the image of cow is most important of all the vedic symbols. for the ritualist the word "go" means simply a physical cow and nothing else, just as its companion word "aswa" means a physical horse, "ghrta" means clearified butter, "vira" only a son or retainer. therefore it is necessary to decide once for all the significance of word "go" in vedic hymns. if it proves to be symbolic, then these other words, - aswa, vira, apatya, hiranya, vaja must perforce assume also a symbolic significance.
the image of cow is constantly associated in veda with dawn and sun; it also recurs in the legend of recovery of lost cows from the cave of panis by indra and brihaspati with aid of hound sarama and angiras rishis.
even the most superficial examination of vedic hymns to the dawn makes it perfectly clear that cows of dawn , cows of sun are symbol of light and cannot be anything else. sayanacharya himself is obliged in these hymns to interpret the word sometimes as cows, sometimes as rays, careless as usual of consistency.
the sense of rays is quite indisputable in such passages as third verse of madhuchandas hymn to indra , 1.7, "indra for far vision made the sun to ascend in heave: he sped him all over the hill by his rays, " vi gobhir adrim airayat". but at same time, the rays of surya are herds of sun. they are cows concealed by enemy vala, by the panis; when madhuchandas, says to indra, "you did uncover the hole of vala of the cows", he mean that vala is concealer, the withholder of the light and it is concealed light that indra restores to the sacrificer.
once this sense is established, the material explanation of vedic prayer for cows is at once shaken; for it the lost cows for whose restoration the rishis invoke indra, are not physical herds stolen by dravidians but the shining herds of the sun, of the light, then we are justified in considering considering whether the same figure the same figure does not apply when there is simple prayer for "cows" without any reference to any hostile interpretation.
....... continued.
from: the secret of vedas by aurobindo ghosh.
the image of cow is constantly associated in veda with dawn and sun; it also recurs in the legend of recovery of lost cows from the cave of panis by indra and brihaspati with aid of hound sarama and angiras rishis.
even the most superficial examination of vedic hymns to the dawn makes it perfectly clear that cows of dawn , cows of sun are symbol of light and cannot be anything else. sayanacharya himself is obliged in these hymns to interpret the word sometimes as cows, sometimes as rays, careless as usual of consistency.
the sense of rays is quite indisputable in such passages as third verse of madhuchandas hymn to indra , 1.7, "indra for far vision made the sun to ascend in heave: he sped him all over the hill by his rays, " vi gobhir adrim airayat". but at same time, the rays of surya are herds of sun. they are cows concealed by enemy vala, by the panis; when madhuchandas, says to indra, "you did uncover the hole of vala of the cows", he mean that vala is concealer, the withholder of the light and it is concealed light that indra restores to the sacrificer.
once this sense is established, the material explanation of vedic prayer for cows is at once shaken; for it the lost cows for whose restoration the rishis invoke indra, are not physical herds stolen by dravidians but the shining herds of the sun, of the light, then we are justified in considering considering whether the same figure the same figure does not apply when there is simple prayer for "cows" without any reference to any hostile interpretation.
....... continued.
from: the secret of vedas by aurobindo ghosh.
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