Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 3.4
॥
Devanāgarī
दक्षिणेऽपि तथा सव्यं गोमुखं तत्प्रचक्षते । अङ्गुष्ठावधि गृह्णीयाद्धस्ताभ्यां व्युत्क्रमेण तु
Transliteration (IAST)
dakṣiṇe'pi tathā savyaṃ gomukhaṃ tatpracakṣate | aṅguṣṭhāvadhi gṛhṇīyāddhastābhyāṃ vyutkrameṇa tu
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
दक्षिणे अपि तथा सव्यंdakṣiṇe api tathā savyaṃand on the right, likewise, the left
गो-मुखं तत् प्रचक्षतेgo-mukhaṃ tat pracakṣatethat they call the cow's-face
अङ्गुष्ठ-अवधि गृह्णीयात्aṅguṣṭha-avadhi gṛhṇīyātup to the thumbs, let him grasp
हस्ताभ्यां व्युत्क्रमेण तुhastābhyāṃ vyutkrameṇa tuwith the hands crosswise
Translation
"…and, likewise, on the right the left — that they call the cow's-face. Let him grasp, with the hands crosswise, up to the thumbs…"
Version
3fe808ea9deb · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Go-mukha, "cow's-face," is named so, according to the commentators, because the crossed legs and spread knees give an outline resembling a cow's head: narrow below, wide above. The names of postures in these books are almost all of this kind: svastika, lotus, lion, peacock, cow's-face. Worth noting is that all of them are taken from village life: a household emblem, a flower in a pond, a domestic animal, a bird in the yard.
This detail says more about the milieu in which this was composed than any argument could. The teaching was not written at court or in a city; the person naming the postures looked around him and saw a cow and a peacock. The Vaishnava side treats this kinship with village life not as poverty, but as a distinction, and has ground for this in the very object of its worship. Its Lord herds cows, and His chief name is Govinda, "cowherd," and His place is the village of Vrindavan.
Hence, in its literature, the rustic is not the base; and the cow in it is not merely livestock. The Bhagavatam calls the cows surabhi and describes Krishna walking with them across the evening field in the dust raised by their hooves; and this dust is called an ornament of His body (10.21). As for the posture itself, the book describes it so briefly that one could not sit in it from this description alone. This circumstance, it may be said in passing, is a common trait of all such descriptions: they are written for those who have already seen it, and serve as a reminder, not an instruction. Learning postures from a book was not presumed.