The Sacred Cow
Why the cow is revered in Hinduism: its symbolism as mother and giver, its place in scripture and in the stories of Krishna, cow protection, and debates past and present.
The cow holds a special place of honour in Hinduism. Many Hindus regard the cow as a sacred symbol of life, motherhood, gentleness and selfless giving, and refuse to eat beef. Cows wander freely in many Indian towns, are fed and garlanded at festivals, and are cared for in shelters when they are old. The reverence for the cow is one of the most recognisable features of Hindu culture.
Why is the cow revered?
- The giver: the cow provides milk, yogurt and ghee, which nourish people and are used in worship, while asking little in return. In traditional farming, bullocks pulled ploughs and carts, and dung was used as fuel and fertiliser.
- The mother: because she nourishes human beings with her milk, the cow is often called Gau Mata, “Mother Cow”.
- Non-violence: as a gentle, peaceful animal, the cow represents ahimsa.
- The divine: some texts say that all the gods dwell in the body of the cow.
The cow in scripture and story
In the Vedas, cattle were the chief form of wealth, and the cow is praised as a symbol of abundance; one of her epithets in the Rig Veda is aghnya, often translated as “not to be killed”. Scholars debate how far beef was eaten in the Vedic period, when animal sacrifice was practised; most agree that vegetarianism and the prohibition on killing cows grew steadily stronger in later centuries.
The Puranas tell of Kamadhenu, the wish-fulfilling cow who emerged from the churning of the ocean. Krishna grew up as a cowherd in Vrindavan, and his names Gopala (“protector of cows”) and Govinda (“one who pleases the cows”) reflect his love for them. Shiva's companion is the bull Nandi, whose image faces the shrine in every Shiva temple.
Cows in worship
Cows are worshipped at festivals such as Gopashtami, and on Govardhan Puja, the day after Diwali, and cattle are honoured at Mattu Pongal in Tamil Nadu. The five products of the cow (panchagavya): milk, curd, ghee, urine and dung, are used in purification rituals. Ghee fuels temple lamps and sacred fires. Feeding a cow is considered a meritorious act.
Cow protection
Protecting cows became an important cause in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Mahatma Gandhi described cow protection as one of Hinduism's central teachings, extending compassion to the whole animal world. India's constitution includes a directive principle encouraging states to prohibit the slaughter of cows (Article 48), and most Indian states have laws restricting or banning cow slaughter. Many temples and charities run gaushalas, shelters for old and unwanted cows.
Cow protection has also become politically contentious. In recent years, violence by self-appointed “cow vigilante” groups against people accused of transporting cattle or eating beef has been widely condemned, including by many Hindus.
Cows and British Hindus
ISKCON's Bhaktivedanta Manor in Hertfordshire keeps a herd of protected cows and oxen, which are never slaughtered. In 2007, the Welsh authorities ordered the slaughter of Shambo, a bull at the Skanda Vale temple in Carmarthenshire, after he tested positive for bovine tuberculosis. The temple's legal challenge and campaign attracted international attention before the bull was removed and killed.
Sources and further reading
- Frederick J. Simoons, Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present, 2nd edn (University of Wisconsin Press, 1994).
- D. N. Jha, The Myth of the Holy Cow (Verso, 2002).
- Kenneth R. Valpey, Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).