The profane buffalo

It’s funny how cows are sacred and buffaloes are not, though both provide milk.

What’s even funnier is how, despite this, buffaloes are treated with more care and respect than sacred cows.

Many villagers keep a cow, particularly when there are small children in the house. Cow’s milk, after all, is supposed to be the nearest thing to mother’s milk.

Yet, most cows are left free to roam and scavenge for food. No one seems to care what they eat. And like pigs, cows will eat almost anything, from grass and thorny bougainvillea to plastic bags and garbage.

Buffaloes, on the other hand, are taken out to graze and to bathe in pools of water. And they are usually given a nutritious feed when they return home.

Why this difference?

Maybe economics has something to do with it all. You can buy a cow for as little as two thousand rupees. The cost of a buffalo runs into several thousands. A villager also gets more money for selling creamy buffalo milk as compared with the thin milk cows give.

Yet, when a gaily caparisoned cow is led from house to house by a couple of ragged con men beating a drum, people will rush out of their homes to do arati to it, and to bow down before the holy beast.

The poor buffalo must be satisfied with being fatter and better fed.

Maybe mythology also has something to do with the difference. Buffaloes may give more milk, but the male buffalo at least is traditionally associated with Yama, the god of death. While cows, of course, symbolise fertility and motherhood and all those things we’re taught to reverence.

So cows are skinny and sad, but venerated and loved.

Buffaloes are fat and ugly and profane. But we like their milk, even if we don't love them too much.