"'Yudhishthira said, "Why, O grandsire, do the righteous applaud the gift of a Kapila cow (as more meritorious) when all good kine that are given away should be regarded as equal? O thou of great puissance, I wish to hear what the distinction is that attaches to a Kapila cow. Thou art, verily, competent to discourse to me on this topic!"[371] "'Bhishma said, "I have, O son, heard old men recite this history respecting the circumstances under which the Kapila cow was created. I shall recite that old history to thee! In days of yore, the Self-born Brahman commanded the Rishi Daksha, saying,--'Do thou create living creatures!' From desire of doing good to creatures, Daksha, in the first instance, created food. Even as the deities exist, depending upon nectar, all living creatures, O puissant one, live depending upon the sustenance assigned by Daksha. Among all objects mobile and immobile, the mobile are superior. Among mobile creatures Brahmanas are superior. The sacrifices are all established upon them. It is by sacrifice that Soma (nectar) is got. Sacrifice has been established upon kine.[372] The gods become gratified through sacrifices. As regards the Creation then, the means of support came first, creatures came next. As soon as creatures were born, they began to cry aloud for food. All of them then approached their creator who was to give them food like children approaching their father or mother. Knowing the intention which moved all his creatures, the holy lord of all creatures, viz., Daksha, for the sake of the beings he had created, himself drank a quantity of nectar. He became gratified with the nectar he quaffed and thereupon an eructation came out, diffusing an excellent perfume all around. As the result of that eructation, Daksha saw that it gave birth to a cow which he named Surabhi. This Surabhi was thus a daughter of his, that had sprung from his mouth. The cow called Surabhi brought forth a number of daughters who came to be regarded as the mothers of the world. Their complexion was like that of gold, and they were all Kapilas. They were the means of sustenance for all creatures. As those kine, whose complexion resembled that of Amrita, began to pour milk, the froth of that milk arose and began to spread on every side, even as when the waves of a running stream dashing against one another, copious froth is produced that spreads on every side. Some of that froth fell, from the mouths of the calves that were sucking, upon the head of Mahadeva who was then sitting on the Earth. The puissant Mahadeva thereupon, filled with wrath, cast his eyes upon those kine. With that third eye of his which adorns his forehead, he seemed to burn those kine as he looked at them. Like the Sun tingeing masses of clouds with diverse colours the energy that issued from the third eye of Mahadeva produced, O monarch, diverse complexion in those kine. Those amongst them, however, which succeeded in escaping from the glance of