History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.970

v4.c63.t2.970

In Vedic times *soma* was a beverage drunk by the priests and *surā* was a beverage for common men and usually not meant to be offered to the gods. Soma and surā are sharply distinguished (vide Tai. S. II. 5. 1. 1, Vāj. S. 19. 7, Śat. Br. V. 1. 5. 28). The Śat. Br. (V. 1. 5. 28) has the striking antithesis ‘For, Soma is truth, prosperity, light; and surā is untruth, misery, darkness’. In the Sautrāmaṇī *iṣṭi* a brāhmaṇa had to be hired for drinking the dregs of surā offered in it and if a brāhmaṇa could not be found the surā was poured on an ant-hill (Tai. Br. I. 8. 6 and Śabara on Jai. III. 5. 14–15). It appears from the Kāṭhaka-saṁhitā XII. 12 that¹⁸⁷⁹ brāhmaṇas had by that time come to regard the drinking of surā as sinful. From Chān. Up. V. 10. 9 it appears that a drinker of surā was enumerated among five grave sinners. In the Āśv. gṛ. II. 5. 3–5 it is said that in the rites of the Anvaṣṭakā day when piṇḍas are offered to the male ancestors, the female ancestors viz. the mother, the paternal grandmother and great-grandmother are offered surā and the scum of boiled rice in addition¹⁸⁸⁰. The Nir. S. (III.