The dying tradition of cow worship

In Hindu mythology cow rep­resents Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. Thus, during Laxmi puja, the third day of the ‘festival of lights’ or Tihar, there is a tradition of wor­shipping cows. On the fourth day, the Hindus worship oxen, which are representation of the Goverdhan mountain that Lord Krishna lifted to protect his devotees from incessant rains. But while oxen worship has always been limited, people used to enthusiastically worship the cow on the third day. The cows were gar­landed and offered Tihar delicacies like sel and anarsa. But cow worship is a dying tradi­tion in urban areas. In rapidly urban­izing regions like Kathmandu, there is no place for cowsheds, save for a few pocket areas like Kapan and the banks of Bagmati river. People these days also seem to have no patience to go out in search of cows to worship, especially when they are dog-tired cleaning their homes during Tihar.

According to Prem Katuwal, who has been rearing cows in Kathmandu for the past 15 years, there has been a marked drop in the number of people who visit his shed to worship the cows on the third day of Tihar.

“I would say over the past 10 years there has been an approximate 75 percent drop,” he says. He also says that lack of cowsheds and exhaustion are just excuses. “In my village, peo­ple still worship cows with the same reverence that their forefathers had. But here in the city, people are either too lazy or too hesitant to come near these animals that in their reckoning smell.” He also reports that mostly it is the Brahmins and Chhetris who have given up this age-old tradition, but that the indigenous Newar com­munity has not.

However, it is not necessary to visit cowsheds or to endure cattle smell to worship cows. “On Gai Tihar, the cow rearers bring cows that have been properly washed to our neigh­borhood,” says Kanchan Acharya, a resident of Thapathali. “In fact, the same cows that we worship are taken as far as Pulchowk. Frankly, the real devotees should not have much of a problem finding cows.”