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83. Evidence of DEVI DAYAL , Editor of " Kaistha Mitra" Lahore.
Bhang grows spontaneously. It grows in ex-
cessive quantities in damp and inundated ground.
In the Punjab it is generally called bhang, sabzi,
buti, and bijya, and mostly in places thandai and
sardai.
Those who drink it daily as a practice and those
who have become addicted to it, are called
' bhanger.' This word (bhanger) implies that the
man (addicted to it) possesses low manners and
practices; that he cannot be trusted. The state of
his person shows that no such work can be en-
trusted to him, in which an exercise of spirit and
strength are necessary.
The use of this article in large quantities is
generally found among such people as either asso-
ciate with bad people, or in the beginning associated
with bad men. The different classes of people who
are alleged to have renounced the world, such as
the jogis, jangams, sanyasis, udasis, kanphatas,
suthras, and sadhus, and such like rovers, as also
the worthless illiterates, use bhang largely. For
instance, the priests attached to the shivalayas and
temples, the mahants of the different sects of world-
ly-forsaken people, their disciples, and especially
those who associate with people, as well as the
Chaubes of Muthra, are reputed bhang-drinkers.
The Chaubes have this saying among themselves :
" O Jumna mother ! Why did you not flow of
bhang (instead of water) ?" The illiterate shop-
keepers and the menials, such as chaprasis, police
constables, chowkidars and cooks are also in the
habit of using it. The seats occupied by sadhus
and fakirs, banks of tanks, gardens, thakurdwaras,
shivalayas, and such like places, form rendezvous
for bkang-drinking, and to these places people who
have contracted this habit resort at appointed
times; and when bhang is ground and prepared it
is distributed to all those present according to the
quantity each is in the habit of taking. They con-
tribute something monthly or on special occasions
towards the expenses, each according to his means.
Bhang is ground on grinding stones or in stone cups
specially made for this purpose.
A smaller number of people who drink bhang are
shopkeepers, regimental sepoys (specially the Pur-
abias), jewellers, goldsmiths, cloth-sellers, and
clerks, who know Hindi and Persian. Amongst
the Hindus, there are a few persons only who refuse
to take it if they get it ready and as a chance or
merry-making drink, excepting those who are
strictly forbidden, or who loath it having tasted it
once previously. But in the hot season it is much
in use; and most of those who do not drink it,
drink it at that season. There are several stages
of its preparation. This depends upon the social
positions of the drinkers. Those who are poor
content themselves by mixing black pepper and
cucumber, musk-melon and water-melon seeds with
it, when grinding ; and, if they can afford, they
have some sugar, etc., or else they take it in its
insipid state. Rich people, or who take it as a
chance or merry-making drink, take pains for its
preparation. In addition to mixing the ingre-
dients required for its composition, they mix some
rose water or keora water (Pandanus oderatissimus)
with a view to make it sweet-scented, and put
milk, sugar, etc., and thereby make it tasteful.
This kind of preparation is called dudhia or motia-
jhar. In the different districts this preparation is
called by different names like the above. As in
the Persian language liquor has many high-sound-
ing and deceptive names, bhang has similarly such
vol. v.
names, such as wark-ul-khayal (imagination-creat-
ing leaf) and wark-unnishat (pleasure-giving leaf).
It is possible that the Hindustani-speaking people
may not know the meanings of these words, for
they are not Persian equivalents of bhang; they
are rather artificial names.
It is taken in various ways. Some take it after
grinding and straining it. Long as you grind it,
the better result you produce.
The thicker the better.
Similarly, ' garhi
chhanna' is the idiom in Urdu, which literally
means to prepare a thick bhang. Some peeple, in
order to avoid the trouble of preparing it, clean the
dry bhang, and, having washed it, keep it in a
shadowy place till it is dry. Then, putting the bhang
on the palm of their hands, they rub the same with
the other palm and chuck it into the mouth like
powder. If they get sugar and spices, they mix
them with the dry bhang, and, putting it into the
mouth, take a gulp of water. As the winter ap-
proaches, people lessen the use of bhang, because, as
they say, drinking bhang in winter causes rheuma-
tism. At the close of the winter, only such people
drink bhang as have become addicted to it. But
in the winter season people make use of bhang often
in the other form, that is, they make majum (cakes
of sugar with bhang in them) of it. When travel-
ling by railway it is much in use. In the excise
contractors' shop majum is largely sold in these days.
There is another reason for it. Those who cannot
afford to prepare majum at home, they go and buy
from the contractors. The correspondent himself
has heard majum-eaters say : " The contractor, for
the sake of making a good earning, takes on his
own shoulders our murder and gives us poison"
(i.e., the contractor takes the risk of their being
killed and gives them poison—bad stuff of majum).
The fact is that the contractor, for his pecuniary
interest, makes majum of bad and rotten bhang,
which was previously rejected, and season the so-
prepared majum with dhatura (stramonium), aloes,
soap nut, water, copper, and kuchla (Strychnos, nux
vomica), for making the drug strong. This process
makes majum poisonous and more intoxicating, and
one who takes it gets destroyed and ruined. The
contractors also put sugar of inferior quality in the
majum, and, making cakes, sell them at very dear
rates. Majum is made in this way :—
They keep the bhang boiled in water, and, when
well boiled, they put ghi in it ; then bhang and its
water are strained through 'asan' (a straining
cloth), and this way the water gets separated from
the ghi, and, mixing the ghi with sugar, put the
whole thing in a dish, and when the composition
freezes, they make cakes like those of barfi (name
of a sweet). Majum is seasoned when being boiled.
An Abkari Darogha, a personal friend of the corres-
pondent, has verified the process word by word.
He said that contractors mix bad, rotten charas
when dhatura is not obtainable. People who are
rich and get majum prepared at home prepare it
very carefully. Khoya (milk reduced to solidity),
sugar, and costly spices are mixed with majum, a
silver leaf being put over. The drug is made in
shapes like those of the various kinds of sweets,
such as barfi, pera, laddu, and acid dhania. The
poor put bhang in larger quantity and the
other ingredients in less quantity. Majum is
more used in the days of Holi (a Hindu festival),
because those who do not drink liquor eat majum,
the object being, as they say, to get intoxicated.
Majum is made use of simply for the sake of
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