{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/av/av12004.htm","path":"hin/av/av12004.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av12004.htm","text":"Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895]\n1Give the gift, shall be his word: and straightway they have bound\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the Cow\n \u00a0\u00a0For Br\u0101hman priests who beg the boon. That bringeth sons and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0progeny.\n 2He trades and traffics with his sons, and in his cattle suffers loss.\n \u00a0\u00a0Who will not give the Cow of Gods to Rishis children when\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0they beg.\n 3They perish through a hornless cow, a lame cow sinks them in a\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pit.\n \u00a0\u00a0Through a maimed cow his house is burnt: a one-eyed cow\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0destroys his wealth.\n 4Fierce fever where her droppings fall attacks the master of the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0kine.\n \u00a0\u00a0So have they named her Vasa, for thou art called uncontrollable.\n 5The malady Viklindu springs on him from ground whereon she\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0stands,\n \u00a0\u00a0And suddenly, from fell disease, perish the men on whom she\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0sniffs.\n 6Whoever twitches up her ears is separated from the Gods.\n \u00a0\u00a0He deems he makes a mark, but he diminishes his wealth\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thereby.\n 7If to his own advantage one applies the long hair of her tail, p. 98\n \u00a0\u00a0His colts, in consequence thereof. die, and the wolf destroys his\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0calves.\n 8If, while her master owneth her, a carrion crow hath harmed her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hair,\n \u00a0\u00a0His young boys die thereof, Decline o'ertakes them after fell\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0disease.\n 9What time the D\u0101si woman throws lye on the droppings of the\n \u00a0\u00a0Cow,\n \u00a0\u00a0Misshapen birth arises thence, inseparable from that sin.\n 10For Gods and Br\u0101hmans is the Cow produced when first she\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0springs to life,\n \u00a0\u00a0Hence to the priests must she be given: this they call guarding\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0private wealth.\n 11The God-created Cow belongs to those who come to ask for\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0her.\n \u00a0\u00a0They call it outrage on the priests when one retains her as his\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0own.\n 12He who withholds the Cow of Gods from Rishis' sons who ask\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the gift\n \u00a0\u00a0Is made an alien to the Gods, and subject to the Br\u0101hmans'\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0wrath:\n 13Then let him seek another Cow, whate'er his profit be in this.\n \u00a0\u00a0The Cow, not given, harms a man when he denies her at their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0prayer.\n 14Like a rich treasure stored away in safety is the Br\u0101hmans' Cow.\n \u00a0\u00a0Therefore men come to visit her, with whomsoever she is born.\n 15So when the Br\u0101hmans come unto the Cow they come unto their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0own.\n \u00a0\u00a0For this is her withholding, to oppress these in another life.\n 16Thus after three years may she go, speaking what is not under-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0stood.\n \u00a0\u00a0He, N\u0101rads! would know the Cow, then Br\u0101hmans must be\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0sought unto.\n 17Whoso calls her a worthless Cow, the stored-up treasure of the\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods,\n \u00a0\u00a0Bhava and Sarva, both of them, move round and shoot a shaft\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0at him.\n 18The man who hath no knowledge of her udder and the teats\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thereof, p. 99\n \u00a0\u00a0She yields him milk with these, if he hath purposed to bestow\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the Cow.\n 19If he withholds the Cow they beg, she lies rebellious in his stall.\n \u00a0\u00a0Vain are the wishes and the hopes which he, withholding her,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0would gain.\n 20The Deities have begged the Cow, using the Br\u0101hman as their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0mouth:\n \u00a0\u00a0The man who gives her not incurs the enmity of all the Gods.\n 21Withholding her from Br\u0101hmans, he incurs the anger of the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0beasts,\n \u00a0\u00a0When mortal man appropriates the destined portion of the\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods.\n 22If hundred other Br\u0101hmans beg the Cow of him who owneth\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0her,\n \u00a0\u00a0The Gods have said, She, verily, belongs to him who knows the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0truth.\n 23Whoso to others, not to him who hath this knowledge, gives the\n \u00a0\u00a0Cow,\n \u00a0\u00a0Earth, with the Deities, is hard for him to win and rest upon.\n 24The Deities begged the Cow from him with whom at first she\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0was produced:\n \u00a0\u00a0Her, this one, N\u0101rada would know: with Deities he drove her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0forth.\n 25The Cow deprives of progeny and makes him poor in cattle who\n \u00a0\u00a0Retains in his possession her whom Br\u0101hmans have solicited.\n 26For Agni and for Soma, for K\u0101ma, Mitra and Varuna,\n \u00a0\u00a0For these the Br\u0101hmans ask: from these is he who giveth not\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0estranged.\n 27Long as her owner hath not heard, himself, the verses, let her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0move\n \u00a0\u00a0Among his kine: when he hath heard, let her not make her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0home with him;\n 28He who hath heard her verses and still makes her roam among\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0his kine.\n \u00a0\u00a0The Gods in anger rend away his life and his prosperity\n 29Roaming in many a place the Cow is the stored treasure of the\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods,\n \u00a0\u00a0Make manifest thy shape and form when she would seek her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0dwelling-place. p. 100\n 30Her shape and form she manifests when she would seek her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0dwelling-place;\n \u00a0\u00a0Then verily the Cow attends to Br\u0101hman priests and their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0request.\n 31This thought he settles in his mind. This safely goeth to the\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods.\n \u00a0\u00a0Then verily the Br\u0101hman priests approach that they may beg the\n \u00a0\u00a0Cow\n 32By Svadh\u0101 to the Fathers, by sacrifice to the Deities,\n \u00a0\u00a0By giving them the Cow, the Prince doth not incur the mother's.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0wrath.\n 33The Prince's mother is the Cow: so was it ordered from of old.\n \u00a0\u00a0She, when bestowed upon the priests, cannot be given back, they\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0say.\n 34As molten butter, held at length, drops down to Agni from the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0scoop,\n \u00a0\u00a0So falls away from Agni he who gives no Cow to Br\u0101hman\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0priests.\n 35Good milker, with rice-cake as calf, she in the world comes\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0nigh to him,\n \u00a0\u00a0To him who gave her as a gift the Cow grants every hope and.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0wish.\n 36In Yama's realm the Cow fulfils each wish for him who gave her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0up;\n \u00a0\u00a0But hell, they say, is for the man who, when they beg, bestow\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0her not.\n 37Enraged against her owner roams the Cow when she hath been\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0impregned.\n \u00a0\u00a0He deemed me fruitless is her thought; let him be bound in,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0snares of Death!\n 38Whoever looking on the Cow as fruitless, cooks her flesh at\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0home,\n \u00a0\u00a0Brihaspati compels his sons and children of his sons to beg.\n 39Downward she sends a mighty heat, though amid kine a Cow\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0she roams.\n \u00a0\u00a0Poison she yields for him who owns and hath not given her away.\n 40The animal is happy when it is bestowed upon the priests:\n \u00a0\u00a0But happy is the Cow when she is made a sacrifice to Gods.\n 41N\u0101rada chose the terrible Vilipti out of all the cows Which the p. 101\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods formed and framed when they had risen up from sacri-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0fice\n 42The Gods considered her in doubt whether she were a Cow or\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0not.\n \u00a0\u00a0Mirada spake of her and said, The veriest Cow of cows is she.\n 43How many cows, O N\u0101rada, knowest thou, born among man-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0kind\n \u00a0\u00a0I ask thee who dost know, of which must none who is no\n \u00a0\u00a0Br\u0101hman eat?\n 44Vilipti, cow, and she who drops no second calf, Brihaspati!\n \u00a0\u00a0Of these none not a Br\u0101hmana should eat if he hope for emi-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0nence.\n 45Homage, O N\u0101rada, to thee who hast quick knowledge of the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0cows.\n \u00a0\u00a0Which of these is the direst, whose withholding bringeth death\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to man?\n 46Vilipti, O Brihaspati, cow, mother of no second calf\u2014Of these\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0none not a Br\u0101hman should eat if he hope for eminence.\n 47Threefold are kine, Vilipti, cow, the mother of no seeond calf:\n \u00a0\u00a0These one should give to priests, and he will not offend Praj\u0101-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pati.\n 48This Br\u0101hmans! is your sacrifice: thus should one think when he\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0is asked,\n \u00a0\u00a0What time they beg from him the Cow fearful in the with-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0holder's house.\n 49He gave her not to us, so spake the Gods, in anger, of the Cow.\n \u00a0\u00a0With these same verses they addressed Bheda: this brought\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0him to his death.\n 50Solicited by Indra, still Bheda refused to give this Cow.\n \u00a0\u00a0In strife for victory the Gods destroyed him for that sin of his.\n 51The men of evil counsel who advise refusal of the Cow,\n \u00a0\u00a0Miscreants, through their foolishness, are subjected to Indra's\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0wrath.\n 52They who seduce the owner of the Cow and say, Bestow her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0not.\n \u00a0\u00a0Encounter through their want of sense the missile shot by\n \u00a0\u00a0Rudra's hand.\n 53If in his home one cooks the Cow, sacrificed or not sacrificed.\n \u00a0\u00a0Wronger of Gods and Br\u0101hmans' he departs, dishonest, from\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the world.","title":"Atharva Veda: Book 12: Hymn 4: On the duty of giving cows...","type":"page"}