KAMADHENU – he celestial cow

 

Kamadhenu was born of Kasyapa and his wife Krodhavasa. Kamadhenu (desire- fulfilling milk cow) gave milk to the devas (gods), at any time and in any quan­tity they wanted. She was also known as Surabhi (the fragrant) and Nandini (delight). The family of cattle came from Kamadhenu. (Another source stated that Surabhi was the calf of Kamadhenu.)
In the Mahabharata Surabhi worshipped Brahma for a thousand years and was blessed with divinity: she became a goddess and received her own world, Goloka (the celestial heaven of cows). Some late myths put Kamadhenu in the possession of the sage Vasishtha. In one such myth, Satyavrata stole and killed Kamadhenu, eating part of her body and giving the rest to the starving family of Visvamitra. Vasishtha cursed Satyavrata as one who had committed the three worst sins (Tris’anku—according to this account, killing a brahmin, one’s teacher, and a cow). Vasishtha then restored Kamadhenu to life.

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