CH. VI.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 93
Preparation of bhang.
237. Bhang is prepared by cutting and drying the plants, cultivated or wild,
and shaking or beating out the leaves. This is done
either by the contractors themselves, or by "resid-
ents of jungly tracts for sale to licensed vendors" (38). The districts where the
cultivated bhang is produced have been named. The supply of wild bhang is
drawn from various places in the belt of wild growth below the Himalayas. The
gathering goes on from March to June. The zamindars on whose lands the plant
grows appear to make some money by selling it to the contractors (247). Bhang
is sometimes dried under straw or other covering, when it turns yellow, instead
of retaining the green colour, which it does if dried in the sun (21, 248, 203).
The object of this is not clear.
Preparation of charas.
238. In these provinces charas is prepared to a small extent from the crops
grown for fibre in the Himalayas, to a less extent
from the Himalayan wild growth, and to a still
smaller extent from the wild growth of the plains. A very small amount may
even be prepared from the plants cultivated in a desultory way. The methods
of preparing charas from the fibre plants are described by witness (49). The
sujango or female plants, having been cut in November, are spread out to
dry for twenty-four hours. The people then sit round in the heat of the day,
and pluck off the flower heads, which are now full of seed, discarding the coarser
leaves. Each handful is rubbed between the palms for about ten minutes and
thrown aside. In course of time a quantity of juice accumulates on the palms,
which is scraped off and rolled into balls. These are charas. Sometimes the
plants are trodden instead of handled, and the feet scraped. A more uncommon
method, by which a choice kind of charas called chahar mulhi is obtained, is to
pass the hands up the ripe plants while they are still standing in the field. This
plan is not approved, the witness says, because it is supposed to damage the fibre.
Other witnesses (21, 43) mention the practice of running through the crop or
growth on a dewy morning, and scraping off the resin which adheres to the body.
Witness (248) states that the resin, having been collected, is kneaded on hot
stones; but the account of witness (49) that the process of manufacture ordinarily
ceases with the making of the resin as scraped from the hands into balls is prob-
ably reliable.
There is a considerable amount of evidence and opinion that charas is pre-
pared from wild plants. Witness (49) states that in a small area at an elevation of
8,000 feet called Urgum in Palli Talla Pamkhanda, which appears to be a pargana
of Garhwal, the wild hemp is of superior quality. It grows near a temple of Siva,
to which fact the people attribute its superiority. Charas is made from it by the
common process of rubbing with the hands, and is given to fakirs and pilgrims to
Kedarnath and Badrinath. Witness (232) speaks of the manufacture from the
wild plants, and states that the leaves after the rubbing form ganja or bhang,
which is used for drinking. Witness (43) deposes to the production of charas
from the wild growth in the Bhabar and Terai. Witness (109) has seen it made
apparently in the Almora country. Witness (38) has seen the process on the
banks of the Gogra which bounds the Nepal and British territories. And so we
are brought down to the plains. Mr. Stoker writes that "in Garhwal a sub-
stance is produced which might be classed with either ganja or charas. After
the charas has been extracted from the female flower, the powdered or broken
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