In theVedic tradition,soma (Sanskrit:सोम,romanized: soma) is a ritual drink[1][2] of importance among the earlyVedic Indo-Aryans.[3] TheRigveda mentions it, particularly in theSoma Mandala. TheBhagavad Gita mentions the drink inchapter 9.[4] It is equivalent to the Iranianhaoma.[5][6]
The texts describe the preparation of soma by means of extracting the juice from a plant, the identity of which is now unknown and debated among scholars. In the ancient religions ofHistorical Vedic religion andZoroastrianism, the name of the drink and the plant are not exactly the same.[7]
There has been much speculation about the most likelyidentity of the original plant. Some accounts, such as those from practitioners ofAyurveda,Siddha medicine, andSomayajna calledSomayajis, identify the plant as "Somalata" (Cynanchum acidum).[8]Some researchers have proposed candidates includingAmanita muscaria,Psilocybin mushrooms,Peganum harmala andEphedra gerardiana. Zoroastrians use soma to this day, identified asephedra, whose effects mirror the descriptions found in the Rig Veda.
Soma is a Vedic Sanskrit word that literally means "distill, extract, sprinkle", often connected in the context of rituals.[9]
Soma'sAvestan cognate is thehaoma. According to Geldner (1951), the word is derived from Indo-Iranian roots*sav- (Sanskritsav-/su) "to press", i.e.*sau-ma- is the drink prepared by pressing the stalks of a plant,[10] but the word and the related practices were borrowed by the Indo-Aryans from theBactria–Margiana culture (BMAC).[11][12] Although the word is only attested in Indo-Iranian traditions,Manfred Mayrhofer has proposed aProto-Indo-European origin from the root*sew(h)-.[13]
Monier-Williams says it comes from Sanskrit su, meaning to press out, extract[14]
The Vedic religion was the religion of some of the VedicIndo-Aryan tribes, thearyas,[15][16] who migrated into the Indus River valley region of the Indian subcontinent.[17] The Indo-Aryans were speakers of a branch of theIndo-Iranian language family, which originated in theSintashta culture and further developed into theAndronovo culture, which in turn developed out of theKurgan culture of theCentral Asiansteppes.[18] The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesisedProto-Indo-European religion,[19][note 1] and show relations with rituals from theAndronovo culture, from which the Indo-Aryan people descended.[15] According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between theZeravshan River (present-dayUzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran.[20] It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements"[20] which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices"[11] from theBactria–Margiana culture (BMAC).[11] This syncretic influence is supported by at least 383 non-Indo-European words that were borrowed from this culture, including the godIndra and the ritual drink Soma.[12] According to Anthony,
Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory,Verethraghna, were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of theRig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity withSoma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived fromEphedra) probably borrowed from theBMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.[21]
In theVedas, the same word (soma) is used for the drink, the plant, and its deity. Drinkingsoma produces immortality (Amrita, Rigveda 8.48.3).Indra andAgni are portrayed as consuming soma in copious quantities. In the vedic ideology, Indra drank large amounts of soma while fighting the serpent demonVritra. The consumption of soma by human beings is well attested in Vedic ritual. TheSoma Mandala of the Rigveda is completely dedicated to Soma Pavamana, and is focused on a moment in the ritual when the soma is pressed, strained, mixed with water and milk, and poured into containers. These actions are described as a representation of a variety of things, including a king conquering territory, theSun's journey through the cosmos, or a bull running to mate with cows (represented by the milk). The most important myth about Soma is about his theft. In it, Soma was originally held captive in a citadel in heaven by the archer Kṛśānu. A falcon stole Soma, successfully escaping Kṛśānu, and delivered Soma toManu, the first sacrificer. Additionally, Soma is associated with the moon in the late Rigveda and Middle Vedic period. Sūryā, the daughter of the Sun, is sometimes stated to be the wife of Soma.[22]
TheRigveda (8.48.3) says:
ápāma sómam amŕ̥tā abhūma
áganma jyótir ávidāma devā́n
kíṃ nūnám asmā́n kr̥ṇavad árātiḥ
kím u dhūrtír amr̥ta mártiyasya[23]
Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton translates this as:
We have drunk the soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods.
What can hostility do to us now, and what the malice of a mortal, o immortal one?[24]
In the Vedas, soma "is both a plant anda god."[25]
The finishing ofhaoma inZoroastrianism may be glimpsed from theAvesta (particularly in theHōm Yast, Yasna 9), andAvestan language*hauma also survived asMiddle Persianhōm. The planthaoma yielded the essential ingredient for the ritual drink,parahaoma.
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 sacrificingzaotar" (Sanskrithotar) for himself and theAmesha Spenta.
Soma has been mentioned in Chapter 9, verse 20 ofBhagavad Gita:
Those who perform actions (as described in the threeVedas), desiring fruit from these actions, and those who drink the juice of the pure Soma plant, are cleansed and purified of their past sins.
Those who desire heaven, (the Abode of the Lord known asIndraloka)[26] attain heaven and enjoy its divine pleasures by worshipping me through the offering of sacrifices.
Thus, by performing good action (Karma, as outlined by the three Vedas), one will always undoubtedly receive a place in heaven where they will enjoy all of the divine pleasure that are enjoyed by the Deities.[citation needed][note 2]
TheMaharishi Mahesh Yogi'sTranscendental Meditation-Sidhi Program involves a notion of "soma", said to be based on the Rigveda.[27][28]
There has been much speculation as to the originalSauma plant. Candidates that have been suggested includehoney, mushrooms, psychoactive and other herbal plants.[29]
When the ritual ofsomayajna is held today in South India by the traditionalSrautas calledSomayajis, the plant used is thesomalatha (Sanskrit: soma creeper,Sarcostemma acidum)[8] which is procured as a leaflessvine.
Since the late 18th century, whenAbraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron and others made portions of the Avesta available to western scholars, several scholars have sought a representative botanical equivalent of thehaoma as described in the texts and as used in living Zoroastrian practice. In the late 19th century, the highly conservative Zoroastrians ofYazd (Iran) were found to useephedra, which was locally known ashum orhoma and which they exported to the Indian Zoroastrians.[30]
During the colonial British era scholarship,cannabis was proposed as the soma candidate by Jogesh Chandra Ray,The Soma Plant (1939)[31] and by B. L. Mukherjee (1921).[32]
In the late 1960s, several studies attempted to establishsoma as apsychoactive substance. A number of proposals were made, including one in 1968 by the American bankerR. Gordon Wasson, an amateurethnomycologist, who asserted thatsoma was an inebriant but not cannabis, and suggested fly-agaric mushroom,Amanita muscaria, as the likely candidate. Since its introduction in 1968, this theory has gained both detractors and followers in the anthropological literature.[33][34][35] Wasson and his co-author,Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, drew parallels between Vedic descriptions and reports of Siberian uses of the fly-agaric inshamanic ritual.[36]
In 1989 Harry Falk noted that, in the texts, bothhaoma andsoma were said to enhance alertness and awareness, did not coincide with the consciousness altering effects of anentheogen, and that "there is nothing shamanistic or visionary either in early Vedic or in Old Iranian texts", Falk also asserted that the three varieties of ephedra that yield ephedrine (Ephedra gerardiana,E. major procera andE. intermedia) also have the properties attributed tohaoma by the texts of the Avesta.[37][full citation needed] At the conclusion of the 1999 Haoma-Soma workshop in Leiden, Jan E. M. Houben writes: "despite strong attempts to do away with ephedra by those who are eager to see sauma as a hallucinogen, its status as a serious candidate for the Rigvedic Soma and Avestan Haoma still stands".[38][full citation needed]
The Soviet archeologistViktor Sarianidi wrote that he had discovered vessels and mortars used to prepare soma in Zoroastrian temples in theBactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex. He said that the vessels have revealed residues and seed impressions left behind during the preparation of soma. This has not been sustained by subsequent investigations.[39] Alternatively Mark Merlin, who revisited the subject of the identity of soma more than thirty years after originally writing about it[40] stated that there is a need of further study on links between soma andPapaver somniferum.[41]
InFood of The Gods, Terence McKenna maintained that Soma, at least or in whole part, was a product ofP. cubensis.[42]
According toMichael Wood, the references to immortality and light are characteristics of anentheogenic experience.[43][full citation needed]
