Gosahasra or go-sahasra-dana (literally "the gift of a thousand cows") is a ritual donation described in the ancient texts of India.
It is one of the sixteen great gifts (shodasha-mahadana), and is frequently mentioned in the ancient inscriptions.
The Atharvaveda-parishishta, composed in the 1st millennium BCE, mentions gosahasra, along with hiranyagarbha and tulapurusha donations.
[2] The Matsya Purana states that several ancient kings performed the great gifts,[1] and these three donations are most prominent among the great gifts recorded in historical inscriptions.
The great gifts are further detailed in the later digests devoted to the topic of charity (dāna), such as Ballala's Dana-sagara, and the Danakhanda section of Hemadri's Chaturvarga-chintamani (13th century).