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Cows, Elephants, Dogs, and Other Lesser Embodiments Ofatman Reflections on Hindu Attitudes Toward Nonhuman Animals

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Cows, Elephants, Dogs, and Other Lesser Embodiments Ofatman Reflections on Hindu Attitudes Toward Nonhuman Animals .?-­ Cows, Elephants, Dogs, and Other Lesser Embodiments ofAtman Reflections on Hindu Attitudes Toward Nonhuman Animals LANCE NELSON The wise see the same [reality] in a Brahmin endowed with learn­ ing and culture, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and an outcaste. - Bhagavad Gita 5-18 The Deccan Herald of January 25, 1999, reports lessly and unharmed in the lap ofone astonished that, a few days earlier, in the town of Shakara­ member of the audience after another. When puram near the South Indian city of Bangalore, the function was over, it departed. The human a group ofdevotees gathered to hear a talk on the participants were most impressed. Surely, it was Bhagavad GFta by a famous scholar, Bannanje concluded, this was a visit from Hanuman, the Govindacharya. He was visiting from Udipi, a famed monkey god and hero of the Ramaya1Ja, Vai~t:lava pilgrimage center of great sanctiry. As who-in addition to being famed for his un­ part of the function, the pa1J4it's new Kanada matched prowess in battle-is known for his translation of the much-loved Hindu epic the perfect mastery of Sanskrit grammar.! Was he Riimaya1Ja was being formally released to the there to scrutinize the new version of the story public. As Govindacharya alighted from his ve­ in which he figures so prominently, and to sig­ hicle, proceeded into the hall, and ascended the nal his approval? As a ciraiijivi-a "long-lived" stage, an adult monkey followed dose behind. one, a near immortal-Hanuman is believed The organizers tried to shoo the monkey off the to appear wherever the Riimiiya1Ja is being read platform, but it refused to budge, so they de­ and honored. Partly because of their association cided to let it be. When it came time to re­ with Hanuman and the Riimiiya1Ja, monkeys are lease the book, the audience of 350 watched as treated as sacred everywhere in India.2 the monkey took the new Ramiiya1Ja from the We are perhaps not surprised to hear such re­ author's hand, removed the ceremonial wrap­ ports in connection with the Hindu tradition. ping, and spent a few seconds scanning the After all, is not Hindu India home of the prov­ pages. Having returned the book to its author, erbial "holy cow"? Dorane Jacobson tells of a the monkey then descended from the platform central Indian villager who was accused of "cow and, while the scholar gave his talk, sat harm­ murder," even though the animal's death was / 180 LANCE NELSON accidental. He was sentenced to social and re­ ritual application of these "five products of the trate, strike the ligious ostracism until he could pay a substan­ cow" (paiicagavya) combined, a preparation also plore here the r tial fine, which took him ten years to save the known as "the five-fold nectar" (paiicamrta). In on the subject money to pay. Even then, for many years after recent centuries, the cow has emerged as a prime of nonhuman ; that he was still known as "the one who mur­ symbol of "Hindu nationhood," and the Cow will take a wei dered his calE" 3 The cow was associated with Protection Movement has become a focus of vad Gita (c. 20 the sacred, though not yet completely sacro­ Hindu identity vis-a.-vis the Muslim and colo­ fions through J sanct, in the ancient hymns of the Vedas (sec­ nial British OtherY dons, theology ond to first millennium BCE). Since then, she Sacred monkeys and holy cows do not tell the process, I ' has undergone a gradual apotheosis, becoming the whole story of nonhuman animals in India. to the Laws oj over time a key symbol of all that is sacred to, Other species have symbolic religious value: 200 BCE-200 C 4 and unifies, Hindus. There is evidence of con­ snakes, as emblems of fertility; lions, associated Brahminical co cern for shelter and maintenance to un­ with the Goddess Durga; even rats, as we shall ligious duty). productive cattle as early as the fourth century see below. On the other hand, one should not The Sanskri and homes for aging and enfeebled cattle get the impression the Hindu world represents elite has tended (golalas) are attested in India by the sixteenth a secure zone for nonhuman animals. Animal anthropocentri~ 6 century CE. sacrifice, for example, plays a not insignificant centric") view ( Golalas continue to be a prominent feature role in Hindu religious history up to the present. alized nonhum of Hindu religious institutions. Hindu faithful Animal rights activists tell the story ofa woman existence and al refer to the cow as "our mother" (go-mata). The in Hyderabad during the I990S, who had just re­ same time, it d< cow in Puraf.1ic myth is Kamadhenu, "yielder ceived what in the United States would be called mines humanit; of the milk of all desire," source of nutriment a "career break." She had been given a part in species, and, by and prosperity? She is Surabhi, "the Fragrant," a Hindi film, and was on her way to name and rated as a core the symbolic embodiment of the Earth; she is fame, at least on a local level. Out of thanks, or noninjury (a Lak~mi, the goddess of fortune. Respondents she started a small temple for animal sacrifice. always been ele in the holy city of Varanasi, where Brahmins Her celebrity apparen tly attracted others to offer have criticized a can be found who daily perform go-pujii (cow sacrifices in search of similar boons, and the verse elements ~ worship), confided, "We believe that 330 mil­ small shrine soon became, we are told, "a foun­ practice. These lion Hindu gods live in everyarom of the cow's tain of blood." 12 More recently, in June of 2002, more positive in body," and, "We believe in going to heaven by King Bir Bikram Shah Gyanendra of Nepal and will consider th, the aid of the COW."8 A cow donated to Brah­ his wife, Queen Komal Rajya, stirred up con­ mins is said to carry the departing soul across troversy by flying directly from Kathmandu to the river Vaitaraf.1I, which separates the world of Guwahati, Assam, to perform a paficabali, or Sameness ofSelf the living from the world of the dead. This be­ sacrificial offering of five animals, at the fa­ between Species lief is enacted in the Vaitaraf.1! ritual, in which mous (for some Hindus, infamous) temple of the worshiper clutches the tail of a cow with the Goddess Kamakhya. After the sacrifice, the A number ofpru both hands. In death as well as in life, human king and queen attended a lunch held in their been cited as del beings thus depend upon the cow as upon their honor at the official residence of the Governor portive ethic of 9 mother. The cow, further, is associated with the of Assam. Unmoved by the protests of animal Particularly inte] world-stabilizing purity of Brahminhood, and rights activists, the king and queen moved on to p8, which read indeed is said to be the animal whose form is Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), where they offered alityl in a BrallD typically inhabited by souls prior to their in­ a goat in sacrifice to the Goddess Kal! at the Kali­ culture, a cow, < 1O carnation as Brahmins. Touching a cow is a ghat temple.D caste (or 'Dog-' source ofgood fortune and ritual purification, as The attitudes toward nonhuman animals brings to the fOf( is the use ofgo-miitii's milk, curd, clarified but­ within Hinduism are immensely complex and issues concern in ter, urine, or dung. Even more purifying is the often, as the incidents recounted above illus­ human animals. 181 COWS, ELEPHANTS, DOGS .roducts of the trate, strike the observer as antithetical. I will ex­ parture and thematic touchstone for my remarks reparation also plore here the main outlines of Hindu thinking as we proceed. paficiimrta). In on the subject of the moral and spiritual status First, Gfta 5018 brings to mind the Hindu rged as a prime of nonhuman animals. As a thematic motif, I doctrine that is perhaps most fundamental to 'and the Cow wiH take a well-known verse from the Bhaga­ understanding the Hindu conception of the me a focus of vad Gftii (c. 200 BCE), and explore its implica­ spiritual and moral value ofevery life-form. This slim and colo- tions through references to Hindu legal tradi­ is the idea, shared by nearly all of the many tions, theology, myth, and popular stories. In schools of Hindu thought, that the true spiritual IWS do not tell the process, I will give considerable attention Self (iilman) is qualitatively identical in all be­ limals in India. to the Laws of Manu (Miinava Dharma.{iistra, ings - from, as it is said, the creator god Brahma eligious value: 200 BCE-200 CE), the most important work on down to a blade of grass (see Manu 1.50). The ons, associated Brahminical concepts of dharma (social and re­ Vai~l).ava commentator Ramanuja (eleventh­ 'ats, as we shall ligious duty). twelfth century CE) explains the text: )ne should not The Sanskritic orthodoxy of the Brahmin 'orld represents elite has tended, as we shall see, toward a narrow, Although the selves (iitmans) are being perceived limals. Animal anthropocentric (one might well say, "andro­ in extremely dissimilar forms, the wise know the ot insigaificant centric") view of the world, one that conceptu­ selves to be of uniform nature .... The dissimi­ ) to the present. alized nonhuman animals as "lower" forms of larity of the forms is due to [the various] ma­ Dry of a woman existence and allowed for animal sacrifice.
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