curses

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

There is nothing unique about the cow being black. 


Just now I realized that with the current default reply in the list going to the original poster, the following response I had sent a few days ago did not go to the list.


"There are many Tamil inscriptions where the curse is entirely in Tamil. Like the Kannada inscription quoted by Tim, many talk about incurring the sin of killing a tawny cow on the bank of the Ganges. There are also several where the 'indignity' of giving the wife to a low caste person is mentioned. There are also instances where one is cursed as being the husband of one's own mother, etc. The variety of such curses is seen more in northern Tamil Nadu."

Thus there are inscriptions where the tawny cow ('kurāl pacu' or 'kapilai' being the Tamil terms) is mentioned too. For example, see SII 3, no. 130)


Regards,
Palaniappan




-----Original Message-----
From: JKirkpatrick <jkirk at SPRO.NET>
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Sent: Wed, Feb 23, 2011 11:03 am
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] curses


A simple question, if I may: in the examples posted by Tim Lubin,

why must the cow be black?
What is the symbolic motive in the sin of killing a black cow,
instead
of any old cow?
 
Thanks and best wishes,
Joanna Kirkpatrick