Soma (drink)

**Soma** is a drink used in ancient India, in the (Vedic) culture. It is written of in the Vedas, in which there are many hymns praising it.

It was probably a juice made from a mountain plant or the haoma plant. In the Vedas, Soma is both the sacred drink and also a god (deva). It is not known for sure what Soma actually was.

Soma is similar to the Greek drink, ambrosia. According to their beliefs it is what the gods drink, and what made them gods. Indra and Agni are known for drinking a lot of Soma. Mortals also drink it, giving them visions that are thought to be divine. The _Rig-Veda_ (_8.48_) states, "We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods." The Ninth Mandala of the _Rig Veda_ is known as the Soma Mandala. It is mostly hymns to Soma.

## History

The Soma/Haoma cult originated in the Andronovo culture. It is noted that other early Indo-Europeans did not drink Soma except Indo-Iranians (cf. Norman 1990: 292f.), and therefore making it unlikely that this cult started with Proto-Indo-Europeans. Based on the flower-clusters of the _Ephedra alata_, Soma-drinking is especially associated with Indra and the Sanskrit name for the colour Yellow, _हरि_ ("_hari_"). A similar plant-colour system exists in Turkic _sarï-msak_ ("garlic"), a plant which is called after its yellowish-white root developed from Turkic _sarï_ 'yellow' (Tenisev: 2001, p. 144). Buryat _hara-ana and_ Bashkir _harï-na_ show the closest phonetic affinity with Sanskrit. The original meaning is preserved in Chuvash _šură_ ("white, light colored; clean, uncontaminated").

## Etymology

Russian linguist Alexander Lubotsky is sure that the Soma cult was borrowed by the Indo-Iranians from the Andronovans and gave rise to the Avestan word stem _su- _("Haoma plant"). The Vedic tradition of Indra and Zoroastrianism evidently adopted the cultic drink from the earlier Bronze Age religion of Central Asia. There are different theories about the further etymology of the word. According to one theory:
- **1.** the word may ultimately come from Turkic _qumlaq_/_xumlaq_ ("hop"). The word is thought to be borrowed into Scythic _*xumallag_ and Ossetian _хуымӕллӕг_. The Turkic word may be related to the Germanic word for 'hops', compare Old Norse _humli_, _humla_, _humall_. Either from Turkic or Germanic it has been borrowed into Latin _humulus, _Greek _χο_υ_β_έ_λι_ and Slavic _xъmeľь_. The Iranian derivation of Osset. _xumälläg_ 'hop', however, raises some phonetic and morphological problems and is therefore to be considered rather weak. The ultimate Turkic source of the Volga-Finnic, Iranian and other late European names for 'hop' can not be excluded.
Another theory interprets the Soma/Haoma drink as an "_offering to gods_" (via Chinese _shuma_ and _Sun_ 蓀) which is associated with the Turkic origins of the Zhou people in c. 1046 BC. This theory suggests that Soma:
- **2.** may have its origins in the Turkic second person pronoun “_san_/_sin_” ("thou, you"), specifically in the respectful form “_su_” found in the modern Uyghur and Kazak languages. In the Turkic group of languages _sun_ and _su_ seem to be interchangeable. Both _sun_ and _shuma_ are clearly shown as plants and associated with the deity _Siming_ in the Nine Songs of the Chinese tradition. A Turkic-Iranian extension via Chin. _wu_ 巫 "priest" is considered. In Turkic languages _sun-_ also means “to hold out, offer, present”.
A last option derives the word :
- **3.** from Turkic _xum_ ("sand/earth"), from the Proto-Turkic root _*kum _through a mediation from "hemp", indicating the place where plants grow.
The most ancient forms for garlic plants seem to have been preserved in Siberian Turkic and Mongolian dialects, since they show typical signs of evolutionary rhotacism (_l~r_) and initial consonant mutation (_k/h~s/š_) which are ancestral to all Indo-European forms: Altaian, Teleut _kalma_, Tuva _xylba_, Lebedinskij-Tatar, Shor, Khakas _kalba_ and Mongolian _xaliar_.