What is the significance of a cow giving birth in Hindu Religion?
The cow is sacred and beef has been forbidden in the Hindu religion and diet from ancient Vedic times. In their Dharmasutras, Vasishta, Gautama and Apastamba prohibit eating the flesh of both cows and draught oxen, while Baudhayana exacts penances for killing a cow, and stricter ones for killing a milk animal or draught ox. However, some scholars have argued, citing early Hindu scriptures and archaeological evidence, that the cow has not always been sacred and that cows, oxen and bulls were both sacrificed and eaten in Vedic times and to some extent even later.[1][2] The cow was possibly revered because the largely pastoral Vedic people and subsequent generations relied heavily on it for dairy products and for tilling the fields, and on cow dung as a source of fuel and fertilizer. Universally, Hindus still use cow dung for various purposes; the burning of cow dung creates an insecticide to repel mosquitoes, and ash formed from cow dung is used as a fertilizer. Thus, the cow’s status as
