11
toffy, which is cut up into small slices for sale.
For drinking, the leaves are pounded up small and
mixed with water, pepper and other spices being
added to give a flavour; the concoction is drunk
with sugar and milk. In order to preserve the
leaves of bhang, they are first dried in the sun, and
then boiled in the milk and water and again dried.
Charas is also used for smoking. Being glutinous,
a quantity of tobacco is placed around it to make
it burn in the chillum when lighted.
Bhang can be prepared from the hemp plant
wherever grown, but I am doubtful about ganja.
The hemp preparations are made by the consumers
and not by the vendors. The drugs deteriorate
by keeping, but if kept in air tight or tin-
lined boxes deterioration can be prevented. The
Raja of the Jashpur Tributary State reports that
deterioration can be prevented by covering the
drugs with the leaves of the moulan tree.
Ganja and charas are usually smoked. The
former is said to be occasionally chewed or eaten
and rarely used with spirits. When eaten or
chewed, it is used as a medicine for colic or in-
digestion. It is also used with oil for the cure of
itch. It is also given to horses as medicine; and
in the work of Raj Bullub Kabiraj it is described
as a tonic, as increasing animal heat, and as a cure
for leprosy. Bhang is used as a beverage by all
classes of people, specially in the hot season, and
largely by up-country people. Its use is not con-
fined to any particular locality. It is sometimes
eaten with sweetmeats. It is also taken as a
medicine for the cure of diarrhœa, dysentery,
asthma, and rheumatism in the form of a pill, the
leaves being finely ground and mixed with a little
water and black-pepper. Sometimes it is taken
as a drink by diluting it with mere water. In a
Sanskrit work called "Modan Nirghanta," it is
described as a cure for coughs and colds, as bitter
to the taste, and an astringent. It is further said
to increase the appetite and bodily heat, to generate
bilious diseases, create nervousness, bewilder and
derange the mind, and make a man unnecessarily
talkative. Charas is not much in demand in
Chota Nagpur. It is said to be used by rich
Muhammadans. Ganja is used by all classes of peo-
ple, but the majority of its consumers belong to
the lower classes, such as day-labourers, cartmen,
palkibearers, masons, ghasis, domes, bairagies,
gosains, jogis, and sanyasis. It is believed to be
used throughout the division.
Flat ganja is said to be preferred by the consum-
ers of Hazaribagh and Lohardaga, and round by
those of Manbhum and Singhbhum. In Palamau
flat and chur ganja are most consumed, but the con-
sumers are said to prefer chur. A glance at the
Board of Revenue's Table XI will show that while
the metropolitan districts prefer round ganja, the
eastern and more western districts have a taste for
flat. I have had no opportunity of investigating
the reason of this difference, but the difference of
climate and race may have something to do with
it, and I beg to offer the following suggestive re-
marks. (1) The eastern districts are damper than
other parts of Lower Bengal; (2) there is a pre-
ponderance in them of Muhammadan Bengalis as
compared with Hindu Bengalis elsewhere. There
are certain parganas in Lohardaga, specially known
as "The five parganas," owing to certain cus-
toms which differentiate them from the rest of the
district, and in these parganas, and also in
Manbhum, there is a preponderence of Hindu
Bengalis as compared with other parts of the
division co-existent with a taste for round ganja
in preference to flat.
Bhang is sometimes used by poor people and by
those who cannot at once smoke ganja. It is
used as a substitute for ganja when the latter
drug is not easily procurable. The consumers
are mainly taken from the following classes:—
(a) Agriculturists, shopkeepers, artisans, day-
labourers, palki-bearers, up-country dar-
wans, athletes, and some people of the
richer classes.
(b) Bairagis, jogis, sanyasis, Brahmans who
worship Mahadeba, palki-bearers, porters.
(c) Young people of dissolute and depraved
habits.
People who worship Siva and Rama are addict-
ed to the use of ganja and bhang, asserting that
they are enabled thereby to divert their mind from
worldly affairs to the meditation on the gods
whom they worship. The religious mendicants
who use it do so not only as a devotional exercise,
but also to render themselves fit to undergo the
hardships of their ascetic life, and the inclemency
of climate incidental to their prolonged pilgrimages
to distant places. It may be here remarked that
while the classes above noted are allowed by the
Hindu religion to use ganja, the "Shaktahs," or
followers of the goddess "Shakti," are only per-
mitted to use liquor for devotional purposes, while
the Voistabs, or worshippers of Vishnu, are not
allowed liquor or ganja. There is a passage in one
religious work to the effect that liquor, so far
from being used, may not even be smelt. The use
of liquor ought to lead to a Brahman being
excommunicated, but no degradation necessarily
attaches to the use of ganja, and the effects of
intoxication are not so openly displayed and offen-
sive to the public as those of ganja.
Majum and charas are beyond the means of the
poorer classes. They use ganja and bhang as a
tonic or exhilarant. The moderate use of these
drugs is considered beneficial, enabling the con-
sumer to bear fatigue, withstand cold, and shake
off mental anxieties. Those who worship the
god Shib rarely begin to smoke without calling
upon his name "Bam Mahadeo" or chanting
couplets in praise of ganja, some of which are of
the Bacchanalian type:—"How can I recite the
virtues of ganja with an alphabet of only thirty-
two letters. The consumer of ganja is sanctified,
and even the messenger of death flees from him."
"Salvation comes from partaking of ganja"
"One pipe leaves you as you were: be persuaded,
take two; with a third you are a vazir, the fourth
a king." The Kulin Brahmans in Eastern Bengal
for specific purposes or to serve their private ends,
are said to be great consumers of bhang.
The ingredients mixed with the drugs are—
(a) Ordinarily, tobacco leaves with ganja; and
black-pepper, sugar, milk, and cucumber
seeds with bhang, in order to reduce the
strength and render the mixture more
agreeable.
(b) Exceptionally, dhatura is used with bhang to
strengthen the mixture. Aniseed is some
times used with bhang to cool the
mixture. The admixture of sugar with
bhang has the effect of increasing its
intoxicating powers.
Ganja is used in company; bhang to a certain
extent in solitude. Both these drugs are mainly
confined to the male sex. The exception is public
women, who take some preparation of the drugs
both as a stimulant and a solace for the troubles