Though in the cold regions of Central Asia the cheering and warming
liquor had been held divine, in the hot plains of India the evil
effects of alcohol were apparently soon realised. "Even more bold is
the scorn of the gods in Hymn x. 119 of the Rig-Veda, which introduces
Indra in his merriest humour, ready to give away everything, ready to
destroy the earth and all that it contains, boasting of his greatness
in ridiculous fashion--all this because, as the refrain tells us, he is
in an advanced state of intoxication caused by excessive appreciation
of the soma offered to him. Another Hymn (vii. 103) sings of the frogs,
comparing their voices to the noise of a Brahmanical school and their
hopping round the tank to the behaviour of drunken priests celebrating
a nocturnal offering of soma." [273] It seems clear, therefore,
that the evil effects of drunkenness were early realised, and led to
a religious prohibition of alcohol. Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra writes:
[274] "But the fact remains unquestioned that from an early period
the Hindus have denounced in their sacred writings the use of wine as
sinful, and two of their greatest law-givers, Manu and Yajnavalkya,
held that the only expiation meet for a Brahman who had polluted
himself by drinking spirit was suicide by a draught of spirit or water
or cow's urine or milk, in a boiling state taken in a burning hot metal
pot. Angira, Vasishtha and Paithurasi restricted the drink to boiling
spirits alone. Dewala went a step farther and prescribed a draught
of molten silver, copper or lead as the most appropriate.... Manu
likewise provides for the judicial cognisance of such offences by
Brahmans, and ordains excommunication, and branding on the forehead
the figure of a bottle as the most appropriate punishment."