Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t4.4

c5.s3.t4.4

The colour of the plant and juice, as well as of the god, is described as brown (*babhru*) or ruddy (*aruṇa*), but most frequently as tawny (*hari*). Thus Soma is the branch of a ruddy tree (10, 94³); it is a ruddy milked shoot (7, 98¹); the tawny shoot is pressed into the strainer (9, 92¹). The colour of the Soma plant or its substitute prescribed in the Brāhmaṇas is ruddy (ŚB. 4, 5, 10¹); and in the ritual the cow which is the price paid in the purchase of Soma, must be brown or ruddy because that is Soma’s colour (TS. 6, 1, 6⁷; ŚB. 3, 3, 1¹⁴)⁸.