The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-02-23
Hindoo Cow Worship.

Della Vale, the Roman traveller, who
visited Western India in the reign OF
jaime l., says that the Hindoos in Cam
bay, In Guzerat, prevailed on the Mogul
Governor with a large sum of money to
prohibit the slaughter of cows or calves
under heavy penalties; and any man at
Cambay, Musselman or otherwise, who
dlsobeyed this order was in danger of los
ing his life. The Emperor Aurungzebe
was more intolerant, and was detested
by the Rajpoot princes because he
slaughtered cows in Rajpootana, not for
the sake of the beef, but in a spirit of
persecution and revenge. As late as the
end OF the last century Tippoo Sultan ex-
cited horror throughout Southern India
because he compelled large numbers of
Hlndoos to eat beef, in order to pollute
them beyond all hope of being restored to
their caste, and thus forced them, as it
were,to become Mohammedans. Strange
to say, nearly all the civil posts in his
Government were filled by Brahman's; /;
while his Prime Minister was a Brah-
man of the purest caste. They all
pocketed the atfront to their religion in
consideration that they were pocketing
large sums of money out of the Golfers
of the State; while Tippoo Sultan could
not dispense with their services, since
they were the only educated men in his
dominion.
1t may naturally be asked what there
IS In the cow to command such supersti-
tlous reverence. AS a matter of fact the
worship of the COW is associated with one
OF the oldest religions of the world. From
the remotest antiquity the COW has been
regarded as the incarnation of the female
element in nature-the universal mother,
as well as the giver of milk and butter,
which are the choicest delicacies in the
eyes of a pious and primitive people.
The Egyptians worshipped the goddess
ISIS In the form of woman with the
horns of q COW. The Hindoos worship
the cow as an incarnation of Lakshmi,
the wife of Vishnu, the holy, beautiful
and pure ideal of woman who rose from
out OF the sea like another Aphrodite To
wake up in the morning and see cow
is the best omen of good luck that can
befall hindoo, just in the same way
that to wake up and see widow drives
him into a state of the most acute appre-
tensions of coming misfortunes. The
ideas OF Hindoos as to beef are altogether
different from those of Buddhists. The
Hindoos regard the cow as deity. 1t
has been said they would eat human flesh
rather than taste beef; and they have been
known to perish of starvation on board
ship rather than eat salt beef. Yet for all
this Brahmans travelling in England
have been known to eat beef and like it.
Indeed, one Brahman boasted during
visit to England that the sacrilegious
nourishment cured him of o bad asthma
which had affected him for wears, and
which had originally been brought on
by series of bathings in sacred rivers,
undertaken with the pious view of wash
ing away the sins of his deceased father.
Buddhists, on the contrary, have no su-
perstitious belief in the cow as a divine
incarnation, but only object to killing
animals for any purpose whatever as
contrary to the law of benevolence and
loving kindness; and their objection
vanishes in the case of animals that have
died natural death or been killed by
some one else. Gotana Buddha himself
died-or rather passed away into the
nothingness of Nirvana-from having
unfortunately eaten too much sucking
pig, which had been provided for his
supper by faithful disciples; and not
withstanding all that has been said about
the respect of the Buddhist for ANYTHING
that has life, it is certain some of them
will eat almost anything after it is dead,
rats, snakes and slugs, pro-
yided only that they themselves have
had nothing to do with the slaughter,
Pail Mall Gazette.