Lexicon

of Rig Veda

avadyagohana, disagree with killing of cow

The exact meaning of the phrase is unknown. It occurs once in the Veda. It consists of two words, avadya and gohanā of which the first word, avadya, consists of a negative particle a- and a participle vadya from the verb vad, to speak, proclaim, praise, and means something low, not to be praised, something that is not even allowed to talk about, blamable. The second word gohanā consists of go, a cow, and hanā, a Vedic form of vocative or nominative case, double number, masculine from hana, killing, slaughter. Thus, the literal meaning of the phrase is: “(O you) two ones who do not talk about killing the Cow.”

Nevertheless, in different sources, this phrase interpreted differently. Thus, Sayana, Wilson, Dutt: do you repair the faults (of your worshippers); Griffit: who banish want; Sarasvati: forgive the faults of your devotees; Jamison: concealers of fault; Kashyap: tracing and removing defects; Ganguly: abolishers of mortality; Monier-Williams: concealing imperfection, T. Elizarenkova: O covering (our) errors – all these versions are given without any etymologic justification.