Hello all,

I just got back from my annual Yoga expedition to India.
This was a good opportunity to clarify the "war = desire for cows?"
question with a real Sanskrit Vidwan.
Unfortunately, my Sanskrit teacher was on vacation, and unable
to track down.
Instead, when I got the opportunity, I had the following
conversation with one of my Yoga teachers, who learned Sanskrit in order
to study the Yoga shastras, and would probably qualify as a Vidwan:

   Me:  "Is it true that the Sanskrit word for 'war' is equivalent to
        'the desire for more cows' ?"

   Yogi:"Not that I know of. Where did you get that idea?"

   Me: (Not having Ombodhi's e-mail posting handy, I'm temporarily stumped.
        I recover with:)
       "What is the Sanskrit word for war?"

   Yogi:"Aryans are a warlike race. They have several words for war."

   Me: "OK, give me the most popular one."

   Yogi: "Yudha. Conflict."

   Me: "OK, give me the Sanskrit root for 'cow'?"

   Yogi:"Go."
        (Long Pause)
        "I think I understand the confusion: 'go' really means
        'that which nurtures and nourishes'.
        It is the root for 'cow', but it is also the root word
        for 'earth', among other things. (i.e.
        the root for several entities that nurture and nourish.)
        Therefore this translation of 'war' as 'the desire for more cows'
        may be more accurately stated as: 'the desire for more earth'.

   Me: "OK, what about Chess? Is there a common root".

   Yogi:"Nope. Chess is 'chaturang', or '4 types of armies', since there are
        four types of forces at the disposal of the king/queen: bishop,
        knight, horse, pawn".


This should explain "gavisti" and "gopa" as well, due to the multiple
uses of "go". (i.e. really should be "desire for earth" and "lord of earth").

As an aside, I understand that vedic society was vegetarian due to the
skillful manipulations of the kshatriyas (warriors) by the brahmins (priests.)
early on in the history of the Aryan people:
i.e. the priests tended to raise cattle for dairy, while the kshatrias tended
to grab them and slaughter them for food. Therefore the brahmins cleverly
made eating beef a serious religious taboo. Therefore, I wonder what point
Jeremy Rifkin is trying to make. Certainly not the case that "eating meat
promotes war", since these people he is using as examples were strictly
against eating beef (even those who were otherwise non-vegetarian.)

Regards,

Roy

roy caught me:

>>in sanskrit,the word for "war" translates as "the desire for more cows"
> My Sanskrit is not that great, but from what little I know, the words
> "war", "warrior" and "chess" have the same root ("kshatr"). They
> don't appear to have any connection with the root for "cow" or > "desire".

> Roy

     i'd like to thank roy for making me look this up & getting it
straight.  interesting connection to "chess."  anyone else read the
essene art of asha by dr. edmond bordeaux szekely?  he traces chess back
to early sumeria & zarathustra.  learning about ahura mazda & fravashis &
khastras & all that got me to play more chess.  let us turn now to page
31 of _beyond_beef_ by jeremy rifkin:

     In Sanskrit the very term "battle" --*gavisti*-- means "desire
for cattle," and a successful warlord was often referred to as Gopa,
"lord of cattle."(4)

now from page 36 of same:

     It ought to be noted that even the Vedic word for "war" meant
"desire for cows."(10)

4.  Bruce Lincoln, _Priests,_Warriors,_and_Cattle_ (Berkeley: University
     of California Press, 1981), 101.

10. Quincy Wright, _A_Study_of_War_ (Chicago: University of Chicago
     Press, 1942), 1:134.

cowed,
      bodhi