Sambodhi

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 57

Haoma as a plant in the Avestan text
55
composers of the Avestan hymns. While the divine attributes are assignod to the plant its character as a herb nevertheless remains sparkling within the vision of the poet. As a result of this the efficacies of the herb, its medicinal value and its intoxicating nature are repeatedly emphasized. The poets do not forget to mention the original place of its occurrence at the top of the mountains and its later march to different places as a result of the activities of the worshippers of the plant. In the later period Haoma gradually becomes changed into a god by the attribution of divine characters. It not only gives intoxication and health, but provides a man with all sorts of material prosperity and comforts. One gets wisdom, knowledge and other spiritual powers too as a result of the most sincere and devoted worship of the Haowa plant. Haoma becomes transformed ultimately into a perfectly divine figure as a consequence of the attribution of the heavenly features. The deification becomes complete in the later period,
Here one thing should be borne in the mind. As in the Vedic in the Avestan too the object of nature the floras and faunas become transformed into gods. The Vedic Soma and Haoma in the Avestan bear clear testimony to the fact. But inspite of this deification the original features of the natural phenomena find an important place in the description of the poets, In the case of Soma and Haoma this has been clearly seen. If one minutely observes one can very easily perceive, the gradual processes of transformation and its different shapes in the different ages. The conception of Soma, it may be rightly surmised, is a legacy from the Indo-Iranian people. But after the emergence of Iranian and Vedic the transformation of the conception took place absolutely in the identical manner in two different lands.
Notes . Read at the Dharwar session of the All India Oriental Conference in 1976 1 Vide History of Sanskrit Literature by Macdonald; p-97. 2 Vide Yasts 9-11.