From: narayana@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Kuram T Narayana)
Subject: The SOMA of the Soma Sacrifice
Organization: Penn State Computer Science
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 00:26:19 GMT


              The SOMA of the Soma Sacrifice

Vedic Aryans (whether they descended from the north central asia or were
native), in the early stages of the composition of the verses of RgVeda,
used to perform a sacrifice called Soma sacrifice. The word Soma stands
for a god, a plant, and also for its juice. There are supposed to be about 140
verses in the Rg Veda alone dedicated to the Soma Sacrifice. Of all of the
plants, only Soma has been so deified in religions. Because the Soma sacrifice
is the most important of the vedic sacrifices, the Soma plant used in those
sacrifices, and establishing the botanical identiity of the plant assumes 
important.

Soma is an inebriating nonalcoholic drink. Many of the Brahmanas (extensions
to the hymns) make out that Soma is truth, and Suura the alcoholic drink
is untruth. The Soma brings virtue and the Suura brings destruction. The 
botanical identity of Soma must such that it is nonalcoholic. 

By its very nature, the Soma sacrifice is very expensive to perform. It
requires 16 knowledgeable priests and a number of cattle to exchange for
the Soma. It is said that brahmanas (the priestly class) should perform
the Soma sacrifice atleast once in three generations.

Soma assumes importance because when taken, the drink causes deep sleep
in which the subject speaks; it is said that that what is spoken by the
priestly Aryans under the influence of the inebriating drink is a vision.
That vision is what is recorded in the Rg Veda.
 
The Soma plant is lyrically described by the priest poets who composed
the verses of Rg Veda. Apparently, the Soma was only available in the
higher reaches of the mountains (generally assumed to be Himalayas and
is very rare). When the aryans set out southward, civilizing the aboriginals
and others, the Soma availability became an important issue. At that time
a  brahamana priest has to take the Soma juice atleast three times a day.
Because of nonavaialbility of the original Soma, various substitutes have
been described in the Brahmanas. These substitutes are supposed to imitate
but not replace the original Soma. 

The original Soma (it appears) was being taken by the Vedic Aryans in two forms.

1) The palnt juice is extracted mixed with milk and honey and taken.
This mode of taking causes extreme nausea.

2) In the second form, the urine of the priest who symbolizes (represents)
Indra in the Soma sacrifice is taken. The idea is that the body of the
officiating priest absorbs all nascea causing elements of the Soma,
and the urine therefore can be used with only its inebriating
effects. 

It appears that gradually the later form fell out of favor. It is not
clear to me whether the later form was an interpretation of teh author
of a book which I will mention or is part of a ritual.

But the basic question of botanical identity of Soma is still unanswered.
Gordon R Wassan in his book, SOMA, hypothesizes that the Soma plant is
nothing but a rare species  of hard to cultivate mushroom called 
FLY AGARIC. He gives an exhausting account of the descriptions of
the Soma plant from the Rg Veda and compares the same to the mushroom
itself. Fly Agaric itself has an enormous mythical history, in that
it is also used by some of the north siberian races in their rituals.

Waason describes that he exerimented with the mushroom, but only gives
rather insuffient experimental evidence in support of the plant being Soma. 
He claims that in his experiments the mushroom did cause the nascea and deep
slumber; only in one case did the subject after waking up from sleep
talk in an uncontrolled way. 

This insufficiency of evidence makes me enquire from some knowledgeable
people on the net whether the hypothesis of Wasson has been discredited
by either experimental scientists or anthropologists or has it been
further substantiated.

Any help in this regard appreciated.

...kt
The Soma identity assumes importance if we note that most of the Hindu
religious components are only intended to achieve that vision which the
Soma drink used to give to the Aryan priests.

...kt