History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.132.5

v7.c92.132.5

Wine was drunk by people in the Mahābhārata times, but not as part of a religious ritual as in the Tantras. Vide pp 964-966 of H. of Dh. vol. III for a note on 'intoxicating drinks.' The reference to Mārkaṇḍeya and other purāṇas is of no avail as evidence, since at least the present author holds that those parts of the Purāṇas were written and interpolated after Tāntrik rites had taken a firm hold on some sections of the Hindu society. The reference to sexual intercourse in the Mahāvrata¹⁷⁵¹ is most misleading. In the Tantras like the Kulārṇava and the Guhyasamāja it is the sādhaka himself who is to practise *maithuna* as one of the ways of securing marvellous powers and higher spiritual attainments. But in the Mahāvrata the sexual intercourse is by strangers to the sacrifice (and.not by the *yajamāna* nor by any of the priests), is a purely symbolical act and bears no analogy to a sādhaka himself engaging in maithuna as a religious rite to placate the Devī. Even a late reformist work like the Mahānirvāṇa (VIII. 174-175) expressly says that those of the five tattvas which a sādhaka can secure, such as flesh and others, should have recited over them the mantra 'ām, hrīm, krom, svāhā' a hundred times, that he should reflect that everything is a product of *brahma*, should close his eyes, should offer those to Kālī and should himself drink and eat them.