Soma

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SOMA

SOMA As a god, Soma is the most prominent deity in the Rig Veda after Indra and Agni; Soma as god and soma as sacrificial substance are one and the same in Vedic tradition. The ninth book of the Rig Veda is devoted solely to Soma, and some 120 hymns address him. The ritual texts of later Sa?hit?s, Br?hma?as, ?ra?yakas, and Shrauta S?tras are structured by sacrifices, many featuring two essential offerings: soma and pashu (animals). The god's name is also the name of a plant and its "pressed" juice (from su- "to press"). Haoma, the corresponding name of the plant, juice, and cult in the Avesta, attests to an Indo-Iranian origin, although mythologies of a divine plant or elixir that brings immortality, visions, and insight suggest an even earlier background. Poets of Rig Veda 4.26 and 27 celebrated the theft of soma by an eagle in one of the earliest and most enduring myths concerning a celestial or mountain origin.

Many substitutes for soma were named in Br?hma?a texts before 800 b.c. Possibly the plant known to early poet-ritualists became unavailable during migrations from steppe or highland regions onto the Gangetic Plain. Identification of Vedic soma or Avestan haoma has been vigorously debated since the late eighteenth century; botanists, archaeologists, and historians have proposed as candidates species of the genus Ephedra, as well as Peganam harmala, Amanita muscaria, Cannabis sativa, Papaver somniferum, and others. An asclepiad called somalata or somatiga, probably a species of Sarcostemma, a bitter-tasting green creeper, not hallucinogenic, is pressed in parts of South India today by small communities of Vedic sacrificers.

The ritual process of extracting juice from plant stems was institutionalized in the soma sacrifice with three pressings each day. The pressings are filtered through wool; the liquid is collected in tubs, sometimes mixing in water, milk, curds, clarified butter, barley flour, or honey. It is then poured into offering fires for designated gods. Soma is served in special carved wooden cups to the sacrificer (yajam?na) and ten priests called by heralds (somaprav?ka) to perform the sacrifice. Both sacrificer and wife (patn?) are transformed by the rite and entitled to be renamed soma sacrificers. After the initiatory five-day agnish?oma, they become eligible to perform other soma rituals of varying magnitude and duration, including the seventeen-day V?japeya (drink of strength).

Whether from chemical inspiration, or exhaustion and sleep-deprivation during intense sacrificial sessions, an ecstatic response to the drinking of soma juice is clear from ancient poetry and formulas of ritual texts. After offering and drinking soma, a priest may recite Rig Veda 8.48.3, boasting on behalf of all, "We have drunk soma, become immortal, attained the light, reached the gods." A common epithet of soma is amrita (not mortal). Several gods receive soma offerings, but none more than Indra. The consequence of his soma-drinking is an enthused battle fury, rendering him invincible in combat.

Associations with immortality led to an important role for Soma in traditions of death, particularly after the Upanishads distinguished the pit?y?na as a "path of the fathers (ancestors)" that recycled an immortal ?tman (self) down from the moon for rebirth in this world. In Hindu rituals, am?v?sy?, new-moon day, is traditionally a time to offer rice as food for ancestors. Soma as the moon—therefore one of the navagraha (nine planets)—lends his name to the calendrical weekday Somavaram (Monday is from Old English "moonday"). In Sanskrit epics and Pur??as, Soma lives on as Oshadh?pati (lord of plants), husband of the nakshatra (constellations), and guardian deity of the auspicious northeast.

David M. Knipe

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gonda, Jan. Change and Continuity in Indian Religion. The Hague: Mouton, 1965. Ch. 2 on soma, am?ta, and the moon.

Nyberg, Harri. "The Problem of the ?ryans and the Soma: The Botanical Evidence." In The Indo-?ryans of Ancient South Asia, edited by George Erdosy. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995. Perspective of a specialist in plant chemistry.

Staal, Frits. Agni. The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar. 2 vols. Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities, 1983. Soma as used in 1975 Agnicayana sacrifice in Kerala; excellent plates.

Wasson, R. Gordon. Soma. Divine Mushroom of Immortality. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968. Numerous plates and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty's translations from the Rig Veda build a case for soma as Amanita muscaria.

Encyclopedia of India