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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1926
SOMA. By Prof. G. JOUVEAU DUBREUIL. TRANSLATID FROM THE FRENCH NY SIR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, BT. DR. VINCENT SMITH, in the Oxford History of India, 1919, p. 23, wrote as follows: "The Parsees of Yezd and Kirmân in Persia, as well as those of the Deccan and Bombay in India, who still occasionally offer Sôma sacrifices, identify the plant with one or other species of Asclepias.. .But the real Sôma plant may have been different, and has not yet been clearly identified." And in a footnote he said: "Kautilya prescribes that Brah. mans shall be provided with forests for Sôma plantation (Arthasástra, Book II, ch. 2)".
Mr. E. B. Havell in an article in JRAS., Feb. 1920, asked " What is Soma ; ” And in the same article he suggested that it is Eleusine, "the common millet still used in the Himalayas." Prof. A. A. Macdonnell seemed to support this theory.
In 1922 I published a little pamphlet in popular style, entitled Vedic Antiquities, in which I drew attention to the district of Malabar, which seems to have remained sheltered from the invasions and changes which are apparent in the rest of India. I said, p. 24, in speaking of that very high caste of Brâhmans, the Nambudris : "But they do not only adore the Vedic divinities and sing the Vedic hymns, they practise also pure Vedic ceremonies. . . . Those who practise the Sôma sacrifice are called Somayagis or Chomatiris."
In acknowledging a copy of my pamphlet, Mr. Havell asked me, also speaking of the Nambudris : "What do they use for the Sôma rite?” And very appositely, Mr. Havell wrote to me with reference to the above question: "You speak of Hindus who have preserved the Vedic tradition. It is here that we have the greatest opportunity in the world of discussing the mystery of Sôma. Try then to find out exactly what it is that the Nambudris of Malabar use".
I went at once to a great temple, which is the centre of the Nambudris in the village of Taliparamba, where are the best specimens of the agnidriyas-the temples of the Vedic fire. The Nambudri Brâhmans received me very courteously. I told them that I wanted the plant which produced the Soma. They replied: "The Sómavalli plant does not grow in these parts. It is a rare plant found in the mountains. When we want to make a sacrifice with Soma, we write to a Raja who lives at Kollangôd (ten miles south of Pâlghất) at the foot of some very high mountains, where the mystic plant grows."
For a long time I tried to obtain the sacred plant. My efforts remained abortive, till I had the happy thought of writing to a powerful official at Calicut, Mr. P. V. Gopalan. He obtained the plant from the Raja and sent it to me.
Ist once showed it to a learned botanist at Pondicherry, the Rev. Brother Fancheux, who found it to be a climbing plant, having a stem-green, bare, round and woody, and containing a milky liquor. A point characteristic of this creeper is that it is absolutely without foliage. Beyond doubt, it is certainly a plant belonging to the genus asclepias.
Therefore, the Parsis of Yezd in Persia and the Nambudris of Malabar make their sacrifices with the same plant, an Asclepiad. There can thus be no doubt that the two names, Haôma of the Iranians and Sóma of the Indians, designate the same liquor. In short, it seems to me that we have here no mystery concerning the plant which is used to manufacture Soma. It is incontestably an Asclepiad.
