The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.69

v1.c17.69

In addition to milk, the Indians had at least two intoxicating drinks. The first was the Soma, which however, by the time of the Rigveda, appears almost exclusively as a sacrificial drink. It stands, however, to reason that the extraordinary preeminence which it acquired for religious purposes can hardly have been attained except through its original popular character; and it is difficult to resist the impression that the Soma was at first a popular drink in the home whence the Vedic Indians entered India, and that in India itself they found no plant which precisely coincided with that whence the Soma had first been produced, and so were compelled to resort to substitutes or to use the original plant after it had been brought from a great distance and had thus lost its original flavour. The popular drink was evidently the *surā*, which seems to have been distilled from grain. It was clearly extremely intoxicating, and the priests regarded it with disapproval: in one hymn mention is made of men made arrogant by the *surā* reviling the gods, while another couples it with anger and dicing as the cause of sin.