- Formal Name
- Not yet looked up
Cow Dung
Details
Cow dung is the waste product of bovine animals: cattle, bison, yak and water buffalo. It is the undigested residue of plant matter with water, gut bacteria and digestive enzymes, rich in minerals, and its colour runs from greenish to blackish. Dried cakes called upla or kanda are burned for cooking fuel in India, and the dung makes biogas and fertiliser. In India and parts of Africa floors and walls are smeared with it to clean and smoothen them. In Hinduism it goes into pancha-gavya for rituals. The Mahabharata tells how Lakshmi came to live in cow dung, and Tantric Buddhist ritual manuals recommend it to purify mandala altars.
Correspondences
- Elements
- No elements recorded.
- Celestial Bodies
- No celestial bodies recorded.
- Zodiac Signs
- No zodiac signs recorded.
- Colours
- No colours recorded.
- Deities
- Lakshmi (Hindu; also called Laxmi)
Folk Names
- Cow Manure
- Cow Pie
- Cowpat
- Kanda
- Upla
Categories
- Purification
- Warding
Substitutes
No substitutes recorded.
Forms
Paste
References
References
Notes
- Thurston, Omens and Superstitions, Chapter I, Omens (printed pp. 13-72); Chapter II, Animal Superstitions (printed pp. 73-108).
- Wikipedia, under "Cow dung," lead; uses; religious views.
- Wikipedia, under "Cow dung."
Bibliography
- Thurston, Edgar. Omens and Superstitions of Southern India. T. Fisher Unwin, 1912. Accessed October 29, 2026. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35690. (Project Gutenberg e-text 35690. The e-text carries no page numbers, so locators give the chapter and its printed page range from the contents list.) Open the Source (opens in a new tab)
1 - Wikipedia, under "Cow dung." Accessed October 29, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cow_dung&oldid=1374829951. Open the Source (opens in a new tab)
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