Why aren't Buffaloes as Holy as Cows?

(I am a Hindu myself, and I have no intention of offending any belief! Most of my assumptions below are from my experience of being brought up being a Hindu, and not directly quoted from proper Religious books as such!)
I remember owning livestocks during my childhood! Until, I moved to Kathmandu I would regularly be in proximity to these creatures whom i admired. We had a couple of oxen which pulled our cart,varing numbers of buffaloes and cows. When we moved to Lalbandi (near EW Highway), 2 miles away from our indigenous place of Sishuwa, we began having chickens and ducks as well.We ended giving up our farming along with animal husbandry when our Grandparents decided to move to Kathmandu to join us.

Worshiped Cow!

I don't remeber much of our cows, maybe I was young enough to forget when we had one.I love them still. When I visit my Uncle's shed back in Lalbandi, my favorite passtime is to lightly feather the body of a cow, and watch its big eyes! I remember riding a buffalow.She was a tough one. Once I was asked to look after her as my Grandmother had to return to our house. The buffalow literally bullied me, it moved its own direction though I had the rope in my hand! It feeded in somebody elses barley. I couldn't pull her off. Later grandma who till then seemed powerless to me,such that her slap would be a mere smotch to me pulled her off effortlessly. I remember my Grandma scolding one of our helpers, for not grazing enough of grass to her. And she cleverly used to reply, "well its the pani pet (water stomach) that has not swollen, otherwise she has feeded full." Only God knows, if she was true...and also only God knows why he didn't design Buffaloes to be as holy as Cows.

Poor Buffalo!

Cows are generally beautiful compared to Buffaloes. Buffaloes are rather dark and they lack silky fur as that of cow.Buffaloes love to sit in muddy ponds and they do it regualarly, coined as aahal basnu in Nepali. Cows are more tidier, and even its dung would make a mud plastered kitchen floor of our scared. I thought maybe this bulkier look of Buffalow compared to the sleekness of Cow gave them the advantage. I pondered. Wait, so weren't those earlier brand of people wrong when they asumed the white men of Europe superior to the Blacks in Africa!Can physical dimensions and color give an upperhand to beings that usually have the same purpose and sense of existence. We have our own preferences, we have products that claims to makes us fairer, so fairness is what we praise.However, that doesnot make Europeans superior to African! So, why would the poor buffaloes be less holier, when they produce the same milk. Cows are considered as holy mothers in Hinduism because she sacrifices much of her milk to people who are not her direct children. And Buffaloes too do the same ,don't they?


The next thing is Cows are a symbol of Mata Laxmi(Goddess of wealth). If you go by what I think, Cows were symbolically related to Laxmi maybe(a big maybe!!) because in ancient times people having Cows might have been more richer! And they would be the same if they have now.Lord Krishna seem to be always enveloped either by Gopinis or Cows but no black Buffaloes. So, why no Buffaloes? I again pondered. I recollected my visit to Jiri, where they have a animal farm for more than 50 years now. All I saw there was Cow, no traces of Buffaloes(and now i wonder how the hotels provided Buff momos?).So, maybe Mahabharata occured in places where Buffaloes didn't fluorish as much as Cows did. So, people then might not have kept Buffaloes(or maybe they were still to be tamed). And so Hinduism might have ignored the poor Buffaloes. Well not totally true. Buffaloes are related to Yamaraj, God of Death. So,why don't we make Buffaloes holy so that we could praise Yamaraj. Why  don't we put garland over our poor Buffaloes the same way we do it to Cows in Laxmi Puja. One of my witty friend pointed, if we worship Buffaloes that would mean to invite death to ourself as Yamaraj would be pleased!I again pondered!Then celebrating Tihar (Yama Panchak) is to make Yamaraj happy, well that does not make us vulnerable to death, does it?

So, when I see the cramped old buffaloes who have passed through their fertility age and therfore can't produce milk, being transported to Kathmandu, to be slaughtered so that their flesh be put into little rolls of Suji to make our favorite MoMos, I heavily feel that it is unfair to these big black innocents. They do the hard yards as much as beloved cows do, but they don't get the same retirement plan as Cows.I think Hindus must look upto this matter, its time we begin to think Buffaloes are as holy as Cow!!!