कामदुहा) literally mean the cow "from whom all that is desired is drawn"—"the cow of plenty". In the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

and Devi Bhagavata Purana, in the context of the birth of Bhishma

Bhishma

Bhishma or Bheeshma or Devavrata or 'Bhishma Pitamah' was the eighth son of Kuru King Shantanu who was blessed with wish-long life and had sworn to serve the ruling Kuru king. He was one of the most prominent characters of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. He was the grand uncle of both the...

, the cow Nandini

Nandini

In Sanskrit, it means daughter.It is generally used as a first name for girls.The root, nand, refers to delight, pleasure, enjoyment. The Sanskrit word nadana...

is given the epithet Kamadhenu. In other instances, Nandini is described as the cow-daughter of Surabhi-Kamadhenu. The scholar Vettam Mani

Vettam Mani

Vettam Mani or Vettom Mani was an eminent scholar and writer. His most famous work is the Purāņic Encyclopedia which is a monumental and exhaustive study of Indian Puranas, epics and allied literature of Hinduism...

considers Nandini and Surabhi to be synonyms of Kamadhenu.

Iconography and symbolism

According to Indologist Madeleine Biardeau

Madeleine Biardeau

Madeleine Biardeau was a prominent Indologist from France.- Early life :Madeleine Biardeau was born into a middle-class family of small entrepreneurs. She was educated at the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure of Sèvres, in 1943, where she studied philosophy...

, Kamadhenu or Kamaduh is the generic name of the sacred cow, who is regarded as the source of all prosperity in Hinduism. Kamadhenu is regarded as a form of Devi

Devi

Devī is the Sanskrit word for Goddess, used mostly in Hinduism, its related masculine term is deva. Devi is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect, which represents...

(the Hindu Divine Mother) and is closely related to the fertile Mother Earth (Prithvi

Prithvi

Prithvi is the sanskrit name for earth and its essence Prithivi Tattwa, in the form of a mother goddess or godmother. Prithvi is also called Dhra, Dharti, Dhrithri, meaning that which holds everything. As Prithvi Devi, she is one of two wives of Lord Vishnu. His other wife is Lakshmi. Prithvi is...

), who is often described as a cow in Sanskrit. The sacred cow denotes "purity and non-erotic fertility, ... sacrificing and motherly nature, [and] sustenance of human life".

Frederick M. Smith describes Kamadhenu as a "popular and enduring image in Indian art". All the gods are believed to reside in the body of Kamadhenu—the generic cow. Her four legs are the scriptural Vedas

Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....

; her horns are the triune gods Brahma

Brahma

Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...

(tip), Vishnu

Vishnu

Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....

(middle) and Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

(base); her eyes are the sun and moon gods, her shoulders the fire-god Agni

Agni

Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...

and the wind-god Vayu

Vayu

Vāyu is a primary Hindu deity, the Lord of the winds, the father of Bhima and the spiritual father of Lord Hanuman...

and her legs the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

. Kamadhenu is often depicted in this form in poster art.

Another representation of Kamadhenu shows her with the body of a white Zebu

Zebu

Zebu , sometimes known as humped cattle, indicus cattle, Cebu or Brahmin cattle are a type of domestic cattle originating in South Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent. They are characterised by a fatty hump on their shoulders, drooping ears and a large dewlap...

cow, crowned woman's head, colourful eagle wings and a peacock's tail. According to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...

, this form is influenced by the iconography of the Islamic Buraq

Buraq

Al-Burāq is a mythological steed, described as a creature from the heavens which transported the prophets. The most commonly told story is how in the 7th century, Al-Buraq carried the Islamic prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and back during the Isra and Mi'raj or "Night Journey", which is...

, who is portrayed with a horse's body, wings, and a woman's face. Contemporary poster art also portrays Kamadhenu in this form.

A cow, identified with Kamadhenu, is often depicted accompanying the god Dattatreya

Dattatreya

Dattatreya or Datta is a Hindu deity encompassing the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, collectively known as Trimurti. The name Dattatreya can be divided into two words - "Datta" and "Atreya" referring to the sage Atri, his physical father.Various Hindu sects worship him differently...

. In relation to the deity's iconography, she denotes the Brahminical aspect and Vaishnava connection of the deity contrasting with the accompanying dogs—symbolizing a non-Brahminical aspect. She also symbolizes the Panch Bhuta (the five classical elements) in the icon. Dattatreya is sometimes depicted holding the divine cow in one of his hands.

Birth and children

The Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

(Adi Parva

Adi Parva

Mahabharta Book 1 Adi Parva is a book about how the Mahabharata came to be narrated by Sauti to the assembled rishis at Naimisharanya. The recital of the Mahabharata at the Sarpasatra of Janamejaya by Vaishampayana at . The history of the Bharata race is told in detail and the parvan also traces...

book) records that Kamadhenu-Surabhi rose from the churning of the cosmic ocean (Samudra manthan
Samudra manthan
In Hinduism, Samudra manthan or Ksheera Sagara Mathanam, Churning of the Ocean of Milk is one of the most famous episodes in the Puranas...

) by the gods and demons to acquire Amrita
Amrita
Amrit is a Sanskrit word that literally means "immortality", and is often referred to in texts as nectar. The word's earliest occurrence is in the Rigveda where it is one of several synonyms of soma, the drink which confers immortality upon the gods. It is related etymologically to the Greek...

(ambrosia, elixir of life). As such, she is regarded the offspring of the gods and demons, created when they churned the cosmic milk ocean and then gifted to the Saptarishi, the seven great seers. She was ordered by the creator-god Brahma

Brahma

to give milk, and supply it and ghee
Ghee
Ghee is a class of clarified butter that originated in South Asia and is commonly used in South Asian cuisine....

("clarified butter") for ritual fire-sacrifices.

The Anushasana Parva book of the epic narrates that Surabhi was born from the belch of "the creator" (Prajapati
Prajapati
In Hinduism, Prajapati "lord of creatures" is a Hindu deity presiding over procreation, and protector of life. He appears as a creator deity or supreme God Viswakarma Vedic deities in RV 10 and in Brahmana literature...

) Daksha

Daksha

In Hinduism, Daksha, "the skilled one", is an ancient creator god, one of the Prajapatis, the Rishis and the Adityas. Daksha is said to be the son of Aditi and Brahma...

after he drank the Amrita that rose from the Samudra manthan. Further, Surabhi gave birth to many golden cows called Kapila cows, who were called the mothers of the world. The Satapatha Brahmana also tells a similar tale: Prajapati created Surabhi from his breath. The Udyoga Parva
Udyoga Parva
The Udyoga Parva is the fifth Parva of the Mahabharata, abounding with incidents appertaining to war and peace. It is the Book of the effort in preparations for war ....

Book of the Mahabharata narrates that the creator-god Brahma

Brahma

drank so much Amrita that he vomited some of it, from which emerged Surabhi.

According to the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

, Surabhi is the daughter of sage Kashyapa and his wife Krodhavasa, the daughter of Daksha

Daksha

In Hinduism, Daksha, "the skilled one", is an ancient creator god, one of the Prajapatis, the Rishis and the Adityas. Daksha is said to be the son of Aditi and Brahma...

. Her daughters Rohini and Gandharvi are the mothers of cattle and horses respectively. Still, it is Surabhi who is described as the mother of all cows in the text. However in the Puranas
Puranas
The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...

like Vishnu Purana
Vishnu Purana
The Vishnu Purana is a religious Hindu text and one of the eighteen Mahapuranas. It is considered one of the most important Puranas and has been given the name Puranaratna...

and Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...

, Surabhi is described as the daughter of Daksha and the wife of Kashyapa, as well as the mother of cows and buffaloes.

The Matsya Purana
Matsya Purana
Matsya Purana is the sixteenth purana of the Hindu scriptures. During the period of mahapralaya, Lord Vishnu had taken Matsya Avatar to save the seeds of all lives and Manu...

notes two conflicting descriptions of Surabhi. In one chapter, it describes Surabhi as the consort of Brahma

Brahma

and their union produced the cow Yogishvari, the eleven Rudras

Rudras

Rudras are forms and followers of the god Rudra-Shiva and make eleven of the Thirty-three gods in the Hindu pantheon. They are at times identified with the Maruts - sons of Rudra; while at other times, considered distinct from them.-Birth and names:...

, "lower animals", goats, swans and "high class drugs". She is then described as the mother of cows and quadrupeds. In another instance, she is described as a daughter of Daksha, wife of Kashyapa and the mother of cows. The Harivamsa
Harivamsa
The Harivamsha is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 verses, mostly in metre. The text is also known as . This text is believed as a khila to the Mahabharata and is traditionally ascribed to Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa...

, an appendix of the Mahabharata, calls Surabhi the mother of Amrita

Amrita

Amrit is a Sanskrit word that literally means "immortality", and is often referred to in texts as nectar. The word's earliest occurrence is in the Rigveda where it is one of several synonyms of soma, the drink which confers immortality upon the gods. It is related etymologically to the Greek...

(ambrosia), Brahmin

Brahmin

Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

s, cows and Rudras.

The Devi Bhagavata Purana narrates that Krishna

Krishna

Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

and his lover Radha

Radha

Radha , also called Radhika, Radharani and Radhikarani, is the childhood friend and lover of Krishna in the Bhagavata Purana, and the Gita Govinda of the Vaisnava traditions of Hinduism...

were enjoying dalliance, when they thirsted for milk. So, Krishna created a cow called Surabhi and a calf called Manoratha from the left side of his body, and milked the cow. When drinking the milk, the milk pot fell on the ground and broke, spilling the milk, which became the Kshirasagara, the cosmic milk ocean. Numerous cows then emerged from the pores of Surabhi's skin and were presented to the cowherd-companions (Gopas) of Krishna by him. Then Krishna worshipped Surabhi and decreed that she—a cow, the giver of milk and prosperity—be worshipped at Diwali

Diwali

Diwali or DeepavaliThe name of the festival in various regional languages include:, , , , , , , , , , , , , popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-December for different reasons...

on Bali Pratipada day.

Various other scriptural references describe Surabhi as the mother of the Rudras including Nirrti

Nirrti

In Hinduism, ' is the goddess of death and corruption, one of the dikpāla , representing the southwest . The name has the meaning of "absence of ṛta, lawless"...

(Kashyapa being the father), the cow Nandini

Nandini

In Sanskrit, it means daughter.It is generally used as a first name for girls.The root, nand, refers to delight, pleasure, enjoyment. The Sanskrit word nadana...

and even the serpent-people nāga

Naga

Naga or NAGA may refer to:* Nāga, a group of serpent deities in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.-People:* Nayan / Nayar/Nair people of Kerala Society* Naga people, a diverse ethnic identity in Northeast India...

s. The Mahabharata also makes a passing reference to Surabhi as the mother of Nandini (literally "daughter") in the context of the birth of Bhishma

Bhishma

, an incarnation of a Vasu deity. Nandini, like her mother, is a "cow of plenty" or Kamadhenu, and resides with sage Vasistha. Nandini is stolen by the divine Vasus and thus cursed by the sage to be born on the earth. The Raghuvamsa
Raghuvamsa
Raghuwamsa or Raghu race is a legendary lineage of warrior kings tracing its ancestry to the Hindu solar deity Surya. Kalidasa's famous work, Raghuvaṃśa depicts the legend of this race. The progenitor of the lineage was Raghu, son of the emperor Dileepa. Raghu was father of Aja, and thus...

of Kalidasa

Kalidasa

Kālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language...

mentions that king Dilip

Dilipa

Dilipa is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae.-External links:* at funit.fi...

—an ancestor of god Rama

Rama

Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

—once passed by Kamadhenu-Surabhi, but failed to pay respects to her, thus incurring the wrath of the divine cow, who cursed the king to go childless. So, since Kamadhenu had gone to Patala, the guru of Dilip, Vasistha advised the king to serve Nandini, Kamadhenu's daughter who was in the hermitage. The king and his wife propitiated Nandini, who neutralized her mother's curse and blessed the king to have a son, who was named Raghu

Raghu

The Great Emperor Raghu was a valorous king of the Ikshvaku dynasty. According to the Raghuvamsha, he was born to king Dilipa and his queen Sudakshina. His name in Sanskrit means the fast one, deriving from Raghu's chariot driving abilities. So celebrated were the exploits of Raghu, that his...

.

In the Ramayana, Surabhi is described to be distressed by the treatment of her sons—the oxen—in fields. Her tears are considered a bad omen for the gods by Indra

Indra

' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...

, the god-king of heaven. The Vana Parva
Vana Parva
Mahabharta Book 3 Vana Parva is the book in the Mahabharata that discusses the twelve-year exile of the Pandavas in the forest....

book of the Mahbharata also narrates a similar instance: Surabhi cries about the plight of her son—a bullock, who is overworked and beaten by his peasant-master. Indra, moved by Surabhi's tears, rains to stop the ploughing of the tormented bullock.

Wealth and protector of the Brahmin

In Hindu mythology, Kamadhenu is often associated with the Brahmin

Brahmin

Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

("priest class" including sages), whose wealth she symbolizes. Cow's milk and its derivatives such as ghee

Ghee

Ghee is a class of clarified butter that originated in South Asia and is commonly used in South Asian cuisine....

(clarified butter) are integral parts of Vedic fire sacrifices, which are conducted by Brahmin priests; thus the mythical Kamadhenu is sometimes also referred to the Homadhenu—the cow from whom oblations are drawn. Moreover, the cow also offers the Brahmin—who is prohibited to fight—protection against abusive kings who try to harm them. As a goddess, she becomes a warrior, creating armies to protect her master and herself.

Jamadagni's cow
A legend narrates that the sacrificial cow Kamadhenu resided with sage Jamadagni

Jamadagni

Jamadagni is one of the Saptarishis in the seventh, i.e. the present Manvantara. He was a descendant of the sage Bhrigu, one of the Prajapatis created by Brahma, the God of Creation...

. The earliest version of the legend, which appears in the epic Mahabharata

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

, narrates that the thousand-armed Haihaya king, Kartavirya Arjuna

Kartavirya Arjuna

Kartavirya Arjuna , was a legendary king of an ancient kingdom during the Ramayana period with capital at Mahishamati which is on the banks of Narmada River in the current state of Madhya Pradesh. Kartavirya was son of Kritavirya, king of the Haihayas. This is his patronymic, by which he is best...

, destroyed Jamadagni's hermitage and captured the calf of Kamadhenu. To retrieve the calf, Jamadagni's son Parashurama

Parashurama

Parashurama , is the sixth avatar of Vishnu and belongs to the treta yuga, and is the son of a Brahmin father Jamadagni and mother Renuka. He is considered one of the seven immortal human. He received an axe after undertaking a terrible penance to please Shiva, from whom he learned the methods of...

slew the king, whose sons in turn killed Jamadagni. Parashurama then destroyed the kshatriya
Kshatriya
*For the Bollywood film of the same name see Kshatriya Kshatriya or Kashtriya, meaning warrior, is one of the four varnas in Hinduism...

("warrior") race 21 times and his father is resurrected by divine grace. Similar accounts of the abduction of the celestial cow or her calf, the killing of Jamadagni by Kartavirya Arjuna, and the revenge of Parashurama resulting in the death of Kartavirya Arjuna, exist in other texts. The Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...

mentions that the king abducted Kamadhenu as well as her calf and Parashurama defeated the king and returned the kine to his father. The Padma Purana
Padma Purana
Padma Purana , one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text, is divided into five parts.In the first part of the text, sage Pulastya explains to Bhishma about religion and the essence of the religion. The second part describes in detail Prithvi...

mentions that when Kartavirya Arjuna tried to capture her, Kamadhenu, by her own power, defeated him and his army and flew off to heaven; the enraged king then killed Jamadagni.

In the Brahmanda Purana
Brahmanda Purana
The Brahmanda Purana is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts and has been assigned the eighteenth place in almost all the lists of the Puranas.Brahma in Sanskrit means "the biggest", anda/andam means globe...

, Kamadhenu creates a great city by her power to accommodate Kartavirya Arjuna's army, when they visit Jamadagni's hermitage. On returning to his kingdom, Kartavirya Arjuna's minister, Chandragupta, persuades him to capture the divine cow. The minister returns to the hermitage and tries to convince the sage to give away the cow, but to no avail, so he tries to snatch Kamadhenu with force. In the ensuing fight, the sage is killed, but Kamadhenu escapes to the sky and Chandragupta takes her calf with him instead. The Brahmanda Purana narrates this Kamadhenu Sushila was gifted to Jamadagni by the Kamadhenu-Surabhi, who governs in Goloka

Goloka

Goloka is the eternal abode of Krishna, Svayam bhagavan according to some Vaishnava schools, including Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the Swaminarayan Sampraday....

.

The Brahma Vaivarta Purana
Brahma Vaivarta Purana
Brahma Vaivarta Purana, one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text, is divided into four parts. First part describes the creation of the universe and all beings, the second part relates to description and histories of different goddesses...

narrates that the celestial cow – called Kapila here – produces various weapons and an army to aid Jamadagni defeat the king's army, who had come to seize her. When the king himself challenged Jamadagni for battle, Kapila instructed her master in martial arts. Jamadagni led the army created by Kapila and defeated the king and his army several times; each time sparing the life of the king. Finally, with the aid of a divine spear granted to him by the god Dattatreya

Dattatreya

, the king killed Jamadagni.

Vasistha's cow

The Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

presents a similar account about Kamadhenu, however, here the sage is Vasistha

Vasistha

and the king is Vishwamitra. Once, king Vishwamitra with his army arrived at the hermitage of sage Vashistha. The sage welcomed him and offered a huge banquet – to the army – that was produced by Sabala – as Kamadhenu is called in the text. The astonished king asked the sage to part with Sabala and instead offered thousand of ordinary cows, elephants, horses and jewels in return. However, the sage refused to part with Sabala, who was necessary for the performance of the sacred rituals and charity by the sage. Agitated, Vishwamitra seized Sabala by force, but she returned to her master, fighting the king's men. She hinted Vashistha to order her to destroy the king's army and the sage followed her wish. Intensely, she produced Pahlava warriors, who were slain by Vishwamita's army. So she produced warriors of Shaka

Shakya

Shakya was an ancient janapada of India in the 1st millennium BCE. In Buddhist texts the Shakyas, the inhabitants of Shakya janapada, are mentioned as a clan of Gotama gotra....

-Yavana lineage. From her mouth, emerged the Kambhoja

Kambojas

The Kambojas were a kshatriya tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature.They were an Indo-Iranian tribe situated at the boundary of the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians, and appear to have moved from the Iranian into the Indo-Aryan sphere over time.The Kambojas...

s, from her udder

Udder

An udder is an organ formed of the mammary glands of female quadruped mammals, especially ruminants such as cattle, goats, sheep and deer. The udder is a single mass hanging beneath the animal, consisting of pairs of mammary glands...

Barvaras, from her hind Yavanas and Shakas, and from pores on her skin, Harita

Harita

Harit/Harita was an ancient and great prince of the Suryavansha dynasty, best known because he is the ancestor of the Brahmin lineage, Harita gotra....

s, Kirata

Kirata

The Kirāta is a generic term in Sanskrit literature for people who lived in the mountains, particularly in the Himalayas and North-East India and who are postulated to have been Mongoloid in origin. It has been theorized that the word Kirata- or Kirati- means people with lion nature. It is derived...

s and other foreign warriors. Together, the army of Sabala killed Vishwamitra's army and all his sons. This event led to a great rivalry between Vashistha and Vishwamitra, who renounced his kingdom and became a great sage to defeat Vashistha.

Abodes

Kamadhenu-Surabhi's residence varies depending on different scriptures. The Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata tells how she was given the ownership of Goloka

Goloka

Goloka is the eternal abode of Krishna, Svayam bhagavan according to some Vaishnava schools, including Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the Swaminarayan Sampraday....

, the cow-heaven located above the three worlds (heaven, earth and netherworld): the daughter of Daksha, Surabhi went to Mount Kailash

Mount Kailash

Mount Kailash is a peak in the Gangdisê Mountains, which are part of the Himalayas in Tibet...

and worshipped Brahma for 10,000 years. The pleased god conferred goddess-hood on the cow and decreed that all people would worship her and her children – cows. He also gave her a world called Goloka, while her daughters would reside on earth among humans.

In one instance in the Ramayana, Surabhi is described to live in the city of Varuna

Varuna

In Vedic religion, Varuna is a god of the sky, of water and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld...

– the Lord of oceans – which is situated below the earth in Patala

Patala

(the netherworld). Her flowing sweet milk is said to form Kshiroda or the Kshirasagara, the cosmic milk ocean. In the Udyoga Parva
Udyoga Parva
The Udyoga Parva is the fifth Parva of the Mahabharata, abounding with incidents appertaining to war and peace. It is the Book of the effort in preparations for war ....

book of the Mahabharata, this milk is said to be of six flavours and has the essence of all the best things of the earth. The Udyoga Parva specifies that Surabhi inhabits the lowest realm of Patala, known as Rasatala, has for daughters – the Dikpalis – the guardian cow goddesses of the heavenly quarters: Saurabhi in the east, Harhsika in the south, Subhadra in the west and Dhenu in the north.

Apart from Goloka and Patala, Kamadhenu is also described as residing in the hermitages of the sages Jamadagni and Vasistha. Scholar Mani explains the contradicting stories of Kamadhenu's birth and presence in the processions of many gods and sages by stating that while there could be more than one Kamadhenu, all of them are incarnations of the original Kamadhenu, the mother of cows.

Other scriptural references

The Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...

, a discourse by the god Krishna in the Mahabharata, twice refers to Kamadhenu as Kamadhuk. In verse 3.10, Krishna makes a reference to Kamadhuk while conveying that for doing one's duty, one would get the milk of one's desires. In verse 10.28, when Krishna declares to the source of the universe, he proclaims that among cows, he is Kamadhuk.

In the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, the god Shiva

Shiva

is described as having cast a curse on Surabhi. This curse is interpreted as a reference to the following legend: Once, when the gods Brahma and Vishnu were fighting over who was superior, a fiery pillar—linga (symbol of Shiva)—emerged before them. It was that decided whoever found the end of this pillar was superior. Brahma flew to the skies to try to find the top of the pillar, but failed. So Brahma forced Surabhi (in some versions, Surabhi instead suggested that Brahma should lie) to falsely testify to Vishnu that Brahma had seen the top of the linga; Shiva punished Surabhi by putting a curse on her so that her bovine offspring would have to eat unholy substances. This tale appears in the Skanda Purana
Skanda Purana
The Skanda Purana is the largest Mahapurana, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text is devoted mainly to the lilas of Kartikeya , a son of Shiva and Parvati. It also contains a number of legends about Shiva, and the holy places associated with him...

.

Worship

Some temples and houses have images of Kamadhenu, which are worshipped. However, she has never had a worship cult dedicated to her and does not have any temples where she is worshipped as the chief deity. In Monier-Williams's words: "It is rather the living animal [the cow] which is the perpetual object of the object". Cows are often fed outside temples and worshipped regularly on all Fridays and on special occasions. Every cow to "a pious Hindu" is regarded as an Avatar

Avatar

In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....

(earthly embodiment) of the divine Kamadhenu.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.