122
18. All the three drugs deteriorate by keeping.
Bhang loses its effect in a day or two. It can be
kept for twelve to twenty-four hours by covering
and keeping it cool.
Ganja loses its effect in time—six to twenty-four
months. Dampness is its chief enemy. The flower-
heads are attacked by a fungoid growth and by white
insects; while the pattis are attacked by a whitish
insect with reddish tinge. The more carefully the
bales are packed, and the less they are exposed, the
longer will their intoxicating effects remain.
19. Charas not used in Orissa. Ganja is chiefly
used for smoking. Sometimes it is taken in the
shape of madaks or balls, mixed with flour and
sugar. It is so used only by well-to-do persons,
being more palatable.
20. Ganja is smoked habitually by sanyasis
and vaishnavas; and occasionally by goalas
(cowkeepers) and bearers, manjhis (boatmen and
fishermen), and chasas (agricultural class). It is
difficult to state the proportion. It probably does
not exceed one-half per cent. of the population of
Orissa including the Tributary States. The ascetic
classes chiefly congregate at the town of Puri.
The other classes spread over the whole province.
21. In the regulation districts, round ganja,
and rarely flat ganja. In the Gurjats, Gurjat
ganja almost exclusively.
24. The Brahmin sebaks of the temples in Puri,
Jajpur and Bhuvaneswar, commonly called Pandas,
and their agents known as pilgrim hunters, habi¬
tually drink bhang. Their number would be
within two thousand. The higher castes, such as
the other sub-classes of Brahmins, the Karans and
the Khandaits, drink bhang occasionally, chiefly
in summer as a cooling draught. Such occasional
consumers do not exceed probably ten thousand.
25. The use of bhang has considerably decreased,
and the ganja-smoking seems to have increased.
In old days, bhang alone was recognised in the
Hindu Shastras, and in only one Tantra have I
found mention of ganja-smoking (see appendix for
quotations). The result was that the sanyasis,
vaishnavas, and tantriks then chiefly drank bhang.
With the later Muhammadan rule, tobacco-smok¬
ing and analogically ganja-smoking came into
vogue. The power of ganja-smoking in hardening
the body and in lessening the nervous sensibilities
including hunger, endeared the habit to ascetics
and persons compelled to do hard work under
exposure. Thus ganja-smoking has more and
more superseded bhang-drinking.
26. See answers to questions 20 and 24.
28. Moderate consumers of
ganja
1/8th
to 1/2 tola.
Cost in Rajshahi ganja 2 to 8 pice.
Cost in Gurjat
1/2
to 4 pice.
Moderate consumers of
bhang
1/2
to 3 or 4 tolas.
Cost in Rajshahi 1/2 to 2 pice.
Cost in Gurjat
1/4
to 1 pice.
Excessive consumers of
ganja
1/2
to 4 tolas.
Cost in
Rajshahi
2 to 16 annas.
Cost in Gurjat
1
to 8 annas.
Excessive consumers of
bhang
4 to 15 tolas.
Cost in
Rajshahi
2 to 12 or 16 pice.
Cost in Gurjat
1 to 8 pice.
29. Ganja (Rajshahi or Gurjat) is ordinarily
mixed with tobacco leaves and rubbed on the hand
before smoking. Smoked unmixed, ganja pro¬
duces cough and irritates the throat; and its
effect is said not to last long; exceptionally is
mixed with dhatura, to increase intoxication; or
with musk, attar, sandal powder, and small carda¬
moms, to give fragrance to the smoke.
Bhang (Rajshahi or Gurjat).—Patti ordinarily
washed, and then mixed with water. The decoc¬
tion is then strained, and the strained liquid mixed
with poppy-seed, small and large cardamoms, jayitri
and pudina leaves, to give flavour; exceptionally
milk or surgarcane juice or sugar added, to make
the drink palatable. Sugar is also said to add to
the intoxicating effects.
Bhang massala is sold only at Puri. It con¬
sists of poppy-seeds, pollens of nageswar flowers,
and spices such as labong, jayitri and marich.
When the person is suffering from cold or
cough, he often takes patti in balls of mashed
leaves, called lubdhi.
In feverish state attended with cold, the bhang-
drinker sometimes takes phanki. This consists of
patti, fried in ghi, and then powdered with
sunth, peepul, marioh and saindhab salt.
30. Bhang or ganja taken sometimes alone, but
generally in company. The bhang is drunk both
by children and adults; ganja smoked chiefly by
adults. Both confined to males only.
31. Yes; not so difficult to break off as opium,
but more difficult to break off than is tobacco. Yes;
there is a tendency to develop into the excessive,
unless the consumer is a person of strong will, or
is restrained by his pecuniary resources.
32. (a) In the following, bhang is customarily
taken:—
(1) On the night of Dasahra, bhang is pre¬
pared and drunk by relatives and
friends; hence the day is probably called
Bijaya, Bijaya being another name for
hemp in Sanskrit.
(2) On the Ganesh Chaturthi day, sweet¬
meats containing patti are offered to
the god, and then taken by relatives
and friends.
(3) According to the Tantras, bhang should
be drunk before several important cere¬
monies are performed (for quotations see
the appendix paper).
(b) In the following, ganja is smoked:—
(1) The yogis, sanyasis and vaishnavas con-
sider smoking to be a part of their
rites;
(2) In a ceremony lately introduced into
Balasore and Cuttack from Bengal,
called Trinath-mela, one pice worth
ganja should be smoked
Generally, excepting (b) (1), the drug is taken
moderately; but the custom may, in some cases,
lead to the formation of the habit.
33. Bhang-drinking, occasionally, is not in
disrepute. But the habitual drinker is in bad
odour. There is an Uriya proverb:—
"An opium eater is a thief, a ganja-drinker
is tipsy (incapable of acting reasonably), while
an user of dried tobacco leaves has too much
golmal in his house (every body asking for some
more leaves)."