Of Cows and Cultural Bridges.
Culture 101: The Animals of India!
As a freshman in the United States, I often faced questions: Do you own an elephant? Do snakes roam the streets? Do people eat monkey brains? (Thanks, Steven Spielberg!) What is the deal with cows?
Later, as a resident advisor in a large campus dorm, I was invited to participate in a multicultural panel for the residents. The panel comprised about 5 or 6 individuals representing diverse faiths and cultures, and approximately 20 curious resident students who turned up to listen, right after dinner.
I cannot assure you that I was in any way qualified to be on that panel, except for a quirk of the universe that had determined my faith and country of origin.
During the Q&A, a student asked, “Why are cows sacred?”
To be honest, I had never given a whole lot of thought to cows until that moment.
If I happened upon cows in the city or on our many summer trips through the Indian countryside, they may have been in my peripheral vision vaguely, like the sky, the fields, buildings and the homes.
As a kid, I heard stories of how cows were a favorite of a certain Hindu God. But did I actually spend any time during my childhood years wondering about cows? Nope!
Imagine then, my surprise when, in the first years of college in the United States, I met people wanting to know more about cows.
But on the panel that day, I tried to answer the question in real-time as best as I could: They are sacred because they are the beloved companions of a God Hindus revere.
A different student from the audience, dissatisfied with my lukewarm response, tried to answer the question: “Isn’t it because Hindus think their uncle may have been reincarnated as a cow?” Hmm.
I have another confession to make: Reincarnation is also one of those topics I hadn’t thought much about in the first 17 years of my existence on planet Earth.
Hindu Mythology
For context, stories of Hindu culture, embodied in the ancient troves of knowledge, have been orally handed down through the ages in India and reflect the trajectory of Joseph Campbell’s ‘The hero with a thousand faces.’
Most of these stories, I had heard orally from family, and some, I read in children’s comic books. In these adventures, princes lose their kingdoms and fight wars. Faithful women are deified, demons are killed. People can be cruel and the virtuous are always tested. Gods are born to save people from evil and to punish evildoers. Eventually, the good ones go to heaven.
The tales have enough intrigue, evil, fantasy, and drama to rival any modern-day TV series. Stories have backstories that are complex and need many ancestry trees to unravel.
As an aside, Facebook is spending billions researching and developing the multiverse. Instead, for a fraction of the cost, they should consider studying how, even today, multiverses coexist in India! Also, in the opinion of the traditionalists, the ancient Hindu texts have already proven that multiverses exist!
Past lives foreshadow current lives as a recurring theme. People are redeemed and rewarded because of prayers granted in a past life. Others are condemned and need to do penance due to past actions.
Culture tip: These stories also illustrate the concept of ‘karma’ and ‘samskara,’ but these are too complicated to be covered in this post. Read more here.
But to actively consider the concept of reincarnation, and think deeply of what that meant and how it may relate to a cow’s sacredness? No, I can’t say that I had paid the tiniest attention to this idea until then.
So, I just smiled and half-heartedly denied (since I had never heard of it) the plausible theory that perhaps Indians revere cows because of reincarnation.
For the panel appearance, I had gone to the extent of invading the libraries of the University in search of books on Hinduism, and Indian culture to understand common elements that may come up. I was thorough! Yet, no book explained the questions the students had rightly asked, in the way they had asked. What I needed was an Indian Culture 101 book.
Now, years later, I find that the sacred nature of cows is a nuanced and complex question. It has less to do with reincarnation and more to do with the stories of a Hindu God who loved cows. Cows are also immortalized in other divine stories, depicted as Mother Earth, and bestowers of prosperity. Cows (or bulls, in some cases) were also the mainstay of an agricultural economy from times immemorial, as even archaeological digs have shown.
Present Day India
In many Indian villages, certain households and temple grounds, cow dung is used to cleanse the homes and the roads. Cow dung dried into flat cakes are used as cheap fuel for cooking. Some efforts are underway to evaluate if cow dung can be a biogas or as in this China project, a replacement green cement.
This NPR article talks about an entrepreneur selling cow-dung beauty products with a revenue of over $200K and hinting that Costco may be interested in selling it in the US!
Still with me ?
Ok! In certain temples, some rituals utilize cow urine to cleanse the premises, and a few drops, known as go-mutra, are served as a blessed drink to devotees. You can opt out if you know ahead of time! (Check this product being sold on Amazon India!)
In researching this fact, I suddenly remembered - as kids, we once came dangerously close to being served this during a temple visit! One of our cousins warned us about what it was, and within a minute, we disappeared and found something else to do.
More recently, as I was accompanying family to a local temple, I was shooed away as I was walking in the parking lot. Two ladies had mixed cow dung with water, and using a plastic bucket and mug (a common item in India), they were throwing the dung water on the road that led to the lot. When asked why, they shared that they were cleansing the inner road in preparation for the arrival of the temple’s head monk and his entourage.
Barefoot, I found myself caught in a bind. The ladies showed no sign of stopping until they had cleansed me as well. Rapidly, I discovered a shortcut around this fast-moving process and escaped its fallout.
The health benefits of gomutra were debunked and instead shown to be harmful to human health in a survey conducted by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in 2023. This finding was also reported in the Telegraph, which provided a comprehensive perspective on the entire practice.
Read more on cows and their significance in ancient and modern India in the book, ‘Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics,’ by Kenneth Valpey.
As regards, the simpler questions on cows, those I got! For even now, I get asked about cows.
A recent question was whether cows are to be found in restaurants in India. I tried to remember if in the last decade I had seen a cow in a restaurant. I hadn’t.
However, I have seen cows in cities, as some of you may have too. They laze around chewing grass, occupying prime real estate on major roads in most cities, towns, and off-highways.
Of course, if you are used to seeing just cars on roads, any animal on a road will stand out!
However, as is usually the case in India, if you are used to seeing a variety of objects, it doesn’t really create an imprint.
Instead, you get a typical Indian shrug of the shoulder to indicate a philosophy of ‘chalta hai,’ which roughly translates to ‘Anything goes.’
Unfortunately, this applies to a vast number of concerns in India that may benefit from a strong bout of problem solving.
But, yes, the cows. They will not be budged, and the traffic must yield to them at all times. Some get a gentle nudge or a stronger push from the motorcyclists who coax them to one side of the road for the benefit of all.
So, really, I am not surprised if someone found a cow near a food stall, grazing away and occasionally being fed. Even if I haven’t.
Where do the cows on roads come from? Well, that mystery is easily solved. They are either abandoned by their owners or are deliberately left to graze on roads by the owners. Their owners rear them in urban neighborhoods in order to sell milk and yoghurt.
The most recent encounter I had with cows was a month ago, at the local Bangalore market. A small herd were making their way home when some errant cows decided to eat from the vegetable vendor’s cart. I saw this fun jig where the vendors were trying to cater to customers and at the same time, shoo away the cows from eating their wares.
Food tip: Just in case you are wondering, McDonalds in India does not serve beef. They do, however, serve some spicy burgers that you won’t find elsewhere. If you like spicy fast foods, try the plant based Mexican McAloo cheese burgers (make sure to ask for the cheese if you are not vegan).
If this journey has sparked your curiosity or if you have your own stories to share, I invite you to join the conversation. Drop a comment below with your thoughts, questions, or anecdotes.
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Plight of cows
The irony of venerating cows in India is that it is uneven in practice.
Cows are not always treated well. According to the National Geographic, and the Indian animal husbandry census, 5 million cows are abandoned: the male cows because they lack usefulness, or are old, and the female cows once their milk-giving and calf-bearing years are over. Hence, you will find many good Samaritans and institutions building cow shelters to take care of these abandoned cows. Temple charities constantly seek funds to build shelters and to feed the adopted cows.
However, the irony deepens when we confront the fact that India stands as one of the world's largest exporters of cow leather with a revenues of $3.7B. Exports go to Germany, United States and United Kingdom. An official report underscores the economic significance of the Indian Leather, Leather Products, and Footwear Industry, ranking among the top ten foreign exchange earners for the country.
This industry's prowess is highlighted by India's standing as the second-largest exporter of leather garments, the third-largest exporter of Saddlery & Harness, and the fourth-largest exporter of Leather Goods globally.
The report accentuates India's abundant raw materials, boasting 20% of the world's cattle and buffalo and 11% of the world's goat and sheep population.
This is the paradox of India as well and the gap in theory and practice.
Veneration and economic pursuits seemingly go hand in hand except that very few want to talk about it openly.
Conclusion
In retrospect, these encounters became windows into the cultural tapestry I carried with me across continents. In the dance of urban streets and the silent tales whispered by the countryside, the sacred and the mundane intertwine.
From the myths that shape our beliefs to the everyday encounters that bridge ancient traditions with the modern world, the stories of cows become a lens through which we glimpse the rich complexity of India's cultural heritage.
Be sure to also read the second part in this series of Cultural Bridges!
Fascinating! Thank you Jayshree.