The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c18.s3.27

v1.c18.s3.27

The connexion of Soma with the plants was, however, of high importance for his future as a god : the connexion of the moon with plant life seems to have been often noted by early peoples, and was very probably recognized by the Aryans in India; moreover the growth of the moon and its decline was significant of the same progress as the swelling up of the Soma shoots : the fiery clear drops of the Soma, as it fell from the plant, were likened to the rays of the moon reflected upon the water : the Soma had come to be held to be a bright deity. Hence it may be there rose the idea that the Soma was really at the same time the moon : it is asserted in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad² in so many words that the Soma is the moon and is the food of the gods and is drunk by them. The Brāhmaṇas regularly identify Soma and the moon; thus the Nakṣatras are said to have been the wives of king Soma, who, however, preferred to stay with Rohiṇī only, wherefore the other ladies went to their father, and, as a result, disease seized the king, who was fain to agree to live loyally with all his wives each in turn.³ The phases of the moon are explained by the fact that the gods and the Fathers eat the substance of the Soma which is ambrosia. In the Atharvaveda⁴ we find that Soma is several times certainly the moon. In the Rigveda itself by far the most certain case is the wedding hymn,⁵ which is, however, by its confused character not an early hymn. There Soma is the husband of Sūryā, who is far more often connected with the Açvins, or occasionally with Pūṣan, and both these two gods and Pūṣan also are introduced into the hymn, as if in recognition of their claim to have share in the wedding. Here Soma is said to be in the lap of the stars, and a distinction is drawn between the Soma which the priests know and that which they crush. That the identification was priestly and late is here asserted as clearly as anything of the sort can be expected to be asserted. It is possible that there are some other references to the moon character of the Soma in the Rigveda, as when it is spoken of as a drop going to the ocean, looking with the eye of a vulture,⁶ but the effort of deciding what are these passages is quite out of all proportion to the value of the results which can be obtained. In the chaos of the ideas of the ninth book of the Rigveda there are passages which may be referred to Soma as the moon, or at least to comparison of Soma and the moon, but it is a very significant fact that the commentators on the Rigveda, despite their familiarity with the moon theory of Soma, never identify the Soma there with the moon.