The purificatory role of the five products of the cow in Hinduism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID14722280
AutoresFrederick J Simoons (University of California, Davis, autor de correspondencia)
Año1974
Volumen3
Número1
Páginas21-34
Fecha de publicación1974-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEcology of Food and Nutrition (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0367-0244 • E-ISSN: 1543-5237
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03670244.1974.9990358
OpenAlexW1979108305
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19
Referencias citadas24

The modern Hindu use of the “five products of the cow” (milk, curd, ghi, urine, and dung) in ritual purification is examined. The five products’ value in such purification today, as in ancient India, is clearly linked to the sanctity of the cow. The earliest Indian literary reference to the five products being used in ritual purification, moreover, dates from the same historical period that the sacred cow concept itself developed. Thus it is almost certain that the rise of the sacred cow concept led to the use of the five products of the cow in ritual purification, a classic example of the influence of religious beliefs on the use of food and other resources

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Biology · Cow dung · Cow milk · Hinduism · Period (music · Statistics · Value (mathematics · Agricultural Economics and Practices · History · Indian History and Philosophy · Livestock Management and Performance Improvement · Mathematics · Philosophy · Religious studies · Ecology · Food Science