A person by making a gift of a cow come to be
regarded as making a gift of every article that is desired to be enjoyed
by men. That man who, desiring to attain to prosperity, reads with a pure
heart and body these verses on the origin of kine, becomes cleansed of
all his sins and attains to prosperity and children and wealth and
animals. He who makes a gift of a cow, O king, always succeeds in
acquiring the merits that attach to gifts of Havya and Kavya, to the
offer of oblations of water unto the Pitris, to other religious acts
whose performance brings peace and happiness, to the gift of vehicles and
cloths, and to the cherishing of children and the old.'
"Vaisampayana continued, 'Hearing these words of his grandsire, Pritha's
son, viz., the royal Yudhishthira of Ajamida's race, uniting with his
brothers, began to make gifts of both bulls and kine of different colours
unto foremost of Brahmanas. Verily, for the purpose of subduing regions
of felicity in the next, and winning great fame, king Yudhishthira
performed many sacrifices and, as sacrificial presents, gave away
hundreds of thousands of kine unto such Brahmanas.'"
SECTION LXXVIII
"Bhishma said, 'In days of yore, king Saudasa born of Ikshvaku's race,
that foremost of eloquent men, on one occasion approached his family
priest, viz.
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