Soma

Soma (Sanskrit), or Haoma (Avestan), refers either to a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. Both Soma and the Avestan Haoma are derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-. The name of the Scythian tribe Hauma-varga is related to the word, and probably connected with the ritual. The word is derived from an Indo-Iranian root *sav- (Sanskrit sav-) "to press", i.e. *sav-ma- is the drink prepared by pressing the stalks of a plant (cf. |es-presso). The root is probably Proto-Indo-European (*sewh-), and also appears in son (from *suhnu-, "pressed out" i.e. "newly born"). Hindus also called it amrita, or "the wine of immortality." This drink was composed from a plant, most likely hallucinogenic, which endowed its consumer with a powerful feeling of intoxication. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, which contains many hymns praising its energizing or intoxicating qualities. In the Avesta, the foundation of Zoroastrianism, Haoma has an entire Yasht dedicated to it. Soma also refers to a Vedic god who personified the power of the beverage who shared his name.

Vedic Soma

Soma is praised in 120 hymns within the Rg Veda, rendering it one of the most recognized forces in that text. Due to the supposedly supernatural powers soma bestowed upon those who drank it, practicioners of Vedic religion portrayed it as a god (deva]]). Soma has few anthropomorphic characteristics, and is instead described in terms of the effect of the beverage referred to as soma upon those who consumed it, or in terms of its power over the gods. The god, the drink and the plant probably referred to the same entity, or at least the differentiation was ambiguous. In this aspect, Soma is similar to the Greek ambrosia (cognate to amrita); it is what the gods drink, and what made them deities. Indra and Agni are portrayed as consuming Soma in copious quantities. In the early Vedas, What exactly soma was composed of is a cause of uncertainty, however it seems to be a drink made from a plant which had hallucinogenic effects. Soma was the indispensible aspect of all Vedic rituals, used in sacrifices to all gods, particularly Indra. When consumed by humans, it was seen to bestow the power of the gods upon mortals, including immortality. It also had the power to make the sun rise and set, and conferred such blessings as riches and long life upon its dedicated consumers. Here Soma takes the powers usually attributed to other Gods. The consumption of Soma by human beings, was probably under the belief that it bestowed divine qualities on them. The famous ayurvedic scholar Susruta wrote that the best Soma is found in the upper Indus and Kashmir region (Susruta Samhita: 537-538, SS.CS. 29.28-31). By the time of the Brahmanas (800 B.C.E.), substitutes for the plant mentioned in the Vedas had already been suggested, including varieties of creepers, grasses, and flowers.

In the Rigveda

The Rigveda (8.48.3, tr. Griffith) states,

a ápāma sómam amŕtā abhūmâganma jyótir ávidāma devân

c kíṃ nūnám asmân kṛṇavad árātiḥ kím u dhūrtír amṛta mártyasya

We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered.

Now what may foeman's malice do to harm us? What, O Immortal, mortal man's deception?

The Ninth Mandala of the Rigveda is known as the Soma Mandala. It consists entirely of hymns addressed to Soma Pavamana ("purified Soma"). The drink Soma was kept and distributed by the Gandharvas. The Rigveda associates the Sushoma, Arjikiya and other regions with Soma (e.g. 8.7.29; 8.64.10-11). Sharyanavat was possibly the name of a pond or lake on the banks of which Soma could be found.

The plant is described as growing in the mountains (giristha, cf. Orestes), with long stalks, and of yellow or tawny (hari) colour. The drink is prepared by priests pounding the stalks with stones, an occupation that creates tapas (literally "heat", later referring to "spiritual excitement" in particular). The juice so gathered is mixed with other ingredients (including milk and honey) before it is drunk.

Growing far away, in the mountains, Soma had to be purchased from travelling traders. The plant supposedly grew in the Hindukush and thus it had to be imported to the Punjab region. Later, knowledge of the plant was lost altogether, and Indian ritual reflects this, in expiatory prayers apologizing to the gods for the use of a substitute plant (e.g. rhubarb) because Soma had become unavailable.

Use

It is described as prepared by a priest who used stones in order to press juice from the stalks of a certain mountain plant, which has been variously hypothesized to be a psychedelic mushroom, cannabis, peganum harmala, or ephedra. The stalks were pounded between these stones within the sacrificial area. The juice was then purified by the presiding priest by filtering it through sheep's wool and then collecting it in tubs. The resulting extract, a sweet browon liquid inducing temporary states of ecstacy, was then mixed with beer, milk, water, curds, ghee, barley and/or honey and then offered to the gods. The remainder was consumed in from special cups. Three pressings were undertaken each day of the sacrifice.

In both Vedic and Zoroastrian tradition, the drink is identified with the plant, and also personified as a divinity, the three forming a religious or mythological unity. Soma's intoxicating effect represented the temporary replacement of sensory pleasure with that of bliss, or ananda. The effects of this bliss included immortality, poetic insight, enhanched fertility, the ability to heal, the attainment of wealth, and perhaps most importantly, the proficiency of Indra, the warrior god, in battle.

In Hinduism

Gradually, soma came to be portrayed as a god. Much like Bacchus or Dionysus in the Greek tradition, Soma held dominion over the intoxicating beverage which in this case endows the gods with their immortality. In Hindu art, the god Soma was depicted as a bull or bird, and sometimes as an embryo, but rarely as an adult human. Soma was considered the lord of plants, evident in his alternative title Oshadhi-pati, or "Supervisor of Herbs." and despite this fact, was seen as having origin in the heavens. Soma is considered to be the most precious liquid in the universe.

In the later Vedas, the god Soma evolved into a lunar deity and became associated with the underworld. The lunar phases were considered to be the result of the gods having drank soma. The moon is the cup from which the gods drink Soma, and so Soma became identified with the moon god Chandra, and was symbolized by a silver crescent. A waxing moon meant Soma was recreating himself, ready to be drunk again. He rides through the sky in a three-wheeled chariot drawn by ten horses. Mythology explains that Soma was married to Rohini with whom he created a son, Budha. Apart from Rohini, Soma's had twenty-seven other wives were daughters of Daksha. Based on complaints submitted by his daughters, Daksha felt Soma paid too much attention to Rohini. Daksha cursed him to wither and die with leprosy, but the wives took and intervened, claiming the punishment to be too severe. Daksha could not take back the curse, but instead revised it so that Soma's death became periodic and temporary, and is symbolized by the waxing and waning of the moon each month.

Zoroastrian Haoma

Zoroastrianism adopted adopted many aspects of surrounding religious traditions as it developed progressed through history. Haoma, the god and beverage, is no doubt an example of this based upon its similarity with Soma. The continuing importance of Haoma in Zoroastrianism may be glimpsed from the Avesta (particularly in the Hōm Yast, Yasna 9.11), and Avestan language *hauma also survived as middle Persian hōm. The plant Haoma yielded the essential ingredient for the ritual drink, parahaoma, and, as in Hinduism, is portrayed as a divine personification. In the Hōm yašt of the Avesta, the Yazata (divine) Haoma appears to Zoroaster "at the time of pressing" (havani ratu) in the form of a beautiful man. Yasna 9.1 and 9.2 exhort him to gather and press Haoma plants. Haoma's epitheta include "the Golden-Green One" (zairi-, Sanskrit hari-), "righteous" (ašavan-), "furthering righteousness" (aša-vazah-), and "of good wisdom" (hu.xratu-, Sanskrit sukratu-). Like the Vedic beverage soma, Iranian haoma allows one temporary immortality through intoxication. In Yasna 9.22, Haoma grants "speed and strength to warriors, excellent and righteous sons to those giving birth, spiritual power and knowledge to those who apply themselves to the study of the nasks". As the religion's chief cult divinity he came to be perceived as its divine priest. In Yasna 9.26, Ahura Mazda is said to have invested him with the sacred girdle, and in Yasna 10.89, to have installed Haoma as the "swiftly sacrificing zaotar" (Sanskrit hotar) for himself and the Amesha Spenta. Haoma services were celebrated until the 1960s in a strongly conservative village near Yazd.

Haoma still plays a major role in the ceremony of Yasna, the paramount Zoroastrian liturgy, This ritual involves the sacrifice of haoma in front of a fire. The sacrifice of the haoma can only be performed in the morning while the sun rises, which is representative of the asha's power to dispell darkness and evil within the world. The ceremony is prefaced by the Paraga, a prepatory rite, where a number of ritual movements leads to the preparation of the haoma beverage, which consists of consecrated water, pomegranites, goat's milk and twigs. This mixture is poured into a special well outside the pawi so that it may render its strengthening abilities upon all of creation. Thus, haoma fulfills the purpose of the Yasna which aims to purifythe world by bridging the gap between the sacred and profane worlds so that they might come into union.

Candidates for the Soma plant

There has been much speculation as to the original Proto-Indo-Iranian Sauma plant. Since the eighteenth century, Western scholars have attempted to identify the original soma plant. It was generally assumed to be hallucinogenic, based on RV 8.48 cited above. However, this is the only evidence of hallucinogenic properties, in a book full of hymns to Soma. The typical description of Soma is associated with excitation and tapas. Soma is associated with the warrior-god Indra, and appears to have been drunk before battle. For these reasons, there are energizing plants as well as hallucinogenic plants among the candidates that have been suggested. Including the mushroom amanita muscaria, which was widely used as a brew of sorts among Siberian shamans for its hallucinogenic and 'religous experience' inducing properties. In fact, several texts like the Atharva Veda extol the medicinal properties of Soma and he is regarded as the king of medicinal herbs (and also of the Brahmana class).

Since the late 1700s, when Anquetil-Duperron and others made portions of the Avesta available to western scholarship, several scholars have sought a representative botanical equivalent of the haoma as described in the texts and as used in living Zoroastrian practice. Most of the proposals concentrated on either linguistic evidence or comparative pharmacology or reflected ritual use. Rarely were all three considered together, which usually resulted in such proposals being quickly rejected.

In the late 19th century, the highly conservative Zoroastrians of Yazd (Iran) were found to use Ephedra (genus Ephedra), which was locally known as hum or homa and which they exported to the Indian Zoroastrians. (Aitchison, 1888) The plant, as Falk also established, requires a cool and dry climate, i.e. it does not grow in India (which is either too hot or too humid or both) but thrives in central Asia. Later, it was discovered that a number of Iranian languages and Persian dialects have hom or similar terms as the local name for some variant of Ephedra. Considered together, the linguistic and ritual evidence appeared to conclusively establish that haoma was some variant of Ephedra. Recent hypotheses suggest that that soma was the hallucinogen Anamita muscaria, or the fly-agraric mushroom.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Friedrichs, Kurt. "Soma." In The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion. Schumacher, S. & Woerner, Gert, eds. Boston: Shambhala, 1994. 336. ISBN 0-87773-433-X
• Knappert, J. Indian Mythology. London: Diamond Books, 1995. ISBN 0261666541
• Jay, Mike: Blue Tide: The Search for Soma (Autonomedia 1999)
• Embree, Ainslee T. ed. The Hindu Tradition. New York: Vintage Books, 1966. ISBN 0-394-71702-3
• Frawley David: The Rig Veda and the History of India, 2001.(Aditya Prakashan), ISBN 81-7742-039-9
• Parpola, Asko, The problem of the Aryans and the Soma: Textual-linguistic and archaeological evidence, in: The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia ed. G. Erdosy, de Gruyter (1995), 353–381.
• Knipe, D.M. "Soma." In The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions, Keith Crim, ed. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1989. 698-699. ISBN 0-06-061613-X
• Nyberg, Harri, The problem of the Aryans and the Soma: The botanical evidence, in: The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia ed. G. Erdosy, de Gruyter (1995), 382–406.
• Soma article from The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances by Richard Rudgley Little, Brown and Company (1998) (huxley.net)
• PBS Secrets of the Dead. Day of the Zulu (pbs.org). Retrieved Feb. 5, 2005.
• Susruta Samhita. Transl. Kunjalal Bhishagratna, Varanasi: Chowkhama Sanksrit Series. 1981.
• Bakels, C.C. 2003. “The contents of ceramic vessels in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, Turkmenistan.” Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies. Vol. 9. Issue 1c (May 5) http://users.primushost.com/~india/ejvs/ejvs0901/ejvs0901c.txt
• Swami Rama. Living with the Himalayan Masters. The Himalayan Institute Press. 1978.
• McDonald, A. A botanical perspective on the identity of soma (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) based on scriptural and iconographic records. Econmic Botany 2004;58:S147-S173

External links

• Evidence of Amanita Muscaria as Soma/Amrita

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