Gosava
गोसव
Optional rites undertaken to obtain a particular desire — progeny, rain, victory, cattle — performed only by one who seeks the specific fruit.
Category
Kamya (desire-motivated, optional)
Duration
1 (a one-day soma rite within a longer consecration)
Priests required
16 ritviks
Purpose
A one-day soma rite, attested in the Brahmana texts, undertaken by a patron who desires the attainment of the qualities, dignity and abundance associated with the cow. It is classed as a kamya rite because it is performed only by one who specifically seeks this particular fruit.
Deities invoked
- • Surya
- • Prajapati
- • Indra
Mantra source
Krishna Yajurveda Taittiriya Samhita 7.4, Tandya (Panchavimsha) Brahmana 19, Apastamba Shrauta Sutra 22
Material offerings
- • Soma
- • Milk
- • Curds
- • Ghee
- • Rice cakes (purodasha)
- • Parched grain
Items listed are those prescribed in the Shrauta texts. This page does not provide procedural instruction.
Modern status
Not performed in any living tradition today
Not performed in any living tradition. The Gosava survives only as a subject of Vedic textual scholarship and is sometimes cited in modern Indological discussion of Vedic kamya rites and of early Indian attitudes toward the cow.
Historical significance
The Gosava is one of the named kamya soma rites of the late Brahmana period and is discussed in the Tandya Brahmana and Apastamba Shrauta Sutra. It is significant in the literature both as an early example of a desire-motivated Shrauta performance and as the rite around which the famous Brahmana-text vow of the gosava-vrata (in which the patron behaves for a year in imitation of a cow) is described.