Who says Hindus were cow eaters?

H.H. Gurudev Dr. Kate Swamiji

1. Cows were slaughtered as a Hindu marriage ritual !

Indologists like Macdonald, Weber, Winternitz have pronounced the Vedas to be barbaric and concluded that ‘Hanyante Gaavaha’ meant that cows were slaughtered in marriage rituals. Our ancient Hindu scholars on the basis of this information from these Whites pronounced us to be beef eaters. Macdonald has misconstrued the word Hanyante Gaavahaa by saying that in a marriage ritual a cow is slaughtered on the day of the magha lunar asterism and everyone feasts on the cow meat ! The Rigveda states the following in relation to the Sun God’s marriage.

Suryaayaa Vahatuha Praagaat Savitaa Yamavaasrujat
Aghaasu Hanyante Gaavorjunyoha Puryuhyate - Rigveda 10.85.13

Meaning: Savita gifted the moon who was his daughter’s to be father-in-law with a cow on the auspicious day of Magha asterism and performed the ritual of giving away of the bride (kanyadan) of Surya on the Falgun lunar asterism.

Clarification: The word Aghaasu is Maghaasu in the Atharvaveda . There is no difference of opinion about these words among our ancient translators. In a marriage Agha( Magha) and Arjuni (Falguni) asterisms are important.

All deities are present in Cow (Gomata)

2. Godaan is offering of a cow and Govikartaa means a cowherd !

This is the meaning that these westerners give. The word ‘go’ means ‘hair’.

2 A. Godaan: This word comes from the Rigveda and Smrutigranth. ‘Go’ means hair and ‘daan’ means to cut thus Godaan is cutting of hair. In the Shrout and gruha traditions importance is given to tonsuring. Also the ritual of Chudaakarma means the cutting of hair. Godaan is actually the ritual of ‘Keshant’ as is clearly given by Smurtikar. Chudaakaran, godaan and jataakaran are all synonymous words.

2. B. Govikarta : Govikarta means a barber and not a cowherd.

3. Gopati means a bull!

Max Mueller has derived that ‘gopati’ means a bull . Actually ‘go’ means rays and ‘pati’ means the master of the rays that is the Sun.

Can a dictionary give the exact meanings?

- Gurudev Dr. Kateswamiji (Sanatan Chintan , Year 1, Issue 47, page 1)

Understand the meaning of the Vedas, not by Maxmuller's method, but by the analysis method

Criticism - Maxmuller's ideology has created havoc while interpreting the meaning of Vedic words e.g. Vedic Sages used to consume cow's meat, widows were re-married, unwed mothers were treated respectably, adultery was considered legitimate, etc.

Rebuttal - They have invented this historic method of deriving the meaning with the sole aim of labeling the Vedas as crude and uncivilized. When the words 'Get Saindhav (salt)' are used during meals, it means 'get salt'. However, when the same words are uttered when one is going to one's village, it means 'get a horse'! There are rules to the interpretation of Vedic sentences. The rules enumerated by the analytical sciences explain the meaning of the Vedic mantras in the most appropriate manner.'

- Gurudev Dr. Kateswami (Weekly Sanatan Chintan, 15th November 2007, Issue 40)

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