THE DRINKING HABITS OF THE ARYAN RACES OF INDIA—THE VEDAS AND BRAHMINICAL
LITERATURE—MODERN INDIA.
We are now about to consider the drinking propensities of our own remote
ancestry—of those from whom most of the inhabitants of modern Europe and
the Transatlantic continents are descended; and should there exist in the
mind of any of our readers a doubt as to the enormous advances that have
been made in civilisation since the earliest historic period, we think
that doubt will be dispelled for ever.
The religious and moral condition of the Aryan races of India is to be
found impressed upon the sacred writings of the ancient Brahmans, for a
knowledge of which we are largely indebted to that industrious student of
Sanskrit, Professor Max Müller of Oxford, who considers that the period
embraced by the Rig-Veda or Sacred Books extended back indefinitely from
1200 B.C., and that the hymns which they contain were first committed to
writing between 600 and 200 B.C.,[54] about the same time, therefore, as
the writings of Confucius and Mencius were published in China.
And what can these Brahminical writings teach us concerning the drinking
customs of the people? the reader may inquire. At the risk of offending
his susceptibilities, and even of laying ourselves open to the charge of
irreverence, we will ask him what he would think of a body of worshippers
in our day, who, instead of addressing their hymns and prayers to the
Almighty Father and Ruler of the universe, the One ineffably good, and
wise, and holy, were to appeal to Him as a mighty Ruler in heaven who was
to be propitiated and bribed with unlimited offerings of brandy, and who,
until he became completely intoxicated, was incapable of performing any
great or benevolent act? And yet this, or even lower than this, was the
estimate which the Aryan people had formed of their god Indra, as well as
of his less powerful companions in heaven; and the only inference we are
able to draw—one that we are sure the reader would extract from the study
of those so-called hymns—is that the nature of the Deity was but a reflex
of the character of his worshipping multitudes.
The chief sacrificial ceremony of the ancient Brahmans was called
“soma,” after an intoxicating drink to be described presently; and the
deity to whom this drink was believed to be the most acceptable was
Indra. The “soma” sacrifice was and is still performed by the Brahmans
as follows:—A certain quantity of the intoxicating juice is offered
as a libation to the different deities by pouring it from variously
shaped wooden vessels upon the sacred fire. This the gods are supposed
to drink. Then the priests themselves drink, sometimes very copiously;
also the sacrificer.[55] The drink itself is believed to have been
prepared with the juice of a creeper (_Asclepias_). After being cleaned
and macerated in water, the plant was pressed between two stones, and
the juice which flowed from it was diluted with water, and strained
through ram’s wool. This juice was then mixed with malt and warm milk
or clarified butter, and was allowed to ferment. M. Haug, who witnessed
the sacrifices of the modern Brahmans, tasted the “soma” as at present
prepared, and describes it as whitish, very astringent and bitter, with
some intoxicating properties. He says it had a most disagreeable taste,
and he could only drink a few spoonfuls of it. The plant used in the
present day is, however, not that employed by the ancient Brahmans.
“Soma,” it should be added, was not only a drink, but is frequently
addressed in the Vedas as a deity; and, by priestly incantations, the
liquor was believed to be miraculously transformed into the god himself.
It is not unlikely that this was the origin of the modern doctrine of
transubstantiation, or the real presence of the body and blood of Christ,
through priestly consecration, in the bread and wine of the Eucharist;
and it is strange how universal has been the practice of combining the
use of intoxicating drink with religious worship throughout all ages.
It is first found in connection with the early religious observances of
the Persian, Brahminical, and Chinese faiths. It was forbidden by the
Buddhists. Commencing with the Semitic sacrifices, it has retained its
place in the ceremonies of the modern Jews, and has found its way into
the worship of every denomination of Christians, from the Unitarians to
the Roman Catholics. Without attempting to discuss the proposition of
some total abstainers that the wine used at the Lord’s Supper was not an
intoxicating drink,[56] we cannot help remarking that until the custom,
however nominal, ceases to receive the highest possible sanction—the
approval of the Church and the priesthood—it seems idle to attempt to
suppress or discountenance the use of alcohol by coercive measures
amongst the lay members of society.
But to proceed. The Rig-Veda from beginning to end abounds with
references to the supposed drinking proclivities of the deities,
especially of Indra. To the effect of the libations poured out to him
by his worshippers all his gifts are attributed. “Come hither, O Indra,
to our sacrifice. Drink of the soma, O soma-drinker; thine intoxication
is that which gives us abundance of cows.”[57] “Come hither, O Indra,
and intoxicate thyself.”[58] Indra was not believed to be capable of
accomplishing any heroic deed unless he was intoxicated. For example,
“When he (Indra) combated against the withholder of rain (Vritra), in
his inebriation, the refreshing rain rushed down the declivity like
rivers.”[59] “When Indra, animated by soma, destroyed the defences
of Vala with the thunderbolt, as did Trita.” Just as in one of the
Hebrew psalms every verse ends with the words, “For His mercy endureth
for ever,” so in one hymn to Indra each verse concludes as follows:
“In the intoxication which soma has caused him, see what Indra has
accomplished.”[60] The account of his toping powers is in some cases
ludicrous, for he is described as taking such copious draughts of
soma that his inside becomes like a fish-pond,[61] and it is made a
merit in him that he is reeling drunk.[62] From these quotations it is
obvious that the Vedic people must have been well acquainted with the
intoxicating power of soma-drink, or they would not have known what
influence it would have upon their gods; and from the same source we may
gather with equal certainty that they indulged freely in that beverage
themselves. For they seem to have entertained no doubt that their gods
were willing to join in their revels, and often invited them to come
down and be partakers in their banquets. “Called by us, O Indra,” they
said, “sit down and intoxicate thyself with us, thy friends.”[63]
They must have renewed old acquaintance amongst themselves, top, over
what is called the social glass, for they treated their deities as
hail-fellows-well-met, and invited them to do likewise. “Very old is
your favour and your auspicious friendship,” they said to one of their
gods; “renewing again that auspicious friendship, may we now in your
society intoxicate ourselves with soma.”[64] No mincing matters there!
Nor was it merely a figurative expression, for the sacrificer, or he
at whose cost the sacrifice was provided, as well as the priests, drank
soma during the ceremony until they were all drunk together,[65] but
the hotar, or chief priest, commenced the operations: “Like the hotar,
drink first of this soma, O Indra; we offer thee, O god, this sweet
soma for inebriation.”[66] In one place, Indra is described with great
circumstantiality as getting drunk with soma-drink mixed with milk
early in the morning, a proof that the priests occasionally indulged
in a matutinal sip. Indeed, detailed accounts of the ceremonies are
found throughout the hymns which show that the priests were inordinate
drunkards; so much so, that in the later Vedas and in the “Institutes of
Manu” a check was put upon such practices, and they were denounced as
sinful.
But so too were the laity. There was another intoxicating drink besides
soma of which mention is made in the Vedas. It was called “sura,”
and was much more inebriating than soma, which was the drink of the
sacrifices, and therefore the supposed beverage of the gods, whilst
sura was that of the common people. The plant which, in the Vedic age,
entered largely into its composition was a tall grass of India, one of
the genus _Panicum_, and the other ingredients were water, curds, honey,
melted butter, and barley.[67] At a later period a liquor called sura
seems to have been actually distilled from a preparation of rice, barley,
black pepper, lemon juice, ginger, and hot water. The sura drink was in
general use, and the proof alike of its extended consumption amongst the
people, as well as of its being the cause of much crime in those days,
is to be found in several verses of the Vedic hymns. In one place it is
spoken of as a poison, kept at home suspended in a leather bottle;[68] in
another, the excessive intoxication of Indra with soma is compared to the
bad drunkenness caused by sura;[69] and in a well-known verse quoted by
Professor Max Müller,[70] it is thus referred to:
“It was not our own disposition, O Varuna; it was temptation,
Intoxication caused by sura, passion, thoughtlessness,” &c.
The Rig-Veda is certainly the most extraordinary publication of a sacred
character that can be imagined in respect to drink and drunkenness; and
the space occupied by references to the potations of the gods—for there
is hardly a hymn that is free from them—shows clearly that the Vedic
people, both priests and laymen, must have been terrible drunkards, and
must have believed their Deities to have been the same. At a somewhat
later period, however, we find the habit denounced in forcible terms and
the severest penalties attached to its practice; in fact, it is spoken of
as heinous in the last degree, and is compared to the murder of a Brahman.
The laws of Manu[71] contain a whole series of interdictions and
penalties, but the selection of two or three examples must suffice, for
some of them, although interesting as showing the depraved condition
of mankind at that early period, are not fit for transcription into
the pages of a popular work. “Any twice born (that is, regenerated)
man who has _intentionally_ drunk the spirit of rice (sura) through
perverse delusion of mind, may drink more spirit in flame and atone for
his offence by severely burning his body.” “Or he may drink boiling
hot, until he die, the urine of a cow, or pure water, or milk, or
clarified butter, or juice expressed from cow-dung.” “If he tasted it
_unknowingly_, he may expiate the sin of drinking spirituous liquor
by eating only a little broken rice or grains of tila from which oil
has been extracted, once every night for a whole year; wrapped in
coarse vesture of hairs from a cow’s tail, or sitting unclothed in his
house wearing his locks and beard uncut, and putting out the flag of a
tavern-keeper.”
There are three chief descriptions of pernicious liquor forbidden to be
drunk—one extracted from sugar dregs, another from bruised rice, and a
third from the flowers of madhuca (_Bassia latifolia_). These, along
with eight other kinds which were consumed with the flesh of animals at
certain juncates or secret feasts, were forbidden to the Brahmans, for
we are told that an intoxicated Brahman “might stumble upon something
very impure, or might even when intoxicated pronounce a sacred phrase
of the Veda, or might do some act that ought not to be done.” Even his
priestly character left him if he had been polluted with spirits, and he
sank to the low degree of a Sudra. “The slayer of a priest, a soldier,
or merchant drinking arrack, or a priest drinking arrack, mead, or rum,
he who steals the gold of a priest” (and ...) “are all to be considered
respectively as offenders of the highest degree, except those whose
crimes are not fit to be named.” Terrible punishments, such as branding
the forehead with a hot iron, were the penalties attached to those
crimes, and “with none to eat with them, with none to sacrifice with
them, with none to read with them, with none to be allied by marriage
to them; abject and excluded from all social duties, let them wander
over this earth. Branded with indelible marks, they shall be deserted by
their paternal and maternal relations, treated by none with affection,
received by none with respect. Such is the ordinance of Manu.” Nor is the
punishment, terrible as it appears, supposed to end in this world, for
the soul of a priest who has drunk spirituous liquors is consigned to the
body of a “smaller or larger worm, or insect, a moth, a fly feeding on
ordure, or some ravenous animal.”
Notwithstanding these severe penalties and denunciations, however, it is
clear from the later Sanskrit literature that intoxication was still rife
amongst the Aryan races of India. Palastya, an ancient sage, enumerates
no less than twelve different kinds of liquor besides soma,[72] and the
preparation of those drinks from the grape, from honey, sugar, dates, the
palm, pepper, rice, cocoa-nut, &c., has been described with considerable
minuteness. Besides these home-made drinks, large quantities of foreign
wines were imported into India two thousand years ago, and met with a
ready sale throughout the country. Amongst them are mentioned the wine of
Laodicea in Syria, Italian and Arabian wines.
In later times attempts were made by various rulers to suppress the
manufacture and use of intoxicating drinks, but in the sixteenth century,
when the interior of India was visited by English adventurers, many
kinds were freely consumed, and they are said to have been drunk out of
vessels of the most costly description. The East India Company encouraged
the distillation of spirits as a means of revenue, and the best proof
of the extensive consumption of such drinks in India during the last
and beginning of the present century is to be found in the published
statistics of the Company. Large quantities of native arrack, besides
brandy, rum, gin, wine, and ale, were imported and exported from the
various districts, and although the English themselves were, doubtless,
large consumers, the quantities named suffice to show that these drinks
must have been in general use amongst all classes.[73] In the year 1833
the value of native arrack exported from Ceylon alone to Great Britain
and the British Colonies was £12,425, 9s., besides which large quantities
were sent annually for consumption in Madras, Bombay, and other parts of
India.[74]
We have thus reviewed, though very cursorily and superficially, the
drinking habits and customs of the various peoples of India from the
earliest ages down to a recent period; and before quitting this part
of our subject, it will be useful to consider for a few moments the
present condition of its inhabitants, who are allied to us, if not
by ties of kindred, at least by identity of rule. All writers agree
in regarding the people of India as a comparatively sober race, and
the author finds the same opinion to prevail amongst those who have
long resided in the country. That there is a considerable amount of
intoxication in certain districts, and amongst the lower or half-castes,
is doubtless true; but the middle and upper classes, and the population
as a whole, are remarkably abstemious. One writer[75] says, “The Hindoos
are unquestionably a temperate people. Their favourite beverage is
water.” “Generally speaking,” he says, “the higher castes abstain from
intoxicating drinks. It is only the low castes who indulge the habit of
using such stimulants. The most common intoxicating liquor drunk by the
natives is what is here called arrack. It is distilled from rice, and
is highly intoxicating.” Toddy, or the juice of the palm, itself highly
inebriating, the same writer tells us, is distilled into a strong liquor
called Pariah arrack, and is largely drunk by the half-castes and lowest
classes. It is further fortified, another writer says, by being mixed
with _Datura stramonium_, a powerful narcotic.[76] (_Datura stramonium_,
as the reader is doubtless aware, is used in England for the adulteration
of beer.) The drink referred to, along with another intoxicating liquor
called bhang or bang, and prepared from the hemp plant (_Cannabis
sativa_), seems in the present day to be the commonest, and at the same
time the most deleterious, that is used by the worst class of drunkards
in India.
In some portions of Central India there is at one period of the year a
great amount of drunkenness and debauchery in every rank of society,
and strangely enough this takes place, as of old, in connection with
religious observances. These saturnalia have been referred to by several
travellers and writers on India. Fraser in his tour to the sources of the
Jumna and Ganges witnessed them in various places near the first-named
river, and generally at the foot of the Himalayas. He says that the
liquors drunk were manufactured from grains of various kinds as well
as from the grape, and that the natives of all classes drank them to
the accompaniments of music and dancing at the ceremony of bathing
the images of their gods in the waters of the Jumna. The men kept on
dancing all the day, and in the evening were joined indiscriminately
by the women, who supported the dancing and revelry till the night was
far advanced. This frantic kind of worship lasted for several days,
until their liquor was exhausted. A more recent traveller has given a
graphic and painful account of these saturnalia as they are practised at
the present time.[77] He first witnessed them at Oudeypoor during the
festival of the Holi which marks the arrival of spring, and says: “The
carnival lasts several days, during which the most licentious debauchery
and disorder reign throughout every class of society. It is the regular
saturnalia of India. Persons of the greatest respectability, without
regard to rank or age, are not ashamed to take part in orgies which mark
this season of the year.” “Towards the middle of the month of Thalgun
the revels reach their climax. Troops of men and women, wreathed with
flowers and drunk with bang, crowd the streets carrying sacks full of
a bright red vegetable powder. With this they assail the passers-by,
covering them with clouds of dust, which soon dye their clothes a
startling colour. No one is spared. The King and nobles throw off all
restraint and give themselves up to mirth and revelry. The nautch girls
enjoy unbounded liberty during the carnival They have special dances for
the occasion, when all propriety is forgotten.” “Major Nixon advised
me to go and see the sports.... Men, women, and children crowned with
flowers appeared completely intoxicated. Never have I seen so revolting
a spectacle. Groups of native wretches dead drunk were wallowing in the
gutters, and at every step the most disgusting debauchery was exhibited
with unblushing effrontery.” The writer witnessed and describes similar
scenes, though not of quite so gross a character, at Rajnuggur in
Chutterpore.
Notwithstanding these saturnalia, however, which are disgraceful
alike to governors and governed, the general opinion of those who are
acquainted with India is that, on the whole, the people are temperate.
The author has been assured by one friend who has visited most of the
large cities, and who resided three years at Bombay, that during the
whole of that period he never saw a native intoxicated in the streets;
that the higher classes amongst the Hindoos and Parsees (to whom we shall
refer hereafter), although they offer wine to their European guests
during their visits, refrain from drinking it themselves, and that any
drunkenness which may exist in the most civilised portions of the country
is confined entirely to Englishmen and the lowest castes of the native
population.
It is impossible to pass away from this phase of the subject without
uttering a word of caution as regards the future social condition of
our Indian Empire. We hear a great deal about the bugbear of an invasion
of India by the Russians, and if it were known that a statesman of any
eminence was about to address our House of Commons on that question, its
benches would be filled with eager listeners; but let any legislator or
philanthropist, however great his reputation, take up the subject of the
opium traffic, a detestable trade, which is not only a chronic curse to a
great neighbouring empire, but which may at any time become a scourge to
our own fellow-subjects, and we may rest assured that his audience would
be of the most limited. And so, too, as regards all matters which concern
the happiness and welfare of the people of India. But when we look at the
facility which exists there for the distillation of ardent spirits from
rice, the attention of our Legislature should be earnestly directed to
the evil that might result from their more general use, in case the means
of purchasing them were facilitated by greater prosperity. It should be
one of the chief cares of the Home and Colonial Governments to provide
for the education and training of the poorer natives, so that they may
learn to make a wise use of their increasing resources.
Those who have read accounts of military life in India fifty or a
hundred years back are aware that there has been a marked diminution in
drunkenness amongst the English of late years, and it is to be hoped that
the same causes which have led to a decided improvement in that respect
amongst our middle class at home will likewise operate in India, and
that our countrymen there may soon present that example of sobriety and
dignity which should always characterise the dominant race.[78]