The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s5.43

v1.c27.s5.43

The most important of all offerings in the eyes of the priest was certainly the Soma, as is proved by the fact that the Rigveda in the main is a collection based on the Soma sacrifice, though not exclusively devoted to it. The question of the origin and nature of the plant is insoluble: the efforts made to identify it have led to interesting investigations,³ but to no sure result, and the only thing certain is that the plant, which has been used in modern India as the Soma plant, is one which would not be considered by modern tastes as at all pleasant in the form of pressed juice mixed with water. We are unable naturally to say what would seem pleasant to the Vedic Indian: we know that surfeit in the drink had disagreeable results. Curiously enough too we do not know whether the drink was really popular outside the circle of priests, who took it sacrificially: there is just enough evidence in the Rigveda⁴ to suggest that it was a popular drink, though the normal civil drink is Surā. This beverage was made from a decoction of herbs of various sorts, and seems to have had characteristics which ally it to beer on the one hand and brandy on the other: that it was intoxicating is proved by the ill repute in which it normally was held, and by its very limited use at the sacrifice, in the Sautrāmaṇī, where it figures in the rite by which excess in Soma drinking is cured, and at the Vājapeya, in both cases in rites which appear to owe their present form to priestly action. There is, however, enough evidence to indicate that the corresponding Avestan Hurā was used in the offering.