Soma and Amanita Muscaria

Soma and "Amanita muscaria"
Author(s): John Brough

Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol.
34, No. 2 (1971), pp. 331-362
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African
Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/612695
Accessed: 17-11-2016 16:44 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
School of Oriental and African Studies, Cambridge University Press are collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 17 Nov 2016 16:44:39 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
SOMA AND AMANITA MUSCARIA
By JOHN BROUGH
The importance of the Soma-plant in Vedic religion has never been u

estimated. Among the rituals of the Yajurvedic texts, the soma-sacrif
among the most elaborate and important, and are described in minute deta
the Brahmanas and Srauta-siitras. These later texts nevertheless con
direct tradition from the Rgveda, which can be seen to reflect an earlier s
the development of the ritual, doubtless of a less rigidly formalized and p
less elaborate nature. Even so, the R.gveda is, so to speak, permeated by
Understandably, therefore, from the early days of Vedic studies in th
many scholars have speculated on the botanical identity of the plant in qu
Numerous candidates have been nominated, the most frequently favoured
species of the genera Ephedra, Sarcostemma, Periploca, and latterly Ca
and even Rheum. Not a single one of these conjectures has gained ge
assent, and the opinion is widely held that the problem is insoluble.
Earlier, soma was usually thought to be a fermented drink ; but the fac
the ritual exclude this, and most scholars would now reject the alcoholic th
It is then easier to understand the sharp contrast between the divine soma
the presumably fermented sura. The latter drink is frequently mentioned
disapproval in the later Vedic texts : for detailed references, see P. V
History ofdharmaidstra, II, 792 ff. It is fair to add that sur& seldom occurs
RV, and in this earlier period only its excessive consumption seems
considered bad. The use of sur& in the Sautramani, and in conjunction
soma in the Vijapeya, is thus not necessarily paradoxical.
The situation is comparable in the Avesta : Yadt 17.5 (and similarly
10.8) nam6 haomai yat v'ispe anye nma&dnh a#ma hadinte xrvidrvo, Jat h
haomahe ma86 ada hadaite xvaepaile 'Homage to Haoma, in that al
intoxications are accompanied by Frenzied Wrath with bloody club, wh
intoxication which is Haoma's is accompanied by his own Aba '. By implicat
this would include hurt among the other 'bad ' drinks; but specific ref
to huri in the Avesta are regularly neutral, and it is mentioned mere
drink, without condemnation. Similarly in Middle Iranian, Pahlavi h
drink for kings and nobles : see W. B. Henning, BSOAS, xvII, 3, 1955,
In RV 7.86.6 sur& is one of several causes of sin against Varuna ; it is li
with soma in 8.2.12, perhaps implying that the two drinks had some effec
common: h.rtsz p]ttso yudhyante durm'ddso no surayam 'When con

they (the somas) fight in the heart (of Indra?) like men badly inebria
sura '; while the gift from the AMvins to Kaksivant of a hundred jars of
obviously a splendid blessing in 1.116.7 kaksivate... datdm kumbh~i as
surayah ; and this is obviously the same blessing or a closely similar
accorded to the tribe (jdncya) of Kaksivant by the AMvins in the next
1.117.6 datim kumbhdr asi~icatam mddhiinm-' of intoxicating drinks
332 JOHN BROUGH
than' of honey '. It will be convenient to postpon

until later in this article.
It is thus natural, in the quest for the nature of soma, to turn to the con-
sideration of a vegetable alkaloid or similar substance.
Discussion of the identity of the Soma-plant has latterly been in the

doldrums. It is therefore greatly to the credit of Mr. R. Gordon Wasson that he
has re-awakened interest in the problem by the publication of a detailed and
scholarly investigation, propounding the revolutionary theory that the Soma of
the Rgveda was a mushroom.1
'My candidate for the identity of Soma is Amanita muscaria (Fr. ex L.) Qubl.,
in English the fly-agaric, the Fliegenpilz of the Germans, the mukhomor of the
Russians, the fausse oronge or tue-mouche or crapaudin of the French, the
brilliant red mushroom with white spots familiar in forests and folklore through-
out northern Eurasia.
' This is the first time that a mushroom has been proposed in the Soma quest.
' The fly-agaric is an inebriant but not alcoholic. As far back as our records
go, it has been the Sacred Element in the shamanic rites of many tribes of
northern Siberia, tribes that are concentrated in the valleys of the Ob and the
Yenisei, and then, after an interruption, other tribes in the extreme northeast
of Siberia' (p. 10)."
In summary, Wasson considers that the Soma-cult is explicable as an Indo-
Iranian representative of a fly-agaric cult which in early times was wide-spread
throughout a great part of Eurasia : 'How astonishing that we can still draw
parallels with the fly-agaric cult in Siberia, where as we shall see in Part Three
it lingers on, in the last stages of degeneration among the peripheral tribes of the
extreme north' (p. 68). He therefore devotes a major part of his book to the
discussion of the use of the fly-agaric and other mushrooms in lands beyond
India and Iran, and especially in Siberia. These sections of the book are full
of interest as an aspect of cultural history ; but as a matter of simple logic,
such parallels have no probative value. They cannot even be adduced as
confirmatory arguments for the theory that the Soma-plant was A. muscaria.
Until this theory is proved for the R.gveda, and proved beyond any possible
1 R. Gordon Wasson, Soma, divine mushroom of immortality. (Ethno-mycological Studies, No. 1.)
xiii, 381 pp., 24 plates, 3 maps. The Hague : Mouton ; New York : Harcourt, Brace and World,
Inc., [C1968] (publ. 1969), $200 (?86.50). The book is sumptuously produced, printed on hand-
made paper specially water-marked, with 24 colour plates. Edition limited to 680 numbered
copies. Mr. Wasson's primary study is mycology, and he was for 10 years a Research Fellow of the
Botanical Museum of Harvard University, now Honorary Research Fellow; also Honorary
Research Associate and former member of the Board of Managers of the New York Botanical
Garden. In my discussion of the theory here, I am much indebted to Professor Mary Boyce and
Dr. I. Gershevitch for information and advice on some of the relevant Iranian materials. These
colleagues are of course not necessarily committed to any of the views which I have expressed;
and any inadvertent errors are my own.
2 Throughout the present article, such references, unless otherwise indicated, are to pages or
plates of Wasson's book.
SOMA AND AMANITA MUCARIA 333
doubt, the non-Indo-Iranian materials remain, in the st

Even if the proposed identification for Soma seems pro
on the basis of internal evidence, extraneous facts are n
On the other hand, if the Vedic case were proved, w
consider the possibility of a very wide-spread and signi
continuum.
The present article is therefore mainly concerned with the first section of
Wasson's book, namely, that which gives his detailed arguments from the text
of useful
be the R.?gveda
to readers itself. Because
to prefix the of
a summary book is costly,
the contents of and the edition
the remainder limited,
of the it may
book.
The main argument is presented in pp. 3-70, where are included many
splendid colour photographs of A. muscaria to illustrate aspects of the plant
which, as Wasson believes, inspired the epithets and tropes applied to Soma
by the poets of the Rgveda. He excludes later texts, on the grounds that the
original plant had already been replaced by substitutes, and was possibly in
process of being lost even by the time of the later hymns of the RV : 10.85.3
s6mam, ydm
know-that brahmdn
no one o vidztr
drinks' (quoted andndtranslated,
tdsyanatip. kds~ cand
14). The ' The Soma
remainder of that the Brahmans
part I consists of ' Mani, mushroom, and urine ' (ch. xii, pp. 71-6) ; and 'The
marvelous herb' (ch. xiii, pp. 77-92)-a brief passage from the Shahndma,
another
chih ~ of from the Padma
the Chinese, Purin.a,
recognized to and
be a adifferent
longish discussion
mushroom,onat the
leastfamous
in ling
part mythical, but believed by Wasson possibly to have been inspired in part
by tales of a mushroom cult brought to China by way of Central Asia.
Part II, 'The post-Vedic history of the Soma plant' (pp. 95-147), is
contributed by Dr. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty. This is a useful essay which
starts and
siltras, by later
bringing
Sanskrittogether statements
works, including aboutofSoma
prescriptions in substitutes
possible the Brahmar.as, Srauta-
for the Soma-plant when the latter is not available. The substitutes, as would
be expected, are only Sanskrit names to us, and few if any can be identified
botanically. There follows an interesting section giving a history of the con-
troversies on Soma in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and it is
instructive to observe not only the multifarious plants proposed, but also the
quite superficial approach of the majority of the writers on the subject.
On p. 97, 'the nyagrodha (sacred fig or banyan tree)', and p. 122, 'the
nyagrodha (Ficus religiosa)', is a mistake. The nyagrodha, vata, the banyan,
is Ficus benghalensis L. (given in the Sanskrit dictionaries as F. indica L., a
discarded name for the same plant : it is now an error to use 'F. indica'). F.
religiosa L. is the agvattha, pippala.3 This may be an isolated lapsus ; but it sug-
gests that the numerous botanical names and ' synonyms ' given in this chapter
SThe Sanskrit dictionaries are notoriously unreliable on botanical nomenclature. Among the
most frequently mentioned figs in Sanskrit, only Ficus religiosa = a~vattha still stands as a valid
name, while others continue to be miscalled by names now discarded by botanists under the
VOL. XXXIV. PART 2. 23
334 JoHN BROUGH
may sometimes require further taxonomic

quoted.
In part III,' Northern Eurasia and the fly-agaric ' (pp. 151-204, followed by
an epilogue on 'The tree of life and the marvelous herb', to p. 222), Wasson
resumes the tale. In the concluding section of the book, entitled 'Exhibits'
(pp. 233-356), extracts are quoted in English (translated from other languages
as needed) of passages relevant to the fly-agaric from the writings of explorers,
travellers, and anthropologists. The earliest of these passages is from 1658, but
the majority are much more recent. Annotations are added where necessary,
and Wasson is careful to indicate points where the witnesses are unreliable.
Most of the ' Exhibits' concern Siberia ; but in dealing with the last few, on
Scandinavia, Wasson rejects the theory that the old Norsemen went ' berserk'
through consuming the fly-agaric. This would have been a good parallel to the
stimulation for battle which Indra obtained from soma. But the Norse tale of
the fly-agaric in this connexion first appears in the late eighteenth century, and
is thus without value.
As already indicated, Wasson's arguments directly drawn from the RV are

contained in the first part of the book, the detailed evidence being concentrated
in less than one-fifth of the volume. To these arguments we now turn our
attention.
It must be emphasized that Wasson did not deliberately set himself to
identify the Vedic Soma. In an earlier book 4 he and his wife 'explored the
folkloric and linguistic background of the fly-agaric throughout Europe, and
showed the deep hold that it exerted at one time on the imagination of the north
European peoples' (p. 35). It was only much later that he became acquainted
with the RV, through the translations of Geldner, Renou, and Bhawe,5 and
gradually came to the conviction that 'the hymns of the RgVeda fit the fly-
agaric like a glove. True, one must possess some awareness of the psychotropic
priority rule. The opportunity is taken here to correct some of these : for further details, see
E. J. H. Corner, ' Check-list of Ficus in Asia and Australasia ', The Gardens' Bulletin (Singapore),
xxI, 1965-6 (publ. 1967).
udumbara : F. racemosa L. [wrongly F. glomerata Roxb.]
udumbari, ai~jra (Pers. s.) : F. hispida Linn. f. [wrongly F. oppositifolia Roxb.]
parkati: either F. virens Ait. [wrongly F. infectoria Miq.]
or F. tsjahela Burm. f. [wrongly F. infectoria Willd.]
or F. caulocarpa Miq. [wrongly F. infectoria Willd. var. caulocarpa (Miq.) King].
This last is a good example of the confusion which can arise when, as is usual in Sanksrit
dictionaries, the naming authority is omitted : s.v. parkati we find only F. infectoria, and are
thus left with three possible interpretations.
4 R. G. Wasson and V. P. Wasson, Mushrooms, Russia and history, New York, 1957.
Karl Friedrich Geldner, Der Rig-veda aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche ilbersetzt (Harvard
Oriental[EVP],
ndennes Series, xxxxI-xxxxxv),
especially Tomes viii Cambridge,
and Ix, Paris, Mass., 1951; Louis
1961 (translation Renou,
with notes Jftudes vidiques et pain.i-
of the ninth
mandala, to Soma Pavamina); S. S. Bhawe, The Soma-hymns of the Rgveda, Baroda, 1957, 1960,
1962 (containing 9.1-70).
SOMA AND A1MANITA MUSCARIA 335
plants of the world and their r6le in primitive religion. Given that fami
a reading of Geldner, Renou, and Bhawe leads straight to the fly-agaric '
The argument depends chiefly on the assumption that many of the de
tive phrases applied to Soma in the RV are direct descriptions of the
mushroom, or poetical figures suggested by it at various stages in its
ment. Much persuasiveness is added by the brilliant colour plates ; a
these cannot be reproduced here, Wasson's own account of Amanita
(p. 35) is quoted as an aid to clarification.
'In the fall of the year, hard by a birch or pine, one is apt to find the
agaric. The season in the temperate zone lasts two or at most three weeks
the climax coming in the middle week. The fly-agaric emerges like a litt
ball, like cotton wool. It swells rapidly and bursts its white garmen
fragments of the envelope remaining as patches on the brilliant red skin
neath. At first the patches almost cover the skin, but as the cap expa
are reduced in relative size and finally are nothing more than island
surface. In fact, under certain conditions, especially as a result of rain, t
washed off altogether and the fly-agaric then shines without blem
resplendent scarlet mushroom. When the plant is gathered it soon
lustre and takes on a rather dull chestnut hue.'
It is to this plant in its various stages that, in Wasson's opinion, the hymns
of the RV refer, in the epithets and tropes which they apply to Soma. 'It is
certain that the poets of the RgVeda knew the original Soma at first hand, and
they never strayed from it for long ' (p. 12). But is it certain? It is difficult to
imagine that the ritual utterances of the ceremonies of Soma Pavamina (the
examples are naturally taken mainly from the ninth mandala) should be domi-
nated by rapturous descriptions of A. muscaria, a plant which can be seen in its
beauty during only a few days of the year. The dull, dried specimens which
must have been used at almost every sacrifice--and invariably after the Vedic
people had reached the plains of northern India--could hardly have inspired
poetic rapture. At the pressing and clarifying, the priests are intent on the
ritual situation ; and it is far more likely that the rapture is to be attributed
to the remembered and anticipated psychotropic effects of the soma-juice.
Granted that, unlike soma, opium is not sacrosanct, it is scarcely likely that a
user of opium would rhapsodize over the beauty of the flower of Papaver
somniferum.
This comparison may perhaps seem a little unfair, when the priests were
preparing the drug from actual plant material during the rite. Still, the
accompanying hymns are essentially ritual utterances. We cannot deny the
possibility that the hymns could reflect at least some features of the wild plant ;
but in the context of the ritual pressing and filtering of the soma-juice, it seems
hazardous to conjecture that such reminiscences could have been so omni-
present as Wasson would have us believe. It is a delicate task to interpret
passages from hymns which can involve the plant, or the pressed juice, or the
deification of the latter, the god Soma. The poets draw no sharp distinctions
336 JroN BnOUGH
between these three. Even if the deified Som

istics based on the natural plant, mytholo
frequent. Often, details of the ritual acts, the
present soma-juice so interact in the minds
analyse these aspects could only distort the hi
Wasson is not unaware of this, although in
undue prominence to his fugitive natural p
a god, a plant, and the juice of that plant'
modification. No one has doubted that soma, i
the pressed juice, and that it is this juic
manifestation' (dhaman, on which see below
possible to be definite in such matters, the
directly as the name of the plant, unless pe
(and even then the reference may be to the in
that this was clear to the Vedic poets :
RV 9.92.2 dcha nrcdksa asarat pavi
ndma dddhdnah kavir asya ydnau
'(Soma) ... flowed hither, taking to himsel
yoni '.6 When Soma is said to be located on
certain that the sense intended is that the d
the plant. It is therefore probably going too f
plant that man has ever deified'. Rather, th
quoted (p. 3) for the Mexican Indians, who '
plants, whether mushrooms, peyotl, or morni
not as a god'.
We thus have the peculiarity that a plant of unique importance in Indo-
Iranian religion seems never to be named. Since the whole of the Veda was a
secret text guarded by the priests, there is no reason to suppose that a taboo
was responsible for this.
In the RV, references to the armnu- of Soma are frequent, the word being
traditionally rendered as ' stalk ' or ' stem '. Renou, for example, has 'la tige '
or 'la tige (de soma) '. There seems to be no reason or indication from the text
itself for the choice of the stalk. Indeed, if Wasson were right, it would be all
the more extraordinary that the cap of his mushroom, the cap which provides so
many details for his argument, should be thus discarded when the plant comes
to be pressed in the ritual. (Wasson admittedly identifies miirdhan, diras' head ',
when used in connexion with Soma, with the cap of the mushroom (pp. 45-6) ;
but this interpretation is unconvincing : see below.) In the numerous Siberian
examples quoted in the 'Exhibits', the mushroom is apparently always con-
sumed whole. For the RV, we might guess that the potent drug was concen-
trated in the stalk of the Vedic plant, or even that other parts were noxious.
There are no grounds for believing that the Indo-Iranians were sufficiently
skilled herbalists to have made such discoveries.
8 For nrcaks@h, Renou, ' (le soma) au regard de maitre ' ; Geldner, ' Der miinnlich Blickende '.
SOMA AND AMANITA MUSCARIA 337
On reading through the Soma-hymns, the recurrence

One gradually comes to suspect that the word does n
conviction begins to grow that we have here the actual n
In seeking to verify this suspicion, a belated refe
dictionary showed that this idea was not new.7 Unde
gives: 'Name der Pflanze, aus welcher der Soma gepr
1) Somapflanze, 2) der aus ihr gepresste Somasaft '. A
passages in the RV where the word occurs confirmed
instance, Grassmann's interpretation did no violence
contrary usually fitted more naturally in the verse
dbhild u bhd u amlive, Geldner actually translates 'Li
geworden' ; Renou (EVP, xvI, 5) '... est apparue l
soma '. Elsewhere, Geldner always gives ' Stengel' for
tion, 9.15.5 esd ... sibhrdbhir ansibhih 'Dieser [S
strahlenden Zweigen (Strahlen)', with the footnote
sinnig'. Renou
acception secondein" arayon
note "on'. In
thespite
sameofverse agrees that
the occasional here
use of 'amy.n
subhra a pour
as an
epithet of Soma (not explicitly of ayiu), it seems risky, on the basis of this
solitary verse, to read into the RV the common later Sanskrit sense of' ray'.
It is slightly quaint to find both Roth and Renou 9 mentioning amsnu as the
name of the plant, and immediately adding-almost as an afterthought-that,
strictly speaking, the word meant the stem: 'Die dem Veda so gelatufige
Bezeichnung fiir die Somapflanze oder vielmehr ihre Glieder'; 'A msi-
dksigne, aussi bien dans le RV. que dans l'Avesta, le soma en tant que plante (et
proprement la tige ou les fibres du soma) '.
Roth (loc. cit.), arguing in favour of a Sarcostemma, interpreted the amnsavah
as the 'Stengelglieder', the internodes of the stems-rather too botanically
precise in respect of a Vedic term. From the cylindrical shape of these he derived
the sense of the fringes or tassels on a garment, which he considered was
implicit in almupatta. We cannot discuss in detail here the development of the
post-Vedic meanings of aydu ; but it is relevant to observe that at that time
Renou (loc. cit.) excluded from the mantras the common classical sense of' ray
of light '. He added, however, ' Il est possible que cette nouvelle acception ait
4th d6ji pr4sente B l'auteur d'AV. xIII 2 7 qui nous dit du char solaire qu'il est
am.,umnt- : encore que Henry Hy. Rohitas p. 9 ait probablement raison de

maintenir une version ritualisante " charg6 de soma ". ... En tout cas la
bifurcation de sens s'avire dans un autre passage de l'AV. viii 1 2, oii le porte
r~clame pour un malade l'assistance de soma amsumdnt- : soit & la fois le soma
avec les rameaux ou rejets de sa plante, et la lune avec ses rayons '. Possible,
SThis was a surprise, at least to me : having taken 'stalk ' for granted, I had not previously
thought to consult Grassmann for this word.
8 i.e., leaving out of account 8.5.26, where Ambu is a man's name, and 1.100.16, where sumdd-
amnbu is unexplained, but appears to be part of a horse's harness.
9 R. Roth,' Ueber den Soma ', ZDMG, xxxv, 1881, 684 ; L. Renou,' Les C1kments vidiques
dans le sanskrit classique ', JA, ccxxxI, juillet-sept. 1939, 341.
338 JoHN R IoGH
yes ; but still speculation for a period as ea

hand, it is very likely that the meaning
or in post-Vedic
Soma-plants, Sanskrit-fromn
the plants called Amiu ',the sun's
which being
would ain.numant-
easily 'possessing
lead to a subsequent
(mis)understanding as 'possessing rays '.
Like amngu in relation to Soma in the RV, the Avestan qsu is used only of
Haoma; and it would be worth investigating the possibility that here also
qsu may be the name of the plant itself. (Bartholomae, Air. W, s.v. qsav-:
'Schoss, Zweig der Haoma-pflanze '.) In Yasna 10.2, for example, it seems
possible to understand qsui (Parsi Sanskrit version, pallavan) as' the Asu-plants
(belonging to the god Haoma) '. In Yasna 9.16 haomd... nqmyqsud, the Pahlavi
version narm tak is followed by the Sanskrit rendering mrdu-pallavah, and by
Bartholomae, 'mit biegsamen, zarten Schasslingen '.*0 We might translate as
'Haoma . . . whose Asu-plants are tender (?) '.
Monier Williams's dictionary, s.v. amrsu, has 'a filament, especially of the
Soma plant '. It is amusing to imagine the process of pressing soma-juice from
the filaments of plants. But the mistake is surely due only to a misunderstanding
of the nuance intended by the Petersburg lexicon's 'Faser ', which must be
taken here as 'fibre'. This sense cannot be accepted for the RV; but its
genuineness in later Indo-Aryan is well attested : Bengali Js (Old Beng. dsu)
'fibre of tree or stringy fruit', and examples from other languages." In
Classical Sanskrit, a meaning such as 'fibre' can be seen in Sayana's comment
on RV 10.17.12 yds te drapsdh ... yds te amzih : commentary, drapsah.
rasah ... yas ca te tvadiyah amnsuh rasdd itarah san, i.e., the am~u which is
Soma's other part in contrast to the juice; and similarly on verse 13 of the
same hymn.
Although we reject ' fibre ' as the precise sense of a'mnsu in the RV, the later
development of such a meaning strongly suggests that the Soma-plant was
fibrous or stringy, rather than of the fleshy texture of a mushroom. I am
indebted to my wife for the pertinent observation that, if the Soma-plant had
been a mushroom, it would be strange that the elaborate Vedic process of
pounding out and filtering the juice should have been necessary. Why should
the plant not have been simply eaten? There is no particular sanctity in liquid
as such : ' cakes' (purodas~-, purodUda-) are among the sacrificial offerings most
frequently mentioned in the ritual texts. Even although dried specimens of the
mushroom may have been somewhat tough, even after soaking in water,
nowhere in Wasson's 'Exhibits' is there any mention of the Siberian tribes
pounding the fly-agaric to extract juice. On the contrary, in Siberia the plant is
regularly eaten or swallowed whole, although occasionally it is used to make
a decoction or infusion (pp. 234, 253, 260, etc.), or it is added to soups or sauces
(p. 324). But RV 7.26.1 is explicit : nd s6ma indram dsuto mamada nibrahmano
lO Air. WV, s.v., analysing the compound as nqmi-qsu-. Some doubt may still be felt about the
sense of *ndmi-.
11 See R. L. Turner, Comparative dictionarry of the Indo-Aryan languages, s.v. am.nu-.
SOMIA AND AMAYITA MUSCARIA 339
maghdvanan.
pressed sutdsah 'Soma
juices unaccompanied unpressed
by sacred hymns has
'. never intoxicated Indra, nor the
In Indo-Iranian terms, the god Soma acts through the juice to produce mada,
maca 'inebriation, intoxication'. Such Western terms, however, have over-
tones which are out of tune with the reverential awe accorded to Soma. Geldner
remarked in the introductory note to his translation of RV 9 (HOS, xxxv, 2),

'Die Wirkung des Somasafts wird im Veda wie im Avesta durch mad bezeichnet.
Obersetzt man dies mit "berauschen ", so ist das fast zu viel gesagt, mit
" begeistern " zu wenig '. It is difficult to give an adequate equivalent, but the
tenor of the hymns indicates something like 'possession by the divinity', in
some way comparable to Greek 4 iv0ovaLaou .s. One inspirational aspect of

Soma is clear : more than any other god, he stimulates the poetic creation of
the Vedic seers. All the words concerning poetic inspiration appear in connexion
with Soma, such as dhi, dhiti, mati, vip-, gir-, man7sa. The term kavi 'poet' is
applied to men and to other gods, but very frequently to Soma, who is also rsi,
vipra (9.87.3) : for Soma as kavi, see especially 9.96.17-18. In contrast to the
wider application of kavi, it is noteworthy that the derivative kdvya 'poetic
creation' (normally translated by Renou as 'pouvoir-podtique') is used pre-
ponderantly in connexion with Soma and Agni, with whom Soma is so closely
associated in the RV. In 3.1.8 the two deities virtually coalesce : ic6tanti dhdri
mddhuno
les coulees dughrtdisya v.sa
doux (soma), du ydtra vdvyrdh6
beurre-fondu, 1 oft kdvyena, Renou
le male (Agni) s'est 'invigor6
tombent-goutte- -goutte
grace au pouvoir-po~tique (des hommes) ' ; but perhaps rather,' the streams of
madhu (soma) drip, the streams of melted butter, where the Bull (Soma/Agni)
has increased by means of his (Soma's) kdvya '. In 9.66.19-21, Agni is conm-
pletely identified with Soma; in 9.96.18 padavih kavindm echoes the sense of
9.62.25 vac6 agriydh-Soma as 'leader of the Word '.
A kdvya is not merely an' inspired utterance ', but often a' magically potent
spell' : in 4.35.4 the IRbhus divide the cup into four by their ' magic (creative)
power', kdvyena, and are invited in the same verse to press and drink soma.
Similarly, the two Advins came to the aid of Indra by means of their magic
skills, their wondrous powers: 10.131.5 ... asvinobhindravdthuh kdvyair
daimsdndbhih. (See Geldner's note on the confused syntax of this verse. The
general sense, however, is clear.) As a further development, elsewhere the
plural kdvyani, usually with the adjective visvani, appears to have acquired
virtually the sense of' (all) things created (by the Word) '. For the recurring
phrase abhi vilsvani kdvya, Renou has 'pour (atteindre) tous pouvoirs-
po6tiques ' and similar renderings ; but it may rather be taken as ' towards all
created things'. See especially 9.70.2 and 9.107.23. A strong confirmation is
provided by 8.41.5-6, where there is a parallel between the two verses: yo6
dhartd bhdvanandy! . . . sd kavih kdvyi pure ... pusyati '(Varuna) who is the
supporter of the creatures (bhuvanani) . . . he, the kavi, nourishes the manifold
creations (kdvyJ) ', and ydsmin visvani kdvya cakrd ndbhir iva sritd ' in whom all
created things (kdvyi) are held firm, as the nave is held in the wheel '. In a note
340 JOHN BROUGH
on this passage, Renou wrote of kdvya (EVP,

poetiques, les creations cosmiques et tous sav
vue vid. le cr~ateur, le dimiurge spirituel'.
po~tiques ' in his translation of the same pass
ydt kavih kdvyJ bhdrate . . . bhivanani visva '
all sides all created things (kdvyd), all creatures
Such a development of sense would then be in
philosophical concept of dabda-brahman. As ear
comparable proposal in the very first paragr
souvent constat6, sur un plan philosophique
pr~f~re), un mot tel que vcc n'est autre que
prototype de la notion d'dtmdin-brdhman., com
hymne adress6 pricishment & la Parole '. He ref
explicit in his translations of the hymns. Neve
above indicates that for himself it presumab
standing.
On a more mundane plane, the soma-drink was a powerful stimulant for
those about to go into battle. In the hymns, it is drunk by the principal gods
(9.90.5, and frequently) and above all by Indra, who thus prepares himself for
his fights against the enemies of the Aryas and demonic foes, and particularly
for his conquest of the demon Vrtra in order to release the imprisoned waters.
In the Avesta the epithet vardrajd 'victorious' is used of Haoma (Yasna
9.16), while in RV 8.24.6, 10.25.9 Soma is vrtrahantama-, and vrtrahan- in 1.91.5
etc., though in India the epithet is most frequently applied to Indra.12 We may
conjecture that the secular use of soma in battle came first in time, although its
translation to the divine sphere must quickly have begun to develop in parallel.
In the RV, soma is predominantly for the gods; but even here it appears
occasionally as a battle-stimulant for human beings: 9.30.3 i nah ?4smam!

n.rsdhyam' Bring us warrior-might [exaltation of spirit as well as bodily strength]
fit to subdue warriors'; 9.85.2 asmin samacryd pavamana codaya ... jahi
kitrin ' O Pavamana, stimulate us in the battle ... strike down our enemies '.
There is regrettably little further information on the effects of soma. The
only hymn which appears to give some details is RV 10.119, a soliloquy of one
who has drunk the juice.13 If, as is usually held, the speaker is a deity or at
least a mythological character, we must treat with circumspection any sugges-
tion that this hymn is evidence for hallucinatory effects on human beings, and
in any case make allowance for hyperbole. The hymn has often been quoted as
1I See E. Benveniste and L. Renou, Vrtra et V~6ragna (Cahiers de la Soci~t6 Asiatique, In),
Paris, 1934; I. Gershevitch, The Avestan hymn to M2ithra, Cambridge, 1959, p. 158.
a13 Ancient tradition is unreliable on the myth or ritual for which this hymn was composed,
although some connexion with Indra is recognized : for details, see Geldner's introductory note to
his translation of the hymn. Modern scholars have tended to identify the speaker as Indra.
R. Hauschild argued in favour of Agni : ' Das Selbstlob (&tmastuti) des Somrnaberauschten Gottes
Agni
Weller,(.Rgveda x, 119)',
Leipzig, 1954, 247-88,ina view
J. Schubert andconsidered
which Renou U. Schneider (ed.),
probable (EVP,Asiatica:
xiv, 39). Festschrift Friedrich
evidence that a soma-drinker experienced a great expa

ahdm asmi mahamah6 'bhinabhydm idisitah' Ich bin riesen
emporgestiegen' (Hauschild). Verse 8 abhi dydm mahi
prthivim mahim 'Hinausgewachsen bin ich iiber den
Ausdehnungskraft, hinaus iiber diese grosse Erde' (Hau
en grandeur le ciel ...' (Renou). But there seems no reas
sense to the verb abhi-bhil- : rather, 'I have overcome
size '] heaven and earth '.
Such a hymn cannot have been composed by a poet u
soma : the artifice of its structure excludes this. It is
and could easily have been composed by one without perso
original soma. It begins with a wish for cattle and hor
Soma of the earlier hymns who is invoked for booty in
then add to this the idea that the soma impels the drinker
But verses 4 and 5 then revert to the other aspect, tha
Only after this does the speaker come to the direct me
finally-as is fitting for a god--to his setting down the ea
ever he will, and to his swelling up to fill the space betw
I am prepared to accept 10.119 as a product of poeti
are, of course, at liberty to take the hymn as a serious de
of drinking soma. Wasson does not cite it as direct evi
justifiably so. Yet, if we exclude this hymn, what indispu
in the RV that soma was 'hallucinogenic' ? There a
believing that soma was a powerful stimulant, though eve
mind the possibility of a purely psychological enhanceme
effects. In 8.48.3 dpdma sdmam amita abh~imdganma jydt
poet speaks in exalted terms : ' We have drunk sonma, we
we have gone to the Light (of heaven), we have obtai
more of the Soma-verses are liturgical rather than ins
gods are invoked for similar blessings. Exalted language is
utterances, and we can hardly suppose that all of these w
point need not be laboured.
'The roots, leaves, blossoms, seed of Sornma : where

considers it odd that 'in a lengthy anthology of lyri
centuries . . . no poet ever speaks of these conspicuo
chlorophyll-bearing plants, not even casually or inci
conspiracy of silence, ' they were speaking of a plant tha
blossom nor leaf nor root ; viz., a mushroom ' (p. 18).
'lyrical ', in a loose sense of the term ; but, to speak with
14 Here and in subsequent paragraphs, such italicized headings are those of chapters or
sections of Wasson's book. It has not seemed necessary to deal with every point which he raises,
and only the arguments which he considers most vital for his case are discussed in detail. I trust,
however, that I have passed over nothing of importance.
342 JOHN BROUGH
'anthology of lyric poetry '. It is a

hymns composed for religious ritu
concerned with the plant itself onl
are entirely preoccupied with th
hypothesis, we might with equa
notable feature of the mature A. m
(not very prominently) and in t
between pp. 10 and 11 ; but most
young, or are photographed from
from the Pavamana-hymns, othe
other gods, or to the mythologic
product is of religious significance
the priests should not be intereste
the original were a chlorophyll-
applicable to Wasson's view that
derived from the botanical characters of A. muscaria. Since this view is funda-
mental to his whole theory, most of his detailed examinations of' descriptions'
of the Soma-plant are suspect ab initio.
' Soma grew in the mountains.' This is important for the fly-agaric theory,
since the plant grows only in mycorrhizal relationship with the birch and (less
frequently) conifers. 'In Northern Eurasia the birch and conifer grow at sea
level. South of the Oxus and in India they are found only at a great height in the
mountains, around 8,000 to 16,000 feet' (p. 23). This would account for the
increasing difficulty in obtaining supplies of the plant as the Indo-Aryans
penetrated further south. The implicit syllogism is obviously invalid, by reason
of the undistributed middle : at this point in the argument, many other plants
growing in the mountains may still be considered possible. The twelve RV
verses quoted here by Wasson show only that Soma (but plant or god ?) was
located on the mountains.
In the Avesta also, Haoma grows on the mountain heights: Yasna 10.3,
etc., barainub paiti gairinqm. It seems thus to have been generally accepted that
the Soma-plant did grow on mountains. But the facile deduction that it grew
exclusively on mountains does not follow logically, and may be contradicted by
two passages : Yasna 10.17 vispe haomna upastaomi yatfii barainuiva gairinqm
ya~6iL fqrfnubva raonqm 'I praise all the Haomas whether those on the heights
of the mountains, whether those in the valleys of the rivers'; RV 8.6.28,
where the vipra (Soma) is said to have been born upahvard girindrm samgathd
ca nad~ism 'in the hidden place [or on the slope ?] of the mountains, and in the
confluence of the rivers '.15 We may note also the name of the river Amnumati,
15 In case it might be thought that this last expression is a periphrasis for ' ocean ', it should
be noted that the present verse (ajayata) concerns Soma's birthplace, whereas the ocean (samudra)
in connexion with Soma is his ultimate destination, the filtered juice in the sacrificial bowls in the
earthly sense, and the 'heavenly ocean ' in the implied hieratic sense: cf. for example
RV 1.110.1; 9.2.5; 9.29.3; 9.73.3. On the general question of Soma and the Waters, see Liiders,
Varuna, I, Gattingen, 1951, 225 ff., 272, and J. Gonda, The meaning of the Sanskrit term dhaman-,
SOMA AND AMANJTA MUSCARIA 343
RV 8.96.13-15, the river 'abounding in Soma-plants'. T

in a legendary context; but such a name is unlikely to
been common knowledge that Soma-plants did not norma
On the other side, it could be argued that the Amiumat
simply because it is legendary ; or that river valleys do ex
higher than 8,000 feet. We might also suggest that the
above is not intended literally, but is only a poetic way
wherever they may be '. Alternatively, Wasson could repl
might be folk-reminiscences from a time when the ances
knew the birch and the fly-agaric at low altitudes.
But whatever may have been the original plant and
has become a god; and mountains are natural homes fo
gods of Greece are an obvious example. Visnu is a mou
in RV 1.154.3--cf. girisu ksdyam! dadhe of Soma in 9
stanza, 1.154.2, Visnu has the same epithet as Soma, gi
line of verse is taken bodily into 10.180.2, where, howeve
Compare also the reference to Visnu and the Maruts
mountains in 5.87.1. In 8.7.1. the Maruts are lords
pdrvatesu rajathlza), in 8.94.12 they are giristha-, and in 5
in the high mountains, b.hadgirayah. Indra is parvatesth~
Visliu on the mountains in 1.155.1 sinuni pdrvatanam.
need only mention Siva, Parvati, and Kubera as reside
' The Two Forms ofSomna ' (p. 25). ' I now come to a cr
case. The fly-agaric is unique among the psychotropi
properties : it is an inebriant in Two Forms. First Form
eating the raw mushroom, or by drinking its juice .
in the urine of the person who has ingested the fly-ag
Numerous reports of this phenomenon are cited from th
visitors to Siberia (p. 25, and 'Exhibits' passim), a
chemistry involved still awaits scientific investigation, th
way is so widely attested for the fly-agaric in Siberia tha
it. Wasson believes that he has found evidence that Soma also had these
' Two Forms' in the RV. I am completely unconvinced that he has established
this for Soma; but since for him it appears to be the very corner-stone of his
case for his identification of Soma with the fly-agaric, his discussion of the point
must be dealt with in some detail.
In brief, Wasson's evidence consists of only two verses from the RV, verses
which have nothing in common except that they occur in Soma-hymns:
9.66.2 appears to mention ' two forms ' of Somna (but gives not even a hint that
one of the 'forms' might be urine); while 9.74.4 apparently states that the
priests urinate the soma (but gives no indication that there was any question of
Amsterdam, 1967, 50. The stanza 8.6.28 was thought by Siyai.a to refer to Indra ; but the view
of the commentary on the same verse in VS 26.15, referring it to Soma, is certainly right : cf.
indubhi, at the end of 8.6.27, and Geldner's note on 8.6.28.
344 JOHN BROUGH
drinking the urine). Apart from

verses, which we shall discuss b
argument to link these two unc
deduction that urine was Soma's 'Second Form '
9.66.2 tdbhyarm vilvasya rtjasi yd pavamana dhamant

pratcid soma tasthdtuh.
Renou translates: 'Avec ces deux formes, (la pure et la mrlang6e), qui se
tiennent face (& nous), 6 soma, tu rignes sur toutes choses, 6 Pavamana '. It is
unfortunate that Renou, following Geldner, should have translated dhamani
here as 'deux formes'. Had he chosen some other rendering, Wasson might
not have fallen into this particular trap. In other places, Renou gives for
dhiman expressions such as 'institution',' structures ', 'positions ', ' (sbjour)
institution(nel) '; and it is not always clear to me what his intention was.
The word dhaman has been given the most diverse senses by ancient and
modern writers. A recent monograph by Gonda 16 presents a good case for
understanding the dhlaman of a Vedic god as 'to a certain extent ... a
" location " of a numen, of divine power, of a deity, i.e. not only or merely a
" holder " or " receptacle " of divine power, a place, being or phenomenon in
which a divinity sets or places itself, functions or manifests itself, or displays
its power, or where its " presence " is experienced, but also a particular way of
presenting or revealing itself, of locating or " projecting " a mode of its nature
and essence, a hypostasis or refraction in which it is believed to be active '.17
Even if some scholars do not accept unmodified all of Gonda's interpretations of
individual passages, this general sense appears to be satisfactory in the RV for
the greater part.
It is true that such an understanding of dhamani in the present verse does
not by itself contradict Wasson's idea: it could be argued that the soma-juice
and the urine were 'two places of manifestation' of the god Soma. Gonda
himself compares this verse with 9.68.6, where that rapa (where the sense is
indeed 'form') of Soma which was brought from heaven by the mythical
falcon is juxtaposed in the same verse with the clarified juice; and he suggests
that the dhamans of 9.66.2 are in fact these two forms. In this, he is following
approximately
aymu Sayan.a's
(the plant before alternative
or during interpretation
the pressing) of the
as the one, and the dhamant,
pressed juice namely, the
as the other.
The real stumbling-block is the fact that this verse is the only place where
the dual of dhaman- occurs, not only of Soma, but in the whole of the RV. The
word is frequent in relation to many deities besides Soma, and both the singular
and plural are also frequent for Soma himself. In 9.96.18-19 Soma's third and
fourth dhamans are mentioned, the first and second being implicitly given in
verse 17 of the same hymn-possibly though not certainly the dhamani of
16 J. Gonda, The meaning of the Sanskrit term dhaman-: see especially pp. 44, 47 ff. for the
various dhimans of Soma.
17 op. cit., 19.
9.66.2. But Soma has also numerous other dhamans : for

dhimani divi yd p.rthivydm yd pdrvatesv 6sadhisv apsz
'With all these dhdmans of yours, (O Soma,) those in he
those on the mountains, in the plants, in the waters . .
Wasson's ' Two Forms' had had any real place in Vedic
ceivable that they should have been mentioned once, and on
it mildly, the constant and continual mention of all these o
have been very confusing.
Although Wasson does not seem to have realized the c
the dual of this word, he is of course well aware of the dis
and plural in Vedic and Sanskrit grammar; and he quo
with dhamdni and dhamrnabhih respectively. He adds in
Ix 662 the dual number is used speaking of the Two For
the poet faces two vessels containing, one the juice of So
with milk, etc., the other Soma urine. In verses 3 and 5 he
forms, the celestial, the plant, the juice, the Soma urine, a
plural '. It is not unreasonable to suggest, in contrast t
view cited above, that the dual in verse 2 may refer to t
which receive the filtered soma-juice. These are well kno
in the hymns. But it is a leap in the dark to suggest furth
vessels contains 'Soma urine'. He himself complains, an
that 'the Vedic commentators,18 knowing nothing of
reached a consensus that the First Form is the simple ju
and the Second Form is the juice after it has been mixed
milk or curds '. This explanation, he continues, 'is uns
flies in the face of the RgVeda text '. So also, unfortu
explanation, since 9.86.47 explicitly states that the jui
mixed with milk : ydd gdbhir indo camvdh samajydse 'whe
are anointed with milk in the two vessels '. Furthe
kdnikradac camvdr & vivesa 'like a bull bellowing mightily
entered the two vessels'. Soma's bull-roar is the regular
for the noise

phalake). Taken of
in the pounding-stones
conjunction, therefore,on the last
these twotwo
pressing-boards (adhisavan.a-
verses show that the
juice enters both vessels at the time of pressing, and that in both the juice was
mixed with milk or curds. There is no place left for ' Soma urine '.
The other verse upon which Wasson relies to establish the presence of
'Soma urine ' in the RV is 9.74.4:
5tmanvin ndbho duhyate ghrt6m pdya

!rtdsya ndbhir am'tam vi jayate :
samicind sudinavah prinanti tdr
ndro hitdm dva mehanti piravah.
18 Here he appears to mean some modern Vedic scholars, since he refers only to A. A. Macdonel
Vedic mythology, Strassburg, 1897, 82, 106 ; and see also Renou's translation quoted above, wher
'la pure et la mblang(e ' seems to be wrong. Siyana knows nothing of any such interpretation
346 JOHN BROUGH
This he translates (p. 29), following Renou: '

life, is milked of ghee, milk. Navel of the Way,
into life in the far distance. Acting in concert,
richly gifted, do full honor to Soma. The swolle
(In passing, note that 'richly gifted' is a mi
beaux dons': sudrnu- is 'richly giving '-thou
ture' is preferable here: Grassmann,' tropfen
Geldner translates the second half of the verse as: ' Vereint stellen ihn die
Gabenschinen zufrieden; den zur Eile Getriebenen pissen die schwellenden
Manner herab'; and he adds the laconic footnote, 'Zunichst die Priester,
zugleich aber Anspielung auf die Marut, woriiber 2,34,13 zu vergleichen'. In
the verse referred to, the relevant phrase is nimdgham nd atyena, i.e., the Maruts
(Rudras) pouring down rain, figuratively considered as the urine of their heavenly
horse(s).
It has been suggested that two distinct roots are involved : (a) with IE *-gh1-,
whence Ved. meghd-, Av. magya-' cloud '; Ved. mih- ' mist, drizzle, rain '; and
(b) with IE *-jh-, whence Ved. mdhati, Av. maezaiti 'urinate'; Ved. mih-, ptc.
midha-; meha- 'urine'; mrnedhra- 'penis '. For further details, see J. Pokorny,
Indogermanisches etymologisches Worterbuch, 712-13; M. Mayrhofer, Kurz-
gefasstes etymologisches Worterbuch des Altindischlen, s.vv. meghdh, mdhati ;
H. W. Bailey, Khotanese texts, vi, 248, s.v. biysma. Since, in the normal
development of Indian phonology, the two roots would have collided in the
mih- forms in Vedic, it is not unexpected that nimrghamana- 'raining down'
should be thought of by the poet as suggesting the urine of a heavenly horse;
and in 1.64.6, quoted below, there would be a pun on the two senses in the word
mihde. Wasson writes (p. 30), ' The blessings of the fertilizing rain are likened to
a shower of urine .... Urine is normally something to cast away and turn from,
second in this respect only to excrement. In the Vedic poets the values are
reversed and urine is an ennobling metaphor to describe the rain. The values are
reversed, I suggest, because the poets in Vedic India were thinking of urine as
the Divine Inebriant, the bearer of amrta'. I suggest, rather, that an explana-
tion may be the coalescence of two originally distinct words mih- in Vedic, and
the consequent conflation of other derivatives of the two roots in the minds of
the priests, coupled with the obvious fact that' to urinate ' would, semantically,
be a very easy metaphor for 'to pour down rain '. However, such an explana-
tion may well be beside the point, and it would be more economical to assume
alternative enlargements in a single IE root. The root muh- appears to behave
similarly: with *-gh-, Av. a'amaoya 'Irrlehrer', and Sk. mogha-, mugdha-;
with *- h-, Khot. miysamdai 'foolish', and Sk. mnidha-. (See H. W. Bailey,
Khotanese texts, Iv, 79.) For the root nmih-, I. Gershevitch has shown (' Etymo-
logical notes on Persian ', in Dr. J. M. Unvala memorial volume, Bombay,
1964, 89 ff.) that Modern Persian mih ' mist, fog ', contrasting with mayn ' cloud ',
could represent an OPers. *midam, Av. *mizam, and that Middle Iranian
attests related forms with -z- where urine is not involved.
Geldner's conjecture that 9.74.4 refers in the first place

in the ritual, though not impossible, seems highly im
hand, for reasons given below, the presence of the Marut
dispute.
Renou's complete translation of the same half-verse is: '(Agissant) de
conserve, (les officiants cdlestes) aux beaux dons comblent le (soma); les
(Marut,) seigneurs a la vessie-pleine, compissent (le soma) mis-en-branle'. We
cannot discuss here the much-disputed meaning of the word piru-, per4- ;19 but
I should prefer to see in this verse the sense accepted by Renou for piru- in his
translation of 10.36.8 (EVP, v, 52), 'fertilisant', and to translate the last
phrase as 'the heroes (the Maruts), fertilizing (the earth), pour down as rain
the impelled (soma) '. Observe in particular the use of the preverb dva, which
occurs with mih- only here in the RV.
Wasson appears to have thought that Renou was having recourse to a rather
far-fetched expedient in an otherwise incomprehensible verse: 'But to give
meaning to the sentence he [Renou] introduced the gods of rain, the Maruts.
Certainly there are precedents for the clouds' " urinating " rain. But in this
verse and at this point in the hymns the Maruts are out of place. From IX 68
to 109 there are 24 other citations of n.f in the plural (men) and in every instance
they are the officiants at the sacrifice. So are they in 744' (p. 30).
Neither objection is valid. Granted that in the hymns in question the
narah are normally the priests, this does not exclude the possibility of a double
sense in this verse. In the RV as a whole, the Maruts are called narac frequently,
probably more often than any other group of deities. They appear not seldom
in the Pavamina-hymns; and in 9.66.26 Soma has them as his 'troop'
(marbdganah), while in 9.107.25 the somas are 'accompanied by the Maruts'
(pdvamnhan ... marzitvantah). Here, then, it is possible to interpret the last line
of the verse to mean that the officiants (ndrah) pour down (4va mehanti) the
streams of soma into the receiving vessels, just as the Maruts (ndcirah) pour down
rain (dva mehanti) from heaven. In the case of the priests, such a metaphorical
understanding of dva mehanti would be hardly more far-fetched than the
frequent use of duh- 'to milk (the juice from the Soma-plants) '.
The introduction of the Maruts here is no mere guess on Renou's part. In
his note on the verse under discussion he remarks that mih- 'to urinate' is
hardly attested at all in the RV except in the figurative sense of' rain '; and he
compares 1.64.6, where the Maruts are named:
pinvanty ap6 mar tah sudrnavah
pdyo ghrtdivad vidithesv abhlvah :
ityam nd mihi vi nayanti vdjinam
'The Maruts of good wetnessktsam. duhanti

(or good standyantamr
gifts?) dksitam.
cause the waters to swell, the
ghee-possessing milk (liquid), efficacious in the sacrificial rituals. They lead
19 For bibliographical details of earlier discussions of this rare word, see M. Mayrhofer, Kurz-
gefasstes etymologisches JJ rterbuch des Altindischen, s.v.
348 JOHN BROUGH
aside their booty-winning steed

the thundering, imperishable wat
Observe that 9.74 is much concerned with rain in other verses also: verse 1
div6 rdtasa ... payov.dha 'the semen of heaven (rain) which increases with
milk'; 3 ise y6 vr?st'h ... apdm. netd '(Soma) who rules over the rain ... the
leader of the waters'; 5 drav;id an~.ih sicamana irmin., devavyam manuse
pinvati tvdcam: ddidhti girbham dditer updstha e ' The Soma-plant has roared,
accompanied by the wave (of the waters), for man it swells up its skin which
invites the gods: it places the seed in the lap of Aditi'. Here tvac- has the
double sense of the outer covering of the plant, and the heavenly leather water-
bottle from which the gods pour rain: cf. 1.79.2 pdtanti miha standyanty abhrd
'the rains fall, the clouds thunder ', 3 tvcidcam p?ricanti 'they fill(?) the leather
water-bottle '; 1.129.3 pinvasi tvdcam ' you (Indra) swell up the leather water-
bottle '; also 5.83.6 div6 no vrstim maruto raridhvam prd pinvata vsfno d,4vasya
dhdrah,
If we and 7 d.tirnm.
now compare the vocabulary of 9.74 with that of 1.64.6, the agreements
are seen to be far too many to be accidental: pinvanty ap6-pinvati tvdcam;
sudinavah, pdyah, and gh.rtd- in both; duhanti-duhyate ; mihi--dva mehanti
standyantam--drnvit;
by dksitam-am.ftam.
implication Soma: cf. 1.154.6 The m'dhva
visnoh padd parami 'imperishable
?itsah 'in water-spring'
the is
highest footstep of Visnu there is a spring of madhu (i.e. soma) '.
This is beyond mere coincidence. Renou did not 'introduce' the Maruts
into 9.74.4 as an expedient' to give meaning to the sentence ' : his note referring
to 1.64.6 shows that he was aware that the terminology of the verse compelled
the interpretation which he gave. There is no need to see 'Soma urine' in
Wasson's sense, therefore, in 9.74.4 either: only the soma-juice itself flowing
into the sacrificial vessels, poetically conceived as the pouring down of fertilizing
rain from heaven.
As if it were confirmation that fly-agaric urine was a feature of Indo-Iranian

religion (and hence pre-Vedic), Wasson quotes also (p. 32) an isolated phrase
from one of the Gathas of Zarathushtra, Yasna 48.10 kadd ajln m6Oram ahyJ
madahya ' When will you (O Mazdah) smite down the urine of this intoxication? '
(not, as in the translation quoted, 'this urine of drunkenness '). It seems
certain that Zarathushtra here is castigating the Haoma-ritual; but there is
no reason to see in the word miOra anything more than a strong term of abuse.
It is convenient to recall here that the Avesta knows also hurd (discussed at
the beginning of this article) and ma~u-. The latter is given by Bartholomae
' (Wein uzw.) Beerenwein'. While this may possibly be anachronistic for the
earlier period, there is no doubt that the word meant 'wine' at a later time:
Sogd. maw, mwg-, Khot. mau; 20 also Central Asian Prakrit masu ' wine'. The
etymological connexions are well known: Classical Sanskrit madhu 'honey',
o20 I. Gershevitch, Grammar of Manichean Sogdian, ? 408; H. W. Bailey, Khotanese texts,

vi, 284.
where the sense is confirmed by madhukara 'bee', and by Tibetan sbraie-r

Chinese ] 'honey' in translating madhu in Buddhist texts; Greek d
'wine' (?); English mead.21 The dictionaries, however, recognize the sense
'intoxicating drink' in Classical Sanskrit also: madhumatta and other co
pounds. Compare also Panini 4.2.99 (mentioned by Dr. O'Flaherty, p. 115,
where the driksa,

kIpisJyani Kddikaappears
commentary, giving
to suggest as examples
a connexion kapisdyanam,
between the grapes ofmadhu and
Kipis and the madhu of the same region: madhu then possibly meaning here
' grape-wine '. In the RV the word madhu is very frequently linked with soma,
and often by itself denotes or implies soma. In 1.117.6 and 1.116.7, madhu and
sur& appear in parallel contexts (see above, p. 331). It is thus not improbable that
in the RV madhu does not refer to the 'sweetness ' of soma, but rather that it
conveys the sense of' soma, the (divine) intoxicant '. In the circumstances, it is
slightly odd to find Wasson writing (p. 16), 'Honey, mddhu, is mentioned
frequently in the RgVeda but mead never '. When the words are etymologically
the same, how can one draw such a distinction ? By these remarks I do not
mean to revive the absurd theory that soma was mead; but it is not impossible
that the Vedic Indians conceived the pressed juice as a sort of 'mead', in
respect of its exhilarating properties.
'" Hdri" and Red' (p. 36). 'Hdri is the most common of the colour
epithets for Soma in the RgVeda. Numerically it far exceeds all the other
colour words put together and rivals the epithet " bull " that the poets never
tire of applying to Soma. The word hiri is cognate with hiramya (golden) in
Sanskrit and with XdAos' (gall) and XAwpdcs (yellow) in Greek, and ultimately
with the English " gall " and " yellow ". Hdri is the precise adjective that one
would wish to employ in Vedic to describe the fly-agaric. Hdri is not only a
colour word: the intensity of the colour is also expressed by it. It is dazzling,
brilliant, lustrous, resplendent, flaming. [On what evidence, one wonders, are
the last two sentences based ?] In colour it seems to have run from red to light
yellow.'
Much of this is acceptable, but the slanting of the linguistic evidence is
breathtaking. The word hari 'golden' is precisely not the adjective which one
would wish to apply to the flaming red fly-agaric; and I have been unable to
find any evidence that any shade of red is included in the colour-range denoted by
hari. The Greek XAwpds can be used of honey, but its normal sense is ' greenish-
yellow, the colour of young grass, pale green '. Compare also the modern term
' chlorophyll' itself. Wasson adds a footnote, ' Occasionally in later times hdri
came to include green among its meanings, but this usage seems not to be
RgVedic, except possibly in the late hymns that we exclude from consideration '.
It may well be that the sense of' green ' does not occur in the RV, but it is not
the case that this sense is a post-Vedic development. It is attested in Iranian,
where Avestan zairi-gaona- is used of Haoma,' golden-coloured ', but also of
urvar&- ' plants', where it must mean ' green'. Sogdian zrywn is ' green ', and
21 For other cognates, J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Warterbuch, 707.
VOL. XXXIV. PART 2. 24
350 JOHN BROUGH
'vegetable '.22 In Khotanese, the derivative of t

Skt. harita- (usually green, of grass, or greenis
and ' golden ', is well attested, ysaragiina trans

where the Tib. has gser-gyi kha-dog-can, b
M. Boyce I have Parthian zrgwng, used as an
hwzrgwn (also in Manichaean Middle Persian)
which sheep graze, and trees. Modern Persian h
In later Sanskrit, the meaning 'yellow' pred
of brown or tawny when hari is used of li
Sanskrit, the Mahivyutpatti has harita, Tib
hari, Tib. ser-skya 'light yellow', Ch. i 'yell
my attention to Parsi Sanskrit lohita, patala, u
but this is much too late to be relevant, and do
on the part of the Parsi translator.
In addition to Indo-Iranian, the cognates o
fusion throughout all the main groups of th
are a very few isolated examples where the
extended beyond the green, so that 'blue
languages. But overwhelmingly, the other
cognates denoting 'golden, yellow, yellowish-
any which suggest 'red '.24
Not only from Indo-Iranian, then, but fro
have incontrovertible evidence that hari belo
the parent language covered that part of the sp
into the green. There is no evidence that it
orange; and red is absolutely excluded.
Thus the majority of Wasson's colour plate
irrelevant to all points which he intends to illu
word hari. Plate Iv, for example, shows the rou
has lost its white specks, and is labelled' The
conditions, the sun may look like this at daw
On the other hand, it is entirely appropriate t
hari, 'golden '.
It would be unfair to suggest that this mis
of the evidence, although one may suspect so
to the fact that the author had already made u
Soma. Most probably he was unconsciously s
mistranslations of Bhawe, who, besides 'yellow
hymns as 'reddish-brown', 'tawny-brow
brown '-but not 'red' or ' scarlet '.
It is also possible that Wasson was unduly influenced by Renou's regular
22 Gershevitch, op. cit., ? 1113.

23 H. W. Bailey, Khotanese texts, vI, 289, q.v. for more detailed information.
24 Pokorny, op. cit., 429 ff.
rendering of hari in the Soma-hymns by ' alezan '. H

advised to have followed Geldner here. The German
be used as a colour-adjective, but 'der Falbe' is almo
'creamy-yellow' horse. For Soma and the horses of
always translated hari as 'der Falbe'. Renou apparent
Geldner's view that the hari Soma was regularly a ho
alezan' is always and exclusively a horse: the big Fre
mous in this. Unfortunately, the colour is as mislead
rendering 'bay horse'; for 'alezan' is a horse of a
virtually 'chestnut horse '.25 At least one French dic
'alezan' to be a yellow horse.26 I cannot tell whethe
whether some speakers of French have only a vague idea
term. Certainly, as a speaker of English with no acqu
ship, I myself have no clear knowledge of the meaning
with horses. Renou may have thought that ' alezan '
' Falbe'; or he may have intended merely to make it
was a horse, without considering the colour of the hors
For the fly-agaric hypothesis, however, the colour is
' golden ', and when Soma is thought of as a horse, it is
red one.
Wasson also quotes other colour-adjectives applied to Soma (p. 37): v.fcs
i6nah (' the red bull'); and aruna, arusa, babhru. We have here a reasonable
mythological situation: when Soma is associated with the sun, or occasionally
identified with the sun (sira-), he is 'golden', or a 'golden horse'; when
associated with Indra, the thundering rain-giver, Soma is the bellowing bull,
and appropriately has colour-terms tending towards the red. In mythological
thought, there is no contradiction in Soma's appearing in both roles simul-
taneously: 9.8.6 arus6 hdrih, Renou 'le (dieu) fauve, l'alezan', Geldner 'der
ratliche Falbe'; but perhaps rather 'the red (bull), the golden horse'. In
9.66.26, Soma is haridcandra-: Renou 'brillant (comme) l'or', perhaps
following Geldner, 'der Goldschimmernde '. But in 3.44, where there is much
verbal play on hari, harita-, etc., Renou, with one exception, takes the sense of
' golden '; but Indra's epithet haryadva is translated in verse 2 as' aux chevaux
alezans ' (Geldner,' goldrossiger Indra '), and in verse 4 as ' aux chevaux d'or'
(Geldner, 'der Goldrossige '). Possibly this is a hint that Renou intended
'golden' throughout.
25 Dict. historique de la languefrangaise (Acad6mie Frangaise), ' De couleur fauve, tirant sur le
roux. Il ne se dit qu'en parlant de chevaux '; Littre, ' le corps est recouvert de poils rouges ou
bruns plus ou moins foncis '. Professor W. Simon has kindly confirmed for me the yellowishness
of Falbe, quoting also Kluge, Etymologisches Warterbuch der deutschen Sprache, and the reddishness
of alezan : Meyer-Liibke, Romanisches etymologisches W6rterbuch, which gives ' braunrotes Pferd '.
The French word is borrowed from Spanish (ultimately of Arabic origin), and the Spanish Larousse
defines alazdin as a horse with hair more or less rojo canela ' cinnamon red '.
26 Hatzfeld and Darmesteter : ' (En parlant d'un cheval.) Qui a la robe d'un jaune plus ou
moins clair'.
352 JOHN BROUGH
In passing, we may note that Indra is de

twenty times in the RV, the epithet being
sometimes have felt that part of the sens
horse '.
On p. 41 Wasson describes vividly how the brilliant red of the fly-agaric

fades with the daylight, until in the late dusk or by star or moonlight the
mushroom appears to shine with a pale silvery colour. This, he believes, is the
phenomenon referred to in 9.97.9d diva hdrir d6drSe ndktam .rjrdh 'le jour il
apparait couleur-d'alezan, la nuit, blanc d'argent' (Renou). Wasson translates,
'By day he [Soma] appears hdiri [colour of fire], by night, silvery white '. This
is illustrated in plate viii by two charming photographs, one of a group of red
fly-agarics by daylight, the other showing the same group photographed in
near-darkness; and the latter are indeed silvery white. Unfortunately, this will
not do. Enough has already been said to show that hari is not red. And it is not
entirely frivolous to remark that there are many colours of fire: RV 10.20.9
lists seven of these, k.rsya, iveta, arusa, bradhna, .rjra, donza, and hiranya-rupa.
Here the reddish shades of fire are described as arusa and donza, while hiranya-
ripa ' colour of gold ' obviously corresponds to hari. Except for this verse, all
other eleven instances of .rjra in the RV refer, either explicitly or contextually, to

horses. The word thus definitely belonged to the vocabulary of horsemanship.
In the first line of 9.97.9, Soma is called urugqya : Visnu in his solar aspect
crossing the sky. In line 3, parinasdim k.rIyute tigmci.rngo ' He of the sharp horns
fills out his full extension ', we may see the poet fancifully visualizing the horns
of Soma the bull as the horns of the waxing moon. But even without the
assistance of lines 1 and 3, the last line of the verse is open to one interpretation
only: 'by day, he appears as a golden horse, by night as a silvery horse '.
Geldner's brief footnote is entirely justified: ' Soma als Sonne und Mond '.
Indra, as already noted, is haryasva : the use of .rjra as a word for a horse-
colour is further justified by the appearance in the RV of .rjrdva as the proper
name of a man,' possessor of .rjra-horses '. A man of the same name is mentioned
in the Avesta, arazrdspa (Yait 13.121). As the Vedic shows, the sense 'des
Rosse gradaus, gradan gehen ', given by Bartholomae for the Avestan name, is
wrong. F. Justi (Iranisches Namenbuch, 89) renders the name as 'braunrothe
Rosse habend'; but, in giving the wrong colour, he is merely following
Grassmann.
It should be added that Geldner and Renou are not necessarily right in
seeing Soma as a horse in every place where he is called hari, even if this idea
must often have been in the minds of the composers of the hymns. Soma is
admittedly compared with a horse: 9.71.6 dcivo nd dev4hn dpy eti yajfiyah ;
8.2.2. dvyo viraih pdripiitah divo nd niktd nadisu ; 9.65.26 prd dukrdso vayq'~ivo
hinvdndso nd sdptayah ; 9.88.2 4tyo nd m.rystdh; also 9.86.26 and 9.109.10. We
cannot at present exclude the possibility that 'golden' refers in the first place
to the colour of the plant, or, more probably, to the colour of the soma-juice.
The same uncertainty as between mythological characteristics, the plant, and
the sap applies to babhru and other colour-adjective

with a wide choice of possible plants.
Another term applied to Soma, 7iu-, is also ofte
(horse)'. Perhaps this too is sometimes right, and
certainly mean 'horse' elsewhere in the RV. For So
fluctuate between 'swift (horse)' and simply 'sw
intended for Soma by the composers of the RV, it
development, since in the Avesta, Yait 10.89, the
' promptly-sacrificing ' (Gershevitch, The Avestan hym
the Indo-Iranian use of 'swift' in this context origin
with which the soma-drug took effect. In contrast to
more deadly Amanita phalloides, where the symptoms
many hours, in cases of poisoning by A. muscaria (
onset of the symptoms is very rapid, appearing within
two hours after ingestion. Here we have a coincidence
with Wasson's hypothesis. But again, it is no proof,
plants may produce rapidly acting chemical substan
'He makes [of milk] his vesture-of-grand-occasio
' The hide is of bull, the dress of sheep' (plate Ix, and
among the most visually persuasive for Wasson's
grand-occasion'
show the bright redisskin
Soma's nir.ij
of the (Renou,'
fly-agaric robe-d'apparat
tufted '). The photographs
over with the fragments of the
milky white envelope as it breaks up, the 'tufts of snowy wool'. Plate Ix
illustrates 9.70.7d
' At least some of thegavydy;i
poets knewtvdg
theirbhavati nirn.ig
fly-agaric in situ,avydyi.
high in On
the this Wasson
mountains : writes,
could the last phrase in this verse have been written by anyone who did not
know it ? '. The answer is, yes: the verse could easily have been composed
without any knowledge of the fly-agaric, and almost certainly it was so
composed.
'The hide is of bull': this refers to the adhisavana-carma, the bull-hide
spread over
pounded. the pressing-boards
A bull-hide was chosen for(adhisavan.a-phalake) on which
this purpose probably partly the itplants were
because
was the most convenient material available, and, perhaps more important,
because it was theologically relevant in respect of the thundering bull Indra and
the bull Soma. It is not a guess that the bull-hide here is the one used at the
pressing-ritual: the point is implicit in the earlier part of the same verse:
ruviti bhim6 v.rsabhds ... y6nimn s6mah sdk.rtam ni sidati 'The terrible bull
roars ... Soma sits down in his well-fashioned yoni '. Soma 'roars' when
pounded by the pressing-stones; and his 'birthplace' here, as frequently, is
not the mountain-home of the plant, but the place from which, at the pressing,
the juice, the soma, is born from the plant. In several other verses, the same
bull-hide is explicit: 9.65.25 pdvate . . . hinvin6 g6r ddhi tvaci 'He purifies
himself, being impelled on the hide of the bull'; 9.66.29 esd s6mo ddhi tvaci
gavdm krilaty ddribhih ' This soma sports with the pressing-stones on the hide of
354 JOHN BROUGH
the oxen'; 9.79.4 ddrayas tv5 bap

devour you on the hide of the bu
Similarly, ' the dress of sheep ' re
nirnij being here the woollen filt
was a natural choice of material.
pressing-rite is made explicit in ano
nirn.ijam
the vipdm
beginning of thedgre'
sacred(the fingers
hymns, offestal
a white the priests)
garment '.weave forwords,
In other the Asura (Soma), at
the woollen filter as festal garment was made at the time of pressing; and there
is no hint anywhere that the natural plant possessed a garment of wool.
For Wasson's theory, it might be argued that, granted the direct reference
in the hymns is to the ritual use of the bull's hide and the woollen filter (or the
mixing-milk), nevertheless these materials were chosen precisely because the
fly-agaric has a red skin and a garment resembling tufts of wool. But this would
assume the point which is to be proved. If and only if we can first prove that the
Soma-plant was the fly-agaric, then and only then can we suggest that these
ritual features were influenced by the characteristics of the natural plant:
otherwise we are arguing in a circle. So far as I have been able to discover, the
text of the RV never links any of the ritual facts to the features of the living
plant.
Although in these verses Soma's nirnij is the woollen filter, the term is much
more frequently used of milk or curds with which the juice was mixed. The
mixing of the juice with milk is mentioned so often in the Pavamana-hymns
that it is superfluous to cite references. Among those passages where the milk is
directly called Soma's nir.ij, a few may be quoted as examples: 9.14.5 gdh
krvdn6 nd nirnijam 'making milk, as it were, his festal garment'; similarly
9.86.26;seated
juices... 9.68.1onindavo ... barhisddohave
the ritual-strew..,. ... usriy5
donned nir.ijalm dhiregarment
as their festal 'The soma-
the
(milk of the) cows of dawn '. As everywhere, this garment is put on at the time
of pressing: the Soma-horse whinnies, i.e., resounds under the blows of the
pressing-stones: 9.95.1 kinikranti hirir 6 s.rjydmanah . . . punrndh . . . krnute
nir.ijam
juice beinggdh ' The
set free golden
from horse
the solid whinnies
parts mightily
of the plant]; while being
being purified . . . hereleased [i.e., the
makes his festal garment of milk '. With the same sense, 9.97.2 bhadrd vdstra
samanya vasano ... camvdh piiydmdnah 'Putting on auspicious festive
garments ... being purified into the two receiving vessels '. This mixing must
have been common Indo-Iranian: Yasna 10.12 haomo gaoma 'Haoma, milk-
possessing'; Yagt 10.6 haomay6 gava.27
The mixing with milk or curds is discussed in some detail by Wasson
(pp. 27 ff.). It is therefore surprising that, while quoting in full the Sanskrit
text of 9.69.5, he should omit from his translation the vital word camvoh, thus
concealing the fact that the whole verse is descriptive of the mixing with milk
in the recipient bowls, after the juice has been pressed:
27 On this, see Gershevitch's note on the verse in question in The Avestan hymn to Mithra.
dmrktena risati vdsasJ hcirir
dmartyo nirn.ijndh6 pdri vyata :

div6s p.rsthdm barhdnad nir.ije krto-
-pastiranam camvar nabhasmdyam.
Renou's translation is: 'D'un v~tement immarcescible, brillant, l'alezan
immortel, par8-de-neuf, s'enveloppe tout autour. Avec puissance il a pris le
dos du ciel pour s'en parer, (il a fait du lait) un tapis semblable-h-la-nube pour
les deux vases (s6miques) '. Wasson quotes this opposite plate II, but omitting
the words '(il a fait du lait)'- a suppletion, but undoubtedly correct-and,
more important, omitting also the phrase 'pour les deux vases (s6miques)'.
His own rendering of the second half of the verse (p. 41) is: ' By authority he
has taken the back [i.e., the vault] of heaven to clothe himself in, a spread-
cloth like to a cloud ...'. The replacement of camvoh of the original by three
dots hides from the reader who does not know Sanskrit the fact that the
garment which is nabhasmayam is the milk which ' spreads like a mist' through
the soma-juice in the vessels. As with the bull's hide and the sheep's wool, it is
not made clear that the milk as 'the vesture-of-grand-occasion' is assumed by
Soma only in the course of the ritual. The verse does not refer to the living
plant.
The word nirnij- has usually been taken to be etymologically connected
with nij- 'to wash', Greek vlw, etc. :28 hence, 'a thoroughly washed
(garment)'. This would be in keeping with later Indian attitudes, which
require a new (andhata) or at least a freshly washed garment for ceremonial
occasions. H. W. Bailey29 proposed a different etymology: 'Beside the bases
Indo-Iran. naid- and nail- a third form nai-g- could be expected. This base
seems to be contained in Rigvedic nirnig- 'garment, covering' which has
perhaps too long been connected with neg- 'to wash ' with difficult conjectural
intermediaries '. If this proposal is accepted, it may still be the case that the
composers of the RV did connect nir.ij- with nij- 'to wash ', by the operation
of a 'folk-etymology'. In a number of instances, nirn.ij- has no obvious con-
nexion with washing : 1.25.13 bibhrad drapiF m hiranydyar m viruno vasta nirnijam
'Wearing a garment of gold, Varuna has put on a nirn.ij'; also 1.113.14; 10.27.24
sd padtr asya nir.djo nd mucyate' his foot (?)30 is freed as from a garment';
5.62.7 hiranyanirnik ... sthidni 'pillar clad in gold'. But, as we have seen,
Soma's niri.ij is more frequently milk than anything else; and the poets appear
to play on the sense of ' washing' in a number of hymns. Thus, 9.71.3 v.rsaydte
ndbhasa ... neniktd apszi ' He (Soma) plays the part of the bull by means of the
cloud (semen, as an alternative expression for the mixing-milk), he is washed
thoroughly in the waters'; and compare 8.2.2 divo nd nikt6 nad.su, quoted
above. In 9.69.5, nirnijndh (Renou, 'par4-de-neuf') cannot of course be
thoughtdown
'washed of as a denominative
', as formed
a play upon words, from nir.ij-
with nirnzije later in' the
festal garment
same verse. ', but is rather
28 Pokorny, op. cit., 761. 29 BSOAS, xxIII, 1, 1960, 23-4.
30 See Mayrhofer, op. cit., s.v.
356 JOHN BROUGH
Renou's note here (EVP, Ix, 78) is insufficie

nirnij is ghrta; and Agni is naturally gh.rtdnir
so also Apam Napat as Agni, 2.35.4 ghrtinirn
nirn.ij the
evokes of idea
ghrtaof in 5.62.4
rain. and 7.64.1,
The Maruts where Renou
are varsdnirnijah in suggests
3.26.5 and that
5.57.4gh.rtisya nir.ijah
' The udder and Soma' (p. 43) ; ' The stalk and Soma' (p. 44). ' The swollen
hemisphere of the fly-agaric's cap naturally suggests an udder to the poet.'
'Not only is the Soma plant likened to an udder; the stalk or agmu (literally a
" shoot ", a perfect word for the stipe of a mushroom) is likened to a teat.' The
direct use of the word didhah does occur in connexion with Soma; but the
second statement
comparison is not
with a teat precise.
can then All implicit.
be only that is said is that
Perhaps this the
is noay.u
bad is milked, and a
thing
for Wasson's theory, since if the Vedic poets held both of these conceptions, one
might be disposed to smile at their curiously inverted idea of an udder suggested
by a mushroom with its stipe. If the suggestion made earlier in this article is
accepted,
would not bethat a.ns'uNoiselaborate
relevant. not 'stalk' but the
discussion nameWhen
is needed. of the
the Soma-plant,
soma-juice the stipe
is pressed out of the plant, the verb 'to milk' is a natural metaphor, whence
' udder' follows equally naturally. There is no need to invoke the shape of a
mushroom to explain such a metaphorical usage.
In passing:
supplies 1.137.3
an excellent aym'd.ofduhanty
early example the double idribhih sd6ma.
accusative with duhanty
the verb duh-, ddribhih
well known in Panini 1.4.51 akathitarm ca, illustrated by gdmn dogdhi payah.
'Soma's " head " ' (pp. 45-6). The suggestion is made that the 'head' in
connexion with Soma refers to the pileus, the cap of the mushroom. One of the
examples
is quoted,
mysterious, 9.68.4
and the senseams'r
behind...the
rcksate
verse isdirah 'theclearer
not made a.nyu byprotects
the his head',
mushroom theory. In his note on the verse, Renou conjectured that the 'head'
is' la portion pure ou celeste du soma... pr~serv~e des tribulations de la portion
impure--riprdc 78, 1--ou terrestre '. In the remaining four examples quoted by
Wasson, Soma's head, mirdhan-, or his 'head of heaven' div6 mlrdhd, is present
in the filtered juice. This would exclude any solid part of the plant, mushroom
or otherwise.
' The single eye' (plate x and pp. 46-7). The fly-agaric in plate x, labelled
'The single eye ', is the same photograph of which plate Iv, labelled ' The sun ',
is an enlarged detail. There is no harm in this, since 'the single eye' is in fact
the sun, as the verses quoted here by Wasson confirm, though such confirmation
is hardly needed. And if we are not convinced that the mythological connexion
between Soma and the sun is due to the fly-agaric, 'the single eye' adds nothing.
Without attempting to explore other aspects of Soma's solar features, we need
only remark that Soma has become a great god, and great gods naturally have
the sun as their eye. It is trite to remark that the sun is the eye of Mitra and
Varuna: 6.51.1, 7.61.1, 7.63.1, etc.; of Indra, 7.98.6 ydt pddyasi cdksasa
siryasya 'when you see with the eye of the sun'; and of the gods in general,
7.76.1 and 7.77.3 devdndr.n cdcksuh. The sun and mo

immortal eyes of heaven ': 1.72.10 divd ... aksi am.ita
'Mainstay of the sky' (pp. 47-8). Nine passages are q
it cannot be doubted that Soma is described as the ' supp
dhartd and similar expressions. Wasson here writes, 'W
of a creeper, a climber, any vine--some species of'Sarc
" mainstay of the sky ", "foundation of the earth" ? But
with its resplendent capital that is the fly-agaric lends i
conceit '. For my part, I find the idea almost comic that
have seen in this little mushroom a model of the sky
pillar--unless they were indeed suffering severe hallucin
drinking. The natural explanation here, as before, is t
and one of the regular functions of the great gods is to
prop asunder heaven and earth. This is so familiar th
only by a few out of numerous examples: 6.70.1 dyd
dhdrmana viskabhite 'heaven and earth propped asun
Varuna'; 7.86.1 vi yds tastdmbha rddasi cid urvi
asunder heaven and earth, wide as they are '; 8.41.10 yd s
ddharayat '(Varuna) who held apart heaven and ea
mitr6 dadhdra p.rthivirm utd dydm ' Mitra supports th
y6 dskabhayad attaram sadhdistham ' (Visnu) who proppe
(of the gods) on high '; 3.5.10 id astambhit sam?idha ndk
the firmament by means of the sacrificial kindling
istabhnat sd jandsa indrah 'he who propped up the s
What more natural than that Soma should take h
company ?
' The Filtres' (pp. 51 ff.). Wasson cites two verses
filters (pp. 54-5), quoted here with his English translatio
ddbhdya
[Soma] sukrdtus
cannot tri sdhepavitrd
be deceived, hrdy
of the good &ntdr force;
inspiring d dadhe 'The Guardian
he carries three of the R.td
filtres inside his heart'; 9.97.55 sdmrn tri pavitra vitatany esy dnv dkam dhdvasi
piydmanah 'Thou runnest through the three filtres stretched out, thou flowest
the length, clarified'. For the second of these, the translation is misleading,
depending as it does on Renou, but omitting the suppletions; ' Tu parcours les
trois filtres (dbji) tendus; tu coules le long de (chac)un (d'eux, une fois) clarifi '.
As so often, Sayana is not very helpful: tr;ini pavitrani agnivayusiryat-
makini ... kigm ca piyamanah tvam ekam avivalak.rtamn pavitram anu dhavasi.
Agni, Vayu, and Sfirya here seem to be only a guess. But his view that the
actual filter of sheep's wool is different from the other three may be correct, and
Renou's '(chac)un' seems unjustified. Thus, 'You unite with the three
stretched-out filters; (but) in purifying yourself you run the length of the one
(namely, the filter of wool) '. Geldner's note on the verse is partly based on
Sayana: 'Die drei sind die mystischen, im Herzen befindlichen (3,26,8); die
eine die wirkliche aus Schafhaaren gemachte '. The three pavitras in 3.26.8 are
358 JOHN BROUaH
apparently those factors in the heart or mind

'purify the inspired hymn in the heart of the
dhy drkdm hrdd matim jy6tir dnu prajdndn (

poetic inspiration' (plural, though not specifie
krdtum punandh kavibhih pavitraih '(Agni) pu
of the poets, the purifiers' (or, following Geld
poetic purifiers'); 3.8.5 pundnti dhir5 apdso ma
mani~sdm
possible that s6mam
in 9.73.8 indraya
he might vdrun. ya 'three
have placed jthvat. Somain ishishimself
filters a kavi,
heart '; but in and it is
the light of 3.26.8 and the other passages just quoted, a more probable inter-
pretation may be: 'he has placed the three purifiers (of poetic inspiration) in
the heart (of the poet) '.
Since multiple applications and nuances of words are common in the RV, this
proposal does not contradict the only certain aspect of Wasson's 'first filtre',
namely, that the hymns on occasion conceive a 'heavenly filter' for Soma. This,
however, is easily explained by the axiomatic sacerdotal assumption of
parallelism between ritual and cosmic events. Thus, 9.66.5 tdva dukrdso arcciyo
divds p.rysthd vi tanvate pavitra~m soma dhdmabhih, translated by Wasson (p. 52)
as, 'Thy clear rays spread over the back of heaven, the filtre, O Soma, ...'.
Renou, however, was probably on the right track when, in view of dhamabhih, he
assumed ellipsis, and translated as ' (atteignant) le filtre, 8 soma, avec (tes)
formes (successives)'. The four dhamans of 9.96.18-19 and similar passages
quoted above suggest that the verse condenses into a few words the heavenly
manifestations and the dhamans at the actual ceremony.
Wasson's ' first filtre' (p. 52) is that 'where the sun's rays, escorting Soma
down from the sky, are caught and held on the fiery back of heaven (= the
pileus of the fly-agaric) '. Except for the equation in brackets, this is a possible
explanation, although there is no certainty that the filter in question is one of
the tri pavitrd in the two verses quoted above. The ' second filtre ' is easily
accepted as the ritual woollen filter.
Wasson's interpretation of his 'third filtre' is more difficult. He assumes
that in the rite the parts of Indra and Vayu are performed by the priests
impersonating the gods, as in a ritual drama-hence his quotation-marks. He
writes (p. 55), 'Let us assume the fly-agaric surmise is well founded. Then the
third filtre becomes clear: the Soma juice that is drunk by "Indra " and
" Viyu " in the course of the liturgy is filtered in their organisms and issues
forth as sparkling yellow urine, retaining its inebriating virtue but having been
purged of its nauseating properties '.
The first passage quoted in support is 9.70.10, but with the omission of the
first pdda, which is essential for the meaning. The first half of the stanza is:
hit6 nd sdptir abhi vdjam arsindrasyendo jathdram & pavasva. By omitting half
of this, Wasson gives us the translation, 'Purify thyself in Indra's stomach,
O juice ! '. Here he is following Renou, 'clarifie toi dans le ventre d'Indra ! '.
But this is surely a mistake, and an unfortunate one, since it has led Wasson to
believe that a further purification or filtering takes plac

Indra. Elsewhere, it is clear that Indra consumes the
The sense here is rather: 'Like a horse impelled towa
flow, O soma-juice, into the belly of Indra : purify yours
The other verse upon which Wasson relies to estab
relation to the 'third filtre' is 9.63.7 (p. 56): 'Is no
imbued with new meaning, in the light of my interpreta
being put into movement ?
Clarify thou thyself by that stream by which thou ma
putting into movement the human waters !
ayd pavasva dhdraya ydyJ siryam drocayah
hinvan6 mirnusir apdh '
Interpreted so, the verse is certainly 'imbued with new m
meaning. There is no reference here to human urine:
the heavenly waters in the first part of the verse, and th
in the latter part-the rains and the rivers with which
closely associated. The same 5po manusgh are apostro
parable is the contrast between heavenly and earthly
manusa janudmnsi..
In all the other verses quoted as illustrations (pp. 5
many--the talk is exclusively about the ingestion by
filtered soma-juice, which enters into his heart, or his be
is no further filtering within the body of Indra : there i
Indra ever excreted the soma.
' Tongue of the Way' (p. 58). We are told that the cap of the fly-agaric, ' the
full blown red tongue, held the clue to the little mystery' of the phrase .rtdsya
jihvd in 9.75.2. But Wasson himself remarks that 'the poet continues to
apostrophize Soma as the source of eloquence '. There is no mystery here : see
the discussion earlier in this article on kavi and kdvya. It is superfluous to seek a
further explanation by showing a photograph of a slightly elongated and twisted
fly-agaric (plate xIII).
To conclude this section in lighter vein, I cannot refrain from mentioning
sahisrabh.rsti-, which Wasson (p. 52) considers to refer to the thousand studs,
i.e., the white patches on the cap of the fly-agaric. He is aware that bh.rsti ' is
used for the knobs or studs on a cudgel, as on the cudgel of Indra. With his
thousand knobs or studs Soma conquers potent fame : so say the hymns in two
places '. In fact, the half-verse in question is the same in both hymns, except that
in 9.83.5 the verbs are in the second person, in 9.86.40 in the third. The conceit
is therefore isolated. It is highly probable that in these two verses in book 9
Soma is for the time being thought of as Indra's weapon:
9.86.40 radja pavitraratho vdjam druhat
sahdsrabhrstir jayati grdvo brhdt
'As king with the filter as chariot, he has mounted upon the booty of war : as
360 JOHN BROUGH
the thousand-studded weapon

seems satisfactory, since that whi
(vajra) or war-club (vadha) of Indr

him (admittedly with somic in
1.85.9; 5.34.2; 6.17.10; also 1.52.

idea of the tiny fly-agaric as the
As one who has no specialist qu

I can mention only very briefly
human physiology. In dealing wit
quotes frankly many sources whi
muscaria. Here we can only c
acclimatize the subject, and res
scientificinvestigation is necessar
the repeated mention in the ' Ex
see for example p. 279 (' an ecst
a state of unconsciousness'); p
Especially disturbing is p. 306, wh
our Hero is unable to respond
urgency grows, and when the m
stupor he finally calls for his arm
way this statement differs in res
on pp. 303 and 306. Even with t
agaric is too widely attested to be
effects are totally unsuitable to s
The other reports that the fly-
strength, and produces increased
are hardly compensation for th
Wasson (p. 61, n.) refers to, b
Drysdale, and Mogey.31 This artic
the plant on flies. From it the au
carboxylic acid which they pro
earlier extracted from Amanita m
Takemoto, Nakajimrna and Yokob
last-mentioned constituent which
in flies. Since it is most probab
agent in A. muscaria, the prospec
31 K. Bowden, A. C. Drysdale, and G. A

ccvI, 4991, 1965, 1359-60.
32 Named from Jap. ibo-tengu-take (
A. muscaria is beni-tengu-take 'red Am
Amanita may be of interest for vernac
effects ' here and on p. 361 may now re
33 Journal of the Pharmaceutical Societ
not very promising for Wasson's Soma theory. It is

that Wasson reports (p. 202) that work on the chem
the fly-agaric is in progress in Ziirich and in Japan.
One perplexing factor in the situation is that th
identify the Haoma-plant as a species of Ephedra.3
prove that the latter was the original plant. So far as I
used as a substitute for Soma, and all the references to
of the Indian Soma appear to have been derived from
Dr. O'Flaherty's chapter in Wasson's book). Even if
been the original Soma-and I must make it clear tha
this was so--it would probably be impossible to id
alkaloid ephedrine (similar in its physiological acti
United States called epinephrine) was isolated by Y
Ephedra sinica Stapf. The latter, ma-huang gj g, Jap
medicinal herb in China since well before the Chr
powerful stimulant, and would thus be a more plausibl
about to go into battle than the fly-agaric, which is
the more salient effects on the mammalian organis
traction of the pupils, depression of blood-pressure,
peristalsis, and bronchial constriction: ephedrine cau
increase of blood-pressure, increase of heart rate, and
of the bronchi and gastrointestinal tract.36 If the o
fly-agaric, it would be extraordinary that the Irania
substitute a plant which might have had entirely oppo
To be fair, it must be added that not all the species
alkaloid; and of those which do, its concentration m
relation to climatic conditions and geographical di
that much work remains to be done in botany, chem
before it will be sensible to make a further attack on th
identity of the Soma-plant.
Wasson writes (p. 69), ' India is a land where the incr
true, and I should be delighted, but not altogether s
there are still circles privy to the knowledge of t
would now be surprised; and it may well happen that a
some Brahman will' reveal ' the secret that the Soma-p
4 Mary Boyce, ' Haoma, priest of the sacrifice', in M. Boy

W. B. Henning memorial volume, London, 1970, 62. The evidence
Stein, BSOS, vi, 2, 1931, 502 ft., suggests, though it does not prov
in use among the Central Asian Iranians in the fourth century A.
* H. H. W. Pearson, Gnetales, Cambridge, 1929 (but written
species whose geographical distribution might make them possib
tion is very imprecise. J. D. Hooker, Flora of British India, 18
date), v, 641, 863, found it extremely difficult to differentiate m
a6 Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman, The pharmnacological ba
New York, 1956.
362 SOMA AND AMANITA MUSCARIA
But Wasson's book has now been published. If any

to be disclosed, we shall never know whether it h
book.
I cannot close without an expression of admiration

in scholarly research which Mr. Wasson has devoted
book,37 and of gratitude for the great quantity of fa
has placed before us. It is therefore with all the mor
unable to accept that he has proved his theory that
Amanita muscaria.
37 See now also the review by F. B. J. Kuiper, Indo-Iranian Journal, xII, 4, 1970, 279-85,
with further comments by R. G. Wasson, ibid., 286-98, published after the present article had
been sent for printing.
[Addendum. Mr. Wasson has very kindly sent me a copy of an article by P. Catalfomo and
C. H. Eugster, 'Amanita muscaria: present understanding of its chemistry', Bulletin on
Narcotics, xxII, 4, 1970, 34-41. The authors show that 'the total muscarine content of A.
muscaria is extremely low (0 0002 per cent on a fresh wieght basis) '. Thus, some of my remarks
on pp. 360-1, in so far as they concern muscarine, are probably not relevant for the fly-agaric
problem. Unfortunately, this information reached me only after the present article had been
set in pages. The paragraphs in question could not be rewritten without undue expense and
delay in printing; and I am grateful to the Editorial Board for permitting me this additional
note. It should be clear, however, that the chief point of my argument still stands, namely, the
nausea, vomiting, and coma caused by the fly-agaric, even if the chemical agents responsible for
these effects are not yet definitely decided by pharmacologists.]

Soma and Amanita Muscaria

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Soma and Amanita Muscaria

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Soma and Amanita Muscaria

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What are some of the candidates that have been proposed for the identity of the Soma plant?

What are some of the candidates that have been proposed for the identity of the Soma plant?

What are some of the arguments against the fly-agaric theory proposed by Wasson?

What are some of the arguments against the fly-agaric theory proposed by Wasson?

Soma and "Amanita muscaria"

Author(s): John Brough

The importance of the Soma-plant in Vedic religion has never been u

common: h.rtsz p]ttso yudhyante durm'ddso no surayam 'When con

than' of honey '. It will be convenient to postpon

Discussion of the identity of the Soma-plant has latterly been in the

doubt, the non-Indo-Iranian materials remain, in the st

may sometimes require further taxonomic

As already indicated, Wasson's arguments directly drawn from the RV are

between these three. Even if the deified Som

On reading through the Soma-hymns, the recurrence

am.,umnt- : encore que Henry Hy. Rohitas p. 9 ait probablement raison de

yes ; but still speculation for a period as ea

11 See R. L. Turner, Comparative dictionarry of the Indo-Aryan languages, s.v. am.nu-.

remarked in the introductory note to his translation of RV 9 (HOS, xxxv, 2),

some way comparable to Greek 4 iv0ovaLaou .s. One inspirational aspect of

on this passage, Renou wrote of kdvya (EVP,

occasionally as a battle-stimulant for human beings: 9.30.3 i nah ?4smam!

evidence that a soma-drinker experienced a great expa

'The roots, leaves, blossoms, seed of Sornma : where

'anthology of lyric poetry '. It is a

RV 8.96.13-15, the river 'abounding in Soma-plants'. T

indubhi, at the end of 8.6.27, and Geldner's note on 8.6.28.

drinking the urine). Apart from

9.66.2 tdbhyarm vilvasya rtjasi yd pavamana dhamant

9.66.2. But Soma has also numerous other dhamans : for

for the noise

5tmanvin ndbho duhyate ghrt6m pdya

This he translates (p. 29), following Renou: '

Geldner's conjecture that 9.74.4 refers in the first place

'The Maruts of good wetnessktsam. duhanti

aside their booty-winning steed

As if it were confirmation that fly-agaric urine was a feature of Indo-Iranian

o20 I. Gershevitch, Grammar of Manichean Sogdian, ? 408; H. W. Bailey, Khotanese texts,

where the sense is confirmed by madhukara 'bee', and by Tibetan sbraie-r

where the driksa,

'vegetable '.22 In Khotanese, the derivative of t

and ' golden ', is well attested, ysaragiina trans

22 Gershevitch, op. cit., ? 1113.

rendering of hari in the Soma-hymns by ' alezan '. H

In passing, we may note that Indra is de

On p. 41 Wasson describes vividly how the brilliant red of the fly-agaric

other eleven instances of .rjra in the RV refer, either explicitly or contextually, to

the sap applies to babhru and other colour-adjective

the oxen'; 9.79.4 ddrayas tv5 bap

pressing-stones: 9.95.1 kinikranti hirir 6 s.rjydmanah . . . punrndh . . . krnute

dmrktena risati vdsasJ hcirir

dmartyo nirn.ijndh6 pdri vyata :

Renou's note here (EVP, Ix, 78) is insufficie

7.76.1 and 7.77.3 devdndr.n cdcksuh. The sun and mo

filters (pp. 54-5), quoted here with his English translatio

apparently those factors in the heart or mind

dhy drkdm hrdd matim jy6tir dnu prajdndn (

poetic purifiers'); 3.8.5 pundnti dhir5 apdso ma

believe that a further purification or filtering takes plac