148
der to be an undeniable proof that alcohol is now
being substituted for bhang.
37. The effects of ganja smoking are immediate.
Bhang acts in about an hour or two, when taken
after a meal. It acts in less than half an hour
on an empty stomach. The effects of ganja are
transient ; those of bhang last for hours. Ganja
has to be repeated frequently to keep up its effects.
In moderate men bhang has seldom to be repeated.
39. The smoking of ganja is more injurious in
the long run than drinking bhang or eating it
in a preparation called majum. (Majum is made
up of wheat flour, ghee, bhang and sugar in
various proportions.) The following are my
reasons :—
Ganja-smoking deadens the appetite and tends
to produce loss of digestive powers. Hence the
general emaciation of all habitual excessive ganja
smokers, their pallid hue, and, strange to say,
blood-shot eyes. From these appearances one can
at once recognize a confirmed ganja smoker of the
excessive type.
The prime effect of bhang drinking is to create
an excessive desire for food. Milk is generally
drunk after such craving. Bhang drinkers have
generally better digestive powers, and are in con-
sequence well known to be voracious eaters, and
are by no means any the worse for their voracity.
I know of no instance in which even excessive
bhang drinkers have become insane. Insanity is
the result more of ganja smoking than that of
bhang-drinking. Ganja smoking on the whole
is more pernicious.
40. The old standard Sanskrit writers, who are
generally studied by native doctors, recommend
Cannabis indica, or the hemp plant and its
products, for the following diseases :—
Irritability of the bladder, piles, diarrhœa,
asthma, bronchitis, loss of sleep, loss of digestive
power, and quartan fevers. Indian hemp is also
noted as productive of biliousness, emaciation, nar-
cotism, talkativeness.
I do not know from experience of any of the
drugs being used in the treatment of cattle dis-
ease, but native writers say that bhang mixed with
Indian sweet fennel and cardamom is useful in
checking hæmaturia, and possibly it is, judging
by its effects on the human body.
41. Moderate use of ganja gives relief in chest
complaints, such as asthma, by acting as an an-
tispasmodic, and reduces the excessive discharge
of phlegm (mucous and muco-purulent expector-
ation). It gives staying power and also wards
off the pangs of hunger when food is not available,
as sometimes happens in the lives of gosains and
bairagis.
( a ) Similarly bhang drinking acts as a food
accessory and digestive by relieving dyspepsia and
creating an appetite for food. It also relieves the
colic pains due to constipation.
(b) It gives staving power by exhilarating
the system to a certain extent.
(c) I know of no practical use of this drug in
fevers, either as a preventive or curative agent ;
but it is recommended by native writers for quer-
tau fevers, as already stated in answer to question
No. 40.
44. The immediate effect of the moderate use
of ganja is exhilarating to a man who has follow-
ed his daily avocations and is looking forward to
his customary smoke; it is also refreshing. It
renders a man talkative, but does not intoxicate.
circle of their own homes, men who have to work
for their living and minister to the daily wants of
their wives and children, to develop into the exces-
sive ganja smoker or bhang drinker. It is the
men who have nothing to do in the world, and
with the world—the Hindu ascetics who go
under the name of gosains and bairagis—who
could be really called the excessive smokers and
drinkers of ganja and bhang respectively. But
of these in my answer to question No. 32.
32. Bhang is drunk during the Holi holidays by
men who can stand it, for mere pleasure and harm-
less excitement. It is by no means a custom. It
is also drunk on Mondays during the Hindu month
of Sravan, and on the Maha Shivaratri day by the
worshippers of Shiva ; but I do not know of any
injunctions from the Hindu Shastras for the
religious use of such a drug. It is mere custom
sanctified by age. No Shastrical text, so far as I
have been able to ascertain with the aid of my
Sanskrit Pandit, exists rendering the use of either
of these drugs essential. The use of bhang on
such occasions, however, is generally moderate. It
is, as a rule, excessive among gosains and bairagis,
who, I firmly believe, use the drugs from the varied
requirements of their singular lives. Bhang and
ganja in such persons are the essential conditions
of their lives. As persons entirely living on alms,
of which they get plenty at the hands of devout
Hindus, they use bhang as an appetiser to consume
more food than their idle bodies require ; on the
other hand, they use ganja to ward off the pangs of
hunger, should they by any chance not get
sufficient food for the day.
Bhang occasionally drunk on holidays does not
and need not necessarily lead to excess, or to the
formation of a habit. It is in no way injurious,
in my opinion, if drunk on festive occasions in
very limited quantities. In the case of those ac-
customed to its use on ordinary days, it has no
tendency to any unpleasant consequences.
I may add here that the occasional use of bhang
or ganja, particularly the former, on the holidays
mentioned, is not looked upon as amounting to
any vice. It is not considered a breach of good
manners to drink bhang on such occasions.
36. I have reason to believe that alcoholic
drinks are now being to a very large extent
substituted for bhang drinking. Thirty years
ago young men used to drink bhang in their con-
vivial gatherings, such as " pleasure-parties " of
young men. These " pleasure-parties " are very
much like " picnic " parties, minus the society
of the female sex. In former years, if any exhi-
laration was required at such parties, bhang
drinking was the order of the day. Alcoholic
drinks have now taken their place. It would be
a revelation to me if at the present day such
"pleasure-parties" of our young men are ab-
solutely free from alcohol. I make this statement
with extreme regret, but without the slightest
fear of contradiction.
I attribute the cause of this change to the im-
portation of cheap ardent liquors from Europe
into this country, and sweet liqueurs from France,
which fascinate our young men on account of
their immediate intoxicant effects, notwithstanding
the bad headaches they leave afterwards We do
not hear of, nor do we see, now-a-days bhang drunk
at such " pleasure-parties " in any form, but I
know that large quantities of liquor in various
forms are weekly, if not daily, used by our young
men—not only in the Thana district, but in
Bombay among the better classes. This I consi-