47
leaves of the wild hemp are sometimes smoked
alone and oftener mixed with tobacco—"Punjab
Products," page 292. The Bengal Excise Manual,
page 153, also states that bhang is sometimes
smoked.
13. With regard to ganja, Sir W. Hunter in
the "Indian Empire" states :—" The cultivation
of hemp for this purpose is almost confined to a
limited area in Rajshahi district, Bengal, and to
the inner valleys of the Himalaya.' 'This statement
is not accurate, and misleading somewhat. A
small area in the Rajshahi district is celebrated
for the production of the best balucher ; but good
ganja is also produced along the entire southern
border of the Gangetic Valley, and charas largely
in the Punjab.
15. In smoking ganja the following procedure
was employed in one of the cases where I took
notes. Eleven grains of ganja were rubbed up
in the palm of the hand with five grains of tobacco
leaf. A narrow chillum (or pipe) was then pro-
duced, and a small stone plug was placed in the
orifice at the base. Sis grains of hooka tobacco
were sprinkled round this stone, and the powered
charas and tobacco leaf above all. A bright little
fire of small bits of lighted charcoal was then
carefully arranged over the mass, and lighted by
a few whiffs, which were followed by a long in-
spiration, after which the chillum was handed
to the next man. The same procedure and im-
plements were employed for charas-smoking, and
only differed from the ganja-smoking in the
method. The charas was mingled with the
tobacco leaf. A pill of eight grains of charas was
taken and wrapped up with a quantity of dried
tobacco leaf (I regret it was too late to weigh the
tobacco). The ball of tobacco was then held
over a small charcoal, fire, when the charas par-
tially melted or rather broke up, and was then
rubbed up with the tobacco leaf and used as the
ganja was. The odour of the smoke did not differ
from the ganja smoke. Four men smoked these
quantities,
16. The best bhang procurable in Allahabad
comes from Chupra and Mhow in the Fattehgurh
district. It is used chiefly by the rich. It is
semi-wild, like Lathryus sativus, the wild rice,
etc., but receives a certain share of cultivation.
Charas can certainly be procured from the wild
plant every where, and also an inferior kind of
ganja.
18. Charas is said to lose its aroma and qualities
in two years by evaporation : ganja after four
years.
19. They are also drunk, mixed or dissolved,
in wine or spirits by Muhammadans of the upper
classes.
23. That bhang can be used for smoking is
admitted in the Excise Manual for Bengal, page
158. Bhang is also smoked in the Himalayas,
and the "Punjab Products," page 292,—see ques-
tion 12, where it is stated that bhang leaves are
smoked alone and also mixed with tobacco.
24. 1 hear on good authority that Brahmans of
all sects smoke ganja and charas in secret.
25. A wave of fanaticism seems also to be
passing over the Hindus, which has taken the
direction of causing some of them to revert to old
Hindu customs. These were gradually going out
till the revival of Sanscrit learning by the opening
of Government Sanscrit Colleges at Benares and
elsewhere showed the Hindus that their religion
had something good in it and was worth retain-
ing.
32. I think commentators on the Vedas have
gone out of their way in search for the soma plant.
There can he no reasonable doubt that soma was
bhang.
First, admitting that the use of bhang is per-
mitted to Brahmans, there is no mention of bhang
as such in the ordinances of Manu, though there are
references to the use of soma. As the use of hemp
as an intoxicant is very ancient, and was known
to the Scythians, it is quite incredible that suck
an omission would have been made by Manu, who
distinctly allows the use of soma, and at verse 150
says : "Now a soma-drinking Brahman, on snuff-
ing the odour of a spirit-drinking man, is purified
by drinking ghi whilst thrice suppressing his
breath in water," page 345. Soma is described in
the Rig Veda as a drink free from alcohol, and it
was clearly not a fermented drink like beer.
The second point is that the preparation of
soma did not differ at all from the preparation of
bhang. According to the Rig Veda soma was a
plant that was pounded in a mortar with a stone
pestle, was then mingled in water by the priests,
and then filtered through a woollen filter. Bhang
is prepared exactly in the same way, except that it
is filtered now through a cotton cloth. It (soma)
was drunk, mixed with milk, butter-milk, or taken
pure ; so is bhang. The third point is that the
intoxicating effects of soma were identical with
the characterestic intoxication of hemp. Soma is
described as the inebriating soma, as "that sweet,
exhilarating, inspiring, celestial plant, yielding
soma." The remarkable power that soma is said
to have possessed of elevating the spirits and pro-
ducing a temporary frenzy, under which the in-
dividual was capable of deeds beyond his natural
powers, is also a common property of bhang.
It is said that the Aryans latterly ceased to
import the soma plant into the plains of India.
It would surprise me less to learn that the hemp
was introduced by them into the plains of India
from the Himalayas. The Urticaceæ or nettle
family to which hemp belongs are almost all
natives of the palæarctic or temperate zone, and its
present wide distribution would not be more re-
markable than the spread of the Mexican horned
poppy Argemone mexicana which is to be found
over nearly every square mile of country from the
Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and yet was intro-
duced by Europeans from America within the
century. Lastly, 1 consider it incredible that any
people in the state of civilization the ancient
Indians were in, would lose so valuable a stimulant
as soma was said to be, without substituting some-
thing better instead.
Alcohol co-existed with soma, as we see from
Manu. Beer has supplanted mead in England,
but then beer is more potent and better drink.
The ordinances of Manu, which date between
the 2nd century B.C. and 500 A.D., brings the
use of soma down to the mesohistorical period.
With regard to the statement that the British
found the Hindus a sober race and left them a
drunken one, it may be mentioned that early
Hinduism has been succinctly described "As a
system of animal sacrifices mingled with the use
of a sacred intoxicant (soma)."
It would appear that as the Brahmans shrank
from killing animals and eating their flesh, they
also gradually dropped the use of soma as an
indispensable part of their ritual, though they
still use it in large quantities in private and at
feasts. The kusa grass, which was generally used
for religious ceremonials with soma, is yet one of
the most common grasses in India.