Indian Antiquary Vol 24

SR No.: 032516
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 390
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 328

318
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1895.
The drinking of Sôma'l gives immortality. So in the Zend Avesta, Haoma is a god, whose share of the sacrifice is the jaw, the tongue, and the left eye. "Cut quickly," the poet cries to the sacrificer, "his slice for the share of the mighty Haoma, lest he pen thee in the bowels of the earth." Similarly, the Aztecs of Mexico held drunkenness to be the working of the wine god,
But liquor is dowered not alone with happiness : from drink come rage and madness, as well as kindliness and joy. Hesiod (B. C. 800) says: - "Dionysos gave grapes to men, a source of joy, a source of sorrow. The wine god, the freer from care, is also the slayer of souls.45 According to the Aitariya Brahmana, the inebriating quality of Sôma arose from its being licked by the fiend Dirghajihva, Lady Long Tongue. It follows that, though mainly a guardian home, a bringer of joy and health, liquor, like other guardian homes, is apt to be invaded by houseless ill-minded spirits, whose evil influence, passing into the drinker, causes madness and grief. For this reason every care has to be taken in the making, keeping, drinking, and consecrating of wine. Among the early Romans, when the new wine or mustum was tasted, a libation was poured to Meditrina and Jupiter with the prayer that the wine might have health-giving power. So the Bacchantes and maddened comrades of the wine spirit were, like their pine cone and their human organs, less inspired by the god, than the guardians of the god, taking into themselves as scapes the unhoused swarms that might otherwise make their way into the Wine Spirit, dear to thirsty demons. In Europe, as late as the seventh century, at some festivals, the people called on the name of Bacchus and simulated a Bacchic frenzy while treading the grapes. Similarly, in a Somerset home, when the malt is steeped for a brew, on the mash are drawn two hearts with a criss-cross between them to keep the pixies or fairies from spoiling the drink. In Scotland (1604), in the brewery at St. Andrew, a live coal was thrown into each of the vats to keep off the fairies.50 In Hereford, Kent, and other parts of England, in 1690, a bar of cold iron was laid on ale barrels to keep the beer from being soured by thunder.506 So, in Naples, when the wine is ready, the barrel and the wine wagon and the tavern have all to be saved from the Evil Eye and other harmful influences by hanging them with horns. So, in ohurches, the crossing of the chalice with the thumb passed under the two front fingers, incense, lights, bells, and, perhaps, the lifting, all help to the guarding of the sacred wino.61
Though, in India, liquor has ceased to be sacramentally drank to excess, and, except on special occasions, has ceased to be worshipped by orthodox Hindus, the worship and the excessive religious drinking of liquor remain the leading rites of the Vam or Lefthand sects. Lignor is the essential article in the worship of the followers of the left path, Kiols, SÅktas, Vams and Aghors. The Sakta holy books tell how Liquor, in the form of a Virgin or Kumari, rose from the churning of the ocean. The lady was smiling, red-eyed with wine, high-breasted, manyarmed, covered with jewels. The gods and the heavenly host praised her. From drops which fell from her cup sprang hemp, spices, sweet-canes and palms, all plants and trees in whom lives the divine ferment of wine. Liquors are of two classes : madya, or the sweet, which bring pleasure and freedom from re-births, and sura, breath or spirit, that is, the distilled, which save from sin and give learning and power. Through the blessing of 'Sankara, that is of Mahîdêva, those who drink liquor, the giver of the groatest happiness, gain unending joy. Even by the gods, say the Vâm books, liquor is enjoyed : it ever sbines : it is an enduring delight. The sight of liquor frees from sin: its fumes have the merit of a hundred sacrifices. In the divine ferment of liquor the All-soul passes into the partaker, life is large, self bursts its bonds and
41 Op. cit. pp. 170, 337. 45 Op.cit. xi. 7. 45 Brown's Great Dionysiak Myth, Vol. I. pp. 21, 40. +7 Smith's Greek and Roman Antiquities, VOL II. p. 155. • Elwerthy's The Evil Eye, p. 287. bn Aubrey's Miscellany, p. 140.
** Yasna, xi. 4. + The Golden Bough, Vol. I. p. 185. 4. Ait. Br. II. 22. + Smith's Christian Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 812. 50 Hone's Year Book, p. 1553. 51 Smith's Christian Antiquities, Vol. II, p. 1896.