Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t4.6

c5.s3.t4.6

The shoot is crushed with a stone (9, 67¹⁹) or pressed with stones (9, 107¹⁰); the plant is pounded to produce the Soma draught (10, 85³). The stones tear its skin (TB. 3, 7, 13¹). The stones lie on a skin; for they ‘chew him on the hide of the cow’ (9, 79⁴). They are placed on the *vedi* or altar (5, 31¹²): a practice differing from that of the later ritual¹¹. They are held with hands or arms (7, 22¹; 9, 79⁴; AV. 11, 1¹⁰). The two arms and the ten fingers yoke the stone (5, 43⁴). Hence the stones are said to be guided by ten reins (10, 94⁸). Being spoken of as yoked, they are compared with horses (10, 94⁶). The usual name for the pressing stones is *adri* (generally used with the verb *su*, to press) or *grāvan* (generally connected with *vad*, to speak, or verbs of cognate meaning, and hence showing a greater tendency to personification¹² than *adri*). Both terms nearly always occur either in the singular or the plural, and not in the dual. The stones are also once respectively called *aśna* (8, 2²), *bharitra* (3, 36⁷), *parvata* (3, 35⁸) and *parvatā adrayaḥ* (10, 94¹). The pressing of Soma by means of stones was the usual method in the period of the RV. But the extraction of the juice by mortar and pestle, which is also sanctioned by the ritual texts, was already known to the RV. (1, 28¹⁻⁴); and as this method is in use among the Parsis, it may go back to the Indo-Iranian age.