From Cow Urine That Cures Cancer to ‘Vedic Plaster’: A Day at Jaipur’s ‘Gau Mahakumbh’

Jaipur: Clad in a saffron kurta and clutching a bottle of “gaumutra (cow urine)”, 55-year-old Pradeep Gupta – an advocate by profession – flashes a friendly grin towards everybody who visit his stall at the “Gau Mahakumbh” – a four-day event in Jaipur which kicked off on Thursday (September 4) and has been described by the organisers as a “cow-based global summit and exhibition”.

As Gupta mans the stall of Gayatri Parivar Gaushala Samiti from his hometown Kota, he smilingly answers questions about the bottles – each with different labels – kept on display.

“Each of these are for different ailments, and the main element in all the medicines is cow urine. In the future, every person will keep cows at home because gaumutra and gobar (cow dung) will be sold at a price of Rs 100 per litre/kilogram,” says Gupta, as he picks up a bottle and gives it to a visitor who has asked for a cure for fatty liver.

Gupta, who describes himself as a supporter of the Hindutva ideology, says that he is associated with four gaushalas (cow shelters) and apart from practising as an advocate in the Rajasthan high court, he volunteers to make people aware about the various benefits of cow products.

He says that it is good that there is more research being done on cow products these days, “be it because of Modi ji coming to power or owing to the public’s interest in the subject”.

“Arjun ark is for patients with heart ailments, even those who have been suggested surgery by doctors. Those with bone ache will be cured with nirgundi ark. The varun gokhru ark is for patients of kidney disease and go teerth is an antibiotic that cures cold, cough and asthma. The main element in all these medicines is gaumutra. It is full of medicinal properties,” says Gupta, listing the various cow urine-based medicines kept at the stall.

The website of the Gau Mahakumbh says that the event, which concludes on September 7, is being organised by Devraha Baba Gau Seva Parivar, a unit of Rudrashivam Livestock Association, a not-for-profit private company.

Those who visited the event on Thursday included senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and former governor of Rajasthan Kalraj Mishra, Rajasthan education minister Madan Dilawar, urban development and housing minister Jhabar Singh Kharra and BJP MLA from Hawa Mahal Balmukund Acharya.

Cures on cures

The many stalls at the two exhibition halls of the event include those selling cow products such as ghee, milk, fertilisers and cow dung processing machines, artwork made of cow dung, notebooks and stationary items made from cow dung paper along with cosmetic items.

A large number of stalls focused on medicines made of cow urine which claim to treat ailments ranging from constipation to cancer.

“We have found excellent results from cow urine when it comes to curing kidney disease. It has been noticed that patients who earlier had to undergo dialysis no longer needed it because they have recovered after taking medicines made from cow urine. Gaumutra cleanses the body and its role is that of a detox,” says Bhanu Prakash Sharma, who is managing the stall of the Rajasthan Gau Seva Sangh.

A pamphlet at a stall in the “gau mahakumbh” in Jaipur, listing diseases and claiming that cow urine can cure them. Photo: The Wire

A brochure of the Rajasthan Gau Seva Sangh lists the number of diseases they claim cow urine can cure including cancer, kidney diseases, heart ailments, skin diseases, gynaecological diseases, obesity, asthma and mental illnesses.

Asaram devotees selling cow products, ‘gaucrete’ replacing concrete

At another corner of the exhibition hall, Shashikant Pawar is among those managing a stall named “Sant Shri Asaram ji Gaushala Niwai”.

The stall has a large picture of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu who is presently lodged at the Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan and after being convicted for the rape of a minor girl and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pawar says that he has come to the Gau Mahakumbh from Maharashtra to join other devotees of Asaram from Rajasthan’s Tonk district who are managing the stall selling various cow products.

Devotees of jailed self-styled godman Asaram at a stall selling cow products at the “gau mahakumbh” in Jaipur. Photo: The Wire

“It’s the first day but most of our medicines made with cow urine are already sold out, such is the demand,” says Pawar.

Another stall where a large number of participants are visiting is owned by Manoj Doot, the creator of “Vedic paints”, who makes a strong case of using “gaucrete” – plaster derived from cow dung – instead of concrete as building material.

“The Vedic plaster is made of cow dung and elements like lime which we use instead of cement and sand. The paint is also made of cow dung. We are witnessing high demand because of the move towards an eco-friendly lifestyle. We have supplied Vedic plaster and paint for building KV Kutir, the organic farmhouse of poet Kumar Vishwas,” says Doot.

“When we use Vedic plaster and paint, the room temperature decreases in summer and increases in winter along with improving the energy of the house,” he says, adding that the response he is getting from the Gau Mahakumbh is “mindblowing”.

‘Sanatan and science cannot walk on the same track’

At the seminar hall of the Gau Mahakumbh, Niranjan K. Verma, the “gurukulapati” of the Panchgavya Vidyapeetham in Chennai – an institute that offers courses in curing ailments through products derived from cows – delivered a long speech on the significance of cows, with scathing criticism of modern science.

“Sanatan and science cannot walk on the same track because Sanatan is an axis of development and science is the axis of destruction. All discoveries made by modern science are for destruction but Sanatan talks of building not of destruction,” said Verma.

“When the entire world got the science of Ayurveda from Lord Brahma in the beginning of creation”, why should it be validated by reading theories of Europe and America? Why should we not know the Ayurvedic names of plants and instead know their botanical names, he added.

Verma said that it is our “misfortune” that even today the Macaulay education system – a reference to 19th century British educationist Thomas Babington Macaulay who played an important role in determining the Indian education system – is not only still functional but thriving.

“Even after 80 years after independence, we haven’t been able to rejuvenate the gurukul system. Earlier the village vaidya was so proficient that there was no need to open hospitals. If nobody falls sick, why would one need hospitals? The only way to save our homes is cows,” said Verma.

He added that the chemistry table – the periodic table of elements – isn’t updated enough yet to identify all the elements found in cow urine.

“Modern science has no way of purifying the five compound elements which make up the Earth. This power has been given by nature only to the cow. You can take 10 litre polluted water from drains and then mix it with 200 ml or half litre cow urine. Within 24 hours that water will be fit for drinking. Its colour or smell won’t change but it will be drinkable,” said Verma.

Dismissing science

While there was much talk at the event about the “medicinal properties” of cow urine, the participants didn’t provide any examples or cite actual cases wherein people have been cured from serious diseases after taking cow urine.

Different organisations participating in the event did mix elements of modern science in their rhetoric to bolster their claims, claiming that cow dung used in plaster prevents radiations and sprinkling cow urine keeps snakes away, but no scientific basis for these claims was provided.

In fact, when speaker Niranjan K. Verma was asked whether benefits of cow urine should also be demonstrated through clinical trials and scientific research, the suggestion was met with vehement opposition from him, who said that science is “not advanced enough to understand all the properties” found in cow urine.

In recent years, while the ruling BJP and allied organisations of the Sangh parivar have routinely tried to promote the so-called medicinal properties of cow urine, the scientific community has reiterated that such claims are “unscientific”. Back in 2020, more than 500 scientists had asked the Indian government to withdraw a call for research proposals about the “uniqueness” of indigenous cows and the curative properties of cow urine, dung, and milk, including potential cancer treatments, science.org had reported at the time.

This article went live on September fifth, two thousand twenty five, at seventeen minutes past ten in the morning.

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