246
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
NOTE BY MR. G. A. GRIERSON, C.I.E., MAGISTRATE AND COLLECTOR,.
HOWRAH, ON REFERENCES TO THE HEMP PLANT OCCURRING IN SANS
KRIT AND HINDI LITERATURE.
I have the honour to state that I have searched through all the Sanskrit and Hindi
books accessible to me, and to forward the accompanying note on the references to the hemp
plant occurring in the literatures of those languages.
I have met the hemp plant in Sanskrit and Hindi literature under various names. The
principal are—
(1) Bhanga.
(2) Indrāçana.
(3) Vijayā or Jayā.
The earliest mention of the word ganja which I have noted is dated about the year
1300 A.D.
Whenever the word vijayā is used, it is doubtful whether the hemp plant is meant, or the
yellow myrobolan, as the word means both.
The name bhanga occurs in the Atharvavēda (say, B.C. 1400). The hemp plant is
there mentioned simply as a sacred grass. Pānini (say, B.C. 300) mentions the pollen of the
hemp flower (bhangā). In the commencement of the sixth century we find the first mention
of vijayā which I have noted. It is a sacred grass, and probably means here the hemp
plant.
The first mention of bhanga as a medicine which I have noted is in the work of Suçruta
(before the eighth century A.D.), where it is called an antiphlegmatic. During the next four
centuries bhangā (feminine) frequently occurs in native Sanskrit dictionaries in the sense of
hemp-plant.
In the tenth century the intoxicating nature of bhang seems to have been known: and
the name Indrāçana, Indra's food, first appears, so far as I know, in literature. Its intoxicat-
ing power was certainly known in the beginning of the fourteenth century. In a play written
in the beginning of the sixteenth century, it is mentioned as being consumed by jogis (Çaiva
mendicants). It is there named "Indra's food."
In later medical works it is frequently mentioned under various names.
I append a more detailed account of the passages in which I have noted the uses of the
Indian hemp.
I may add that I have not traced in literature any difference between the uses of the
word ganja and of the word bhanga, though modern kavirājas tell me that they are distinct
plants.
Cir. B.C. 1400.
In the Atharravēda (cir. 1400 B. C.) the bhang
plant is mentioned (11, 6, 15) once:—
"We tell of the five kingdoms of herbs headed by Sōma; may it and kuça grass, and
bhanga and barley, and the herb saha release us from anxiety."
Here reference is evidently made to the offering of these herbs in oblations.
Cir. B. C. 300.
The grammarian Panini (5, 2, 29) mentions bhangākata, the pollen of the hemp flower,
as one of his examples.
The fact that the pollen of this special flower was quoted is worth noting.
A. D. 504.
Varāhamihira in his Brihatsamhitā (XLVIII, 39) mentions vijayā as used with other
grasses in the rites of the Pusya, bathing festi
val.
Vijayā in this passage certainly means some plant or other. The word may mean either
the Indian hemp-plant or be a synonym of harītakī (the yellow myrobolan). Dr. Hœrnle
informs me that in the oldest medical works the word is explained by commentators in the
latter sense. It is doubtful what meaning we are to adopt here. The word may mean the
hemp-plant bhanga. In the passage from the Atharvavēda, already quoted, amongst the five
plants special honoured as oblations, bhanga is closely connected with the herb saha. So also
in the Brihatsamhitā, vijayā is mentioned as one of a long list of plants to be used in the
offering, and the very next plant mentioned is sahā, which is apparently the same as saha.