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As to the names of bhang, I may add the follow-
ing:—
(a) Thandai.—This term is used in Mirzapur and
Benares districts, as the beverage is believed
to have a cooling effect in hot days of
summer.
(b) Sukha.—This name is in vogue in the Pun-
jab, and much used by the Sikhs. Adi-
grantha, the sacred book of the Sikhs,
tolerates the use of bhang in moderate
doses. (Rati aphim masa sukha, i.e., of
opium one rati in weight, or of bhang one
masa in weight.) The term sukha literally
means dry or desiccated, tobacco being a
forbidden article with the Sikhs. In the
Gangetic India, however, the term sukha
means tobacco leaf, or rather that form of it
which is chewed with a little quick-lime;
the alkali by developing the nascent am-
monia in the leaf increases its pungency,
which not unoften is mistaken for the
strength of the leaf.
Ganja—
(a) Tamaku.—The name of the drug by which
those who are initiated in its smoking call
it. Has it anything to do with the small
quantity of tobacco which is not unoften
added to it?
(b) Tvaritananda.—A compond name, mean-
ing, that which gladdens immediately (it
is smoked).
3. Cannabis indica, lately reduced to Cannabis
sativa, is a variety of the sativa. The former
I have seen to grow spontaneously almost every-
where I have visited. It grows spontaneously in
Jessore, Nadia, 24-Parganas, Hughli, Midnapur,
Birbhum, Bankura, Manbhum, Chota Nagpur,
Rangpur, Dinajpur, Malda, Mymensing, Jalpai-
guri, Tippera, Noakhali, Chittagong, Bhutan
Doars, Patna, Gaya, Benares, Mirzapur, Rawal
Pindi, Peshawar, Murree, and Kashmir. Abun-
dantly in Jessore, Nadia, 24-Parganas, Jalpaiguri,
and Kashmir.
4. Ganja gach and siddhi gach. They refer
to the different sexes of the same plant, or rather
to the so-called different sexes.
5. I have noticed it at about 5,000 feet above
the sea level. It prefers a shady place, and is
seen to have a liking for rubbish heaps in Bengal.
It prefers a well-drained place, and is impatient
of water-clogging. A light soil and a cool place
are suited to it. The product, ganja, is better
grown in Bengal; the leaf, siddhi, in the North-
West Provinces, perhaps to the west of Delhi;
and the resin, charas, in Nepal, Kashmir, and
the Hills, a cooler climate and an elevated place
developing the same.
6. I have noticed it dense in wild growths.
Isolated plants are rare.
15. My information is mostly from fakirs
and religions mendicants.
(b) Wild plant.
Ganja—
(A) Smoking.
To prevent flowering spikes from being fructified
by pollens from male plants which grow promis-
cuously with the female, they are, while on the
plant, lightly rolled between the palms, and the
resin, or rather the resinous pollen or dust of the
flowers, agglutinate the petals and the little bracts
or leaflets which sprout between the blossoms.
The treatment, repeated several times, converts
the spikes into what is commonly called jata,
which gives the matted appearance to the article.
Siddhi—
(C) Drinking.
The leaves are prepared by nipping the flower-
ing buds as soon as they appear. This, they say,
is the way to concentrate the narcotic principles
in the leaves. By analogy, this process is known
as khasi, i.e., castration.
16. Bhang, i.e., bhang leaf, is never prepared
by people in their houses, for every hemp plant
does not yield good bhang. The fresh leaves
specially have a subji (greenish) i.e., unripe, smell
about it, which is considered a defect of good
bhang, and it is said to have a garmi in it, a
heating principle, producing headache and nausea.
It can be prepared from the wild plant wherever
grown; but bhang from Upper India fetches a
higher price, and is preferred to bhang from
Bengal or Behar grown plants. I think charas
prepared from plants grown in the plains must be
of an inferior quality.
18. I am told bhang improves by keeping.
Ganja and charas deteriorate in time. The resins
in both these becoming drier, lose their narcotic
potency. Moisture deteriorates all three.
19. Ganja is generally found in small quan-
tities mixed with bhang, and, unless the drinker
of the leaf carefully eliminates the seeds or berries
occurring in bhang, he involuntarily drinks the
same. Picked bhang is not, however, so much
relished by those who drink it for more than
ordinary intoxicating purpose. Ganja seeds have
been seen to be ground with certain other drugs
to paint the bottom of earthern jars set up for the
collection of fermented toddy, the addition of the
seeds being made to increase the intoxicating
power of the drink. I have noticed this addition
to toddy in the district of the 24-Parganas.
20. Ganja.—All mendicants, ascetics, fakirs,
etc., bearers, coolies, peshrajes, boatmen, and such
other persons as have arduous labour to go through,
or as are exposed to the inclemencies of the wea-
ther; cultivators in Bengal are not free from this
drug-smoking.
Illiterate up-countrymen, dar-
wans, shop-keepers, and gomashtas are not free
from this narcotic. In Bengal, especially in the
mufassal, I have noticed in all classes of society.
As to proportion I have no idea.
Charas.—All
those mentioned above have
been seen to enjoy this luxury also. In Calcutta,
however, within the last few years, the use of this
resin is losing ground amongst the Babus who are
seen to take to spirituous liquors.
22. Charas from Nepal and Kashmir are pre-
ferred. Gorakhpuri charas is said to have the
flavour, or rather the fragrance, of green mango,
and the momia, i.e., waxy charas, is much prized.
I am informed, in Lucknow a fluid extract of
charas is much sought for. Is it the same which
is prepared in Kashmir by boiling the entire
hemp plant, leaves, flowers, sticks and all?
23. I am not aware of it.
24. Bhang is drunk universally. It is occasional-
ly chewed when a pestle and a mortar are not
available for grinding. But this latter practice
is observed only in the muscular people of the
North-West Provinces. A prepared form, the
leaves or rather a thick decoction of the leaves, is
confected with sugar and milk, to which khoa, i.e.,
desiccated milk, is added, the whole thing cast in
shallow dishes and cut lozenge-shaped. This is
majum. It is also eaten in kachuri, a kind of
patty filled with ground bhang leaves and several
other condiments. It is made into an electuary,
and the preparation is called shakrasana, a carmi-
native and slightly intoxicating electuary.