Editing Soma (drink)

{{short description|Vedic ritual drink}}
{{italic title}}
{{Hinduism small}}

In the [[Vedic]] tradition, '''''soma''''' ({{langx|sa|सोम|sóma}}) is a ritual drink<ref>Monier Williams (1899), A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, Oxford, the Clarendon Press, OCLC 458052227, page 1249.</ref><ref>[http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/soma soma]. CollinsDictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref> of importance among the early [[Vedic period|Vedic Indo-Aryans]].<ref>Flood (1996), ''An Introduction to Hinduism'', p.43</ref> The [[Rigveda]] mentions it, particularly in the [[Mandala 9|Soma Mandala]]. [[Gita]] mentions the drink in chapter 9.<ref>{{cite Q|Q108659922|url=https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/9/verse/20|at=Chapter 9, Verse 20|website=www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org}}</ref> It is equivalent to the Iranian [[haoma]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Toorn |first1=Karel van der |last2=Becking |first2=Bob |last3=Horst |first3=Pieter Willem van der |title=Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible |date=1999 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-2491-2 |page=384 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C&q=soma+haoma&pg=PA384 |access-date=24 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Guénon |first1=René |title=Symbols of Sacred Science |date=2004 |publisher=Sophia Perennis |isbn=978-0-900588-77-8 |page=320 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CnFHWKHBlEgC&q=soma+haoma&pg=PA320 |access-date=24 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

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. Both in the ancient religions of [[Historical Vedic religion]] and [[Zoroastrianism]], the name of the drink and the plant are not exactly the same.<ref name="Sarianidi">Victor Sarianidi, [[Viktor Sarianidi]] in The PBS Documentary [[The Story of India]]</ref>

There has been much speculation about the most likely [[Botanical identity of soma–haoma|identity of the original plant]]. Traditional Indian accounts, such as those from practitioners of [[Ayurveda]], [[Siddha medicine]], and [[Somayajna]] called [[Somayaji]]s, identify the plant as "Somalata" (''[[Cynanchum acidum]]'').<ref name=somalata>
{{cite book
 | last= Singh | first= N. P. | date= 1988
 | title= Flora of Eastern Karnataka, Volume 1
 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6-g-nU3bTjcC&q=soma&pg=PA416
 | publisher= Mittal Publications | page= 416
| isbn= 9788170990673 }}
</ref>
Non-Indian researchers have proposed candidates including ''[[Amanita muscaria]]'', [[Psilocybin mushrooms|''Psilocybin'' mushrooms]], ''[[Peganum harmala]]'' and ''[[Ephedra sinica]]''.

==Etymology==
Soma is a Vedic Sanskrit word that literally means "distill, extract, sprinkle", often connected in the context of rituals.<ref>{{cite book|author=Monier Monier-Williams|title=A Sanskrit-English Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_3NWAAAAcAAJ|year=1872|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] (Reprint: 2001)|pages=1136–1137}}</ref>

Soma's [[Avestan]] cognate is the ''[[haoma]]''. According to Geldner (1951), the word is derived from Indo-Iranian roots ''*sav-'' (Sanskrit ''sav-/su'') "to press", i.e. ''*sau-ma-'' is the drink prepared by pressing the stalks of a plant,<ref>K.F.Geldner, Der Rig-Veda. Cambridge MA, 1951, Vol. III: 1-9</ref> but the word and the related practices were borrowed by the Indo-Aryans from the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria–Margiana culture]] (BMAC).{{sfn|Beckwith|2011|p=32}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=454–455}} Although the word is only attested in Indo-Iranian traditions, [[Manfred Mayrhofer]] has proposed a [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] origin from the root {{lang|ine-x-proto|sew(h)-}}.<ref>M. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen, Heidelberg 1986–2000, vol II: 748</ref>

==Origins==
{{See also|Indo-Aryan migrations}}

The Vedic religion was the religion of some of the Vedic [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] tribes, the ''{{not a typo|aryas}}'',{{sfn|Kuz'mina|2007|p=319}}{{sfn|Singh|2008|p=185}} who migrated into the Indus River valley region of the Indian subcontinent.{{sfn|Heesterman|2005|pp=9552–9553}} The Indo-Aryans were speakers of a branch of the [[Indo-European language]] family, which originated in the [[Sintashta culture]] and further developed into the [[Andronovo culture]], which in turn developed out of the [[Kurgan]] culture of the [[Central Asia]]n [[steppes]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007}} The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised [[Proto-Indo-European religion]],<ref name="Woodard2006">{{cite book|author=Roger D. Woodard|title=Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EB4fB0inNYEC&pg=FA242|date=18 August 2006|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|isbn=978-0-252-09295-4|pages=242–}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|See Kuzʹmina (2007), ''The Origin of the Indo-Iranians'', p.&nbsp;339, for an overview of publications up to 1997 on this subject.}} and show relations with rituals from the [[Andronovo culture]], from which the Indo-Aryan people descended.{{sfn|Kuz'mina|2007|p=319}} According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the [[Zeravshan River]] (present-day [[Uzbekistan]]) and (present-day) Iran.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=462}} It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements"{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=462}} which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices"{{sfn|Beckwith|2011|p=32}} from the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria–Margiana culture]] (BMAC).{{sfn|Beckwith|2011|p=32}} This syncretic influence is supported by at least 383&nbsp;non-Indo-European words that were borrowed from this culture, including the god [[Indra]] and the ritual drink Soma.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=454–455}} According to Anthony,
{{blockquote|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&nbsp;hymns, a quarter of the ''Rig Veda''. He was associated more than any other deity with ''Soma'', a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from ''[[Ephedra (plant)|Ephedra]]'') probably borrowed from the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|BMAC]] religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=454}}}}

==Vedic soma==
{{Further|Somayajna|Mandala 9}}
In the [[Vedas]], the same word (soma) is used for the drink, the plant, and its deity. Drinking ''soma'' produces immortality (''Amrita'', Rigveda 8.48.3). [[Indra]] and [[Agni]] are portrayed as consuming soma in copious quantities. In the vedic ideology, Indra drank large amounts of soma while fighting the serpent demon [[Vritra]]. The consumption of soma by human beings is well attested in Vedic ritual. The [[Mandala 9|Soma 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, the [[Surya|Sun'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 to [[Manu (Hinduism)|Manu]], 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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephanie Jamison|title=The Rigveda –– Earliest Religious Poetry of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LTRDwAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0190633394|pages=42–43}}</ref>

The ''[[Rigveda]]'' (8.48.3) says:
{{poemquote|
{{IAST|ápāma sómam amŕ̥tā abhūma
áganma jyótir ávidāma devā́n
kíṃ nūnám asmā́n kr̥ṇavad árātiḥ
kím u dhūrtír amr̥ta mártiyasya}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/lrc/rigveda/RV08.php#H048 |title=UT College of Liberal Arts: UT College of Liberal Arts |publisher=Liberalarts.utexas.edu |access-date=2018-10-04}}</ref>
}}

Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton translates this as:
{{poemquote|
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?<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephanie Jamison|title=The Rigveda –– Earliest Religious Poetry of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LTRDwAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0190633394|page=1129}}</ref>
}}

In the Vedas, soma "is both a plant and a god."<ref name=":102">{{Cite book |last=Stevenson |first=Jay |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eastern Philosophy |publisher=[[Alpha Books]] |year=2000 |isbn=9780028638201 |location=Indianapolis |pages=46 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Avestan haoma==
{{Main|Haoma}}
The finishing of ''haoma'' in [[Zoroastrianism]] may be glimpsed from the [[Avesta]] (particularly in the ''Hōm Yast'', Yasna 9), and [[Avestan language]] ''*hauma'' also survived as [[Middle Persian]] ''hōm''. The plant ''haoma'' 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 sacrificing ''zaotar''" (Sanskrit ''hotar'') for himself and the [[Amesha Spenta]].

==Post-Vedic mentions==
{{See also|Chandra}}

Soma has been mentioned in Chapter 9, verse 20 of [[Bhagavad Gita]]:
{{Poemquote|
Those who perform actions (as described in the three [[Vedas]]), 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 as [[Indra]]lok) <ref>Bhagavad Gita on Indra Ch 10 verse 22</ref> 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|date=December 2020}}{{refn|group=note|trai-vidyā māṁ soma-pāḥ pūta-pāpā<br>yajñair iṣhṭvā svar-gatiṁ prārthayante<br>te puṇyam āsādya surendra-lokam<br>aśhnanti divyān divi deva-bhogān}}}}

The [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]]'s [[TM-Sidhi program|Transcendental Meditation-Sidhi Program]] involves a notion of "soma", said to be based on the Rigveda.<ref name=Williamson>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxD1SYaelLAC&q=tm+movement|title=Transcendent in America|isbn=9780814794708|access-date=23 February 2015|last1=Williamson|first1=Lola|date=January 2010|publisher=NYU Press }}</ref><ref>Hendel v World Plan Executive Council, 124 WLR 957 (January 2, 1996); affd 705 A.2d 656, 667 (DC, 1997)</ref>

== Candidates for the plant ==
{{Main|Botanical identity of soma–haoma}}

There has been much speculation as to the original ''Sauma'' plant. Candidates that have been suggested include [[honey]], mushrooms, psychoactive and other herbal plants.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKeubCiBOPQC&q=soma+honey&pg=PA205 | first=Hermann | last=Oldenberg | title=The Religion of the Veda | year=1988 | publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. | isbn=978-81-208-0392-3 }}</ref>

When the ritual of [[somayajna]] is held today in South India by the traditional [[Srauta]]s called [[Somayaji]]s, the plant used is the ''somalatha'' (Sanskrit: soma creeper, ''[[Sarcostemma acidum]]'')<ref name=somalata /> which is procured as a leafless [[vine]].

Since the late 18th century, when [[Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron]] and others made portions of the Avesta available to western scholars, several scholars have sought a representative botanical equivalent of the ''haoma'' as described in the texts and as used in living Zoroastrian practice. In the late 19th century, the highly conservative Zoroastrians of [[Yazd]] (Iran) were found to use [[Ephedra (plant)|ephedra]], which was locally known as ''hum'' or ''homa'' and which they exported to the Indian Zoroastrians.<ref>Aitchison, 1888</ref>

During the colonial British era scholarship, [[cannabis]] was proposed as the soma candidate by Jogesh Chandra Ray, ''The Soma Plant'' (1939)<ref>Ray, Jogesh, Chandra, Soma Plant, Indian Historical Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 2, June, 1939, Calcutta</ref> and by B. L. Mukherjee (1921).<ref>Mukherjee, B. L., The Soma Plant, JRAS, (1921), Idem, The Soma Plant, Calcutta, (1922), The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland  (Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1921)</ref>

In the late 1960s, several studies attempted to establish ''soma'' as a [[Psychoactive drug|psychoactive substance]]. A number of proposals were made, including one in 1968 by the American banker [[R. Gordon Wasson]], an amateur [[ethnomycologist]], who asserted that ''soma'' 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hallucinogens and Culture |last=Furst |first=Peter T.|year=1976|publisher=Chandler & Sharp |isbn=0-88316-517-1  |pages=96–108}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=John Brough|date=1971|title=Soma and "Amanita muscaria"|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|volume=34|issue=2|pages=331–362 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X0012957X|jstor=612695|s2cid=84458441 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Feeney|first=Kevin|date=2020|title=Fly Agaric: A Compendium of History, Pharmacology, Mythology, & Exploration|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344507824|access-date=2020-12-27|website=ResearchGate|language=en}}</ref> Wasson and his co-author, [[Wendy Doniger|Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty]], drew parallels between Vedic descriptions and reports of Siberian uses of the fly-agaric in [[Shamanism|shamanic]] ritual.<ref>({{cite journal|last=Wasson|first=Robert Gordon|title=Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality|journal=Ethno-Mycological Studies|volume=1|location=New York|year=1968|isbn=0-15-683800-1}})</ref>

In 1989 Harry Falk noted that, in the texts, both ''haoma'' and ''soma'' were said to enhance alertness and awareness, did not coincide with the consciousness altering effects of an [[entheogen]], 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'' and ''[[Ephedra intermedia|E. intermedia]]'') also have the properties attributed to ''haoma'' by the texts of the Avesta.<ref>Falk, 1989, p 87</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2023}} 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".<ref>Houben, 2003</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2023}}

The Soviet archeologist [[Viktor Sarianidi]] wrote that he had discovered vessels and mortars used to prepare soma in Zoroastrian temples in the [[Bactria–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.<ref>{{cite journal|author=C.C. Bakels|title=Report concerning the contents of a ceramic vessel found in the "white room" of the Gonur Temenos, Merv Oasis, Turkmenistan|journal=EJVS|volume=9|date=2003|url=http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/issues.html|archive-date=2011-07-13|access-date=2010-07-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713190637/http://ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/issues.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Alternatively Mark Merlin, who revisited the subject of the identity of soma more than thirty years after originally writing about it<ref>Merlin, Mark, Man and Marijuana, (Barnes and Co, 1972)</ref> stated that there is a need of further study on links between soma and ''[[Papaver somniferum]]''.<ref>Merlin, M., Archaeological Record for Ancient Old World Use of Psychoactive Plants, Economic Botany, 57(3): (2008)</ref>

In ''Food of The Gods,'' Terence McKenna maintained that Soma, at least or in whole part, was a product of ''P. cubensis.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=McKenna |first=Terence |title=Food of The Gods |date=1 January 1992 |publisher=Bantam Books |isbn=9780553371307 |pages=100–120}}</ref>

According to [[Michael Wood (historian)|Michael Wood]], the references to immortality and light are characteristics of an [[entheogen]]ic experience.<ref>Michael Wood, [[The Story of India]].</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2023}} 

==See also==
* [[Chandra]], a god associated with soma
* [[Haoma]], an equivalent divine plant in [[Zoroastrianism]]
* [[Manna]], an edible equivalent in [[Bible]] and [[Quran]] 
* [[Mead]]
* [[Sima (mead)]]
* Soma, a drug used by characters in the novel ''[[Brave New World]]''. 
* [[Carisoprodol|Soma drug - carisoprodol]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|35em}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
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{{refend}}

{{Rigveda|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Soma (drink)| ]]
[[Category:Entheogens]]
[[Category:Herbal and fungal hallucinogens]]
[[Category:Historical drinks]]
[[Category:Libation]]
[[Category:Mythological food and drink]]
[[Category:Vedic customs]]