A comparison connecting a herdsman, his cows, and the bestowal of praise appears in several passages in the Rig-Veda. All three elements are present in 6.49.12, but 1.114.9 and 10.127.8 omit the cows or herdsman respectively, while 10.23.6, even as it mentions praise, does not connect it so closely with the herdsman-cattle combination. In all four passages, the underlying basis of the pattern is the liminal moment of nightfall, when the herdsman successfully brings his animals home to their stalls after a day in the fields.
To be sure, the comparison found in these passages diverges from the pervasive Vedic concept of danastuti, whereby the singer receives cattle as a reward for praise, rather than providing them to others. The comparison must, however, have been familiar to the Vedic rishis and their audience, inasmuch as it did not need to be stated in full to be understood. Its antiquity is also indicated by the presence of parallels in Greek (Sappho, 96 and 104 [Voigt]), as well as in Latin and English.
An approach through Indo-European is also important in understanding the Vedic usage of the pattern. Although 10.23.6 (in which the threefold combination of herdsman, cattle, and praise is not so clearly stated) concerns the almost ubiquitous Indra, the others are addressed to divinities who are not so prominent in the Rig-Veda, viz., Rudra, Vishnu, and Ratri. Two of them, however, Rudra (redefined as Siva) and Vishnu, became major divinities of the later Hindu pantheon. Especially in their case, it is appropriate that the power of poetry should be associated with a very ancient, but also well-founded (and hence eminently reusable) metaphor.