Tamil Nadu: IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti Defends Cow Urine Remarks, Confirms Consumption Of Panchagavya

Chennai: Amid a row over his recent speech claiming that cow urine had curative properties, IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti on Monday stood by his contention said he himself had consumed panchagavya. 

A few days ago, addressing a meeting at a goshala in Chennai, Prof Kamakoti had narrated an anecdote of a sanyasi once recommending consumption of cow urine, which immediately cured a man of an infection. 

With the video of his remarks going viral, it had evoked strong criticism from certain section. However, Prof Kamakoti told journalist that there were at least five scientific papers which vouched for the “anti fungal, anti bacterial, anti inflammatory” properties contained in cow urine. His office later shared the links to the research papers such as A review on Gomutra (Cow Urine) published in Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, April-June 2020; and Benefits of cow urine – a review published in the International Journal of Recent Advances in Multidisciplinary Research in 2017. He added that event a patent was filed. 

When a journalist sought to know if he had consumed it, he said “You are asking whether I have consumed panchagavya. Yes, we have some festive occasions where it is served. I have consumed it.”

The panchakavya is generally a mixture of cow dung, cow urine, milk, curd and ghee. 

The IIT Madras Director, incidentally, is an extremely religious person so much so that he does not have a passport as his family’s traditional belief prohibits travelling abroad.