The intoxication of alcohol is considered by primitive people as
a form of divine inspiration or possession like epileptic fits and
insanity. This is apparently the explanation of the Vedic liquor, Soma,
being deified as one of the greatest gods. In later Hindu mythology,
Varuni, the goddess of wine, was produced when the gods churned the
ocean with the mountain Mandara as a churning-stick on the back of
the tortoise, Vishnu, and the serpent as a rope, for the purpose
of restoring to man the comforts lost during the great flood. [278]
Varuni was considered to be the consort of Varuna, the Vedic Neptune.
Similarly the Bacchantes in their drunken frenzy were considered to be
possessed by the wine-god Dionysus. "The Aztecs regarded pulque or the
wine of the country as bad, on account of the wild deeds which men did
under its influence. But these wild deeds were believed to be the acts,
not of the drunken man, but of the wine-god by whom he was possessed
and inspired; and so seriously was this theory of inspiration held that
if any one spoke ill of or insulted a tipsy man, he was liable to be
punished for disrespect to the wine-god incarnate in his votary." [279]
Sir James Frazer thinks that the grape-juice was also considered to
be the blood of the vine. At one time the arrack or rice-beer liquor
was also considered by the Hindus as holy and purifying. Siva says to
his consort: "Oh, sweet-speaking goddess, the salvation of Brahmans
depends on drinking wine.... No one becomes a Brahman by repeating the
Gayatri, the mother of the Vedas; he is called a Brahman only when he
has knowledge of Brahma. The ambrosia of the gods is their Brahma,
and on earth it is arrack, and because one attains the character of
a god (suratva) therefore is arrack called sura." [280] The Sakta
Tantras insist upon the use of wine as an element of devotion. The
Kaulas, who are the most ardent followers of the Sakta Tantras,
celebrate their rites at midnight in a closed room, when they sit in
a circle round a jar of country arrack, one or more young women of
a lewd character being in the company; they drink, drink and drink
until they fall down on the ground in utter helplessness, then rising
again they drink in the hope of never having a second birth. [281]
"I knew a highly respectable widow lady, connected with one of the
most distinguished families in Calcutta, who belonged to the Kaula
sect, and had survived the 75th anniversary of her birthday, who never
said her prayers (and she did so regularly every morning and evening)
without touching the point of her tongue with a tooth-pick dipped
in a phial of arrack, and sprinkling a few drops of the liquor on
the flowers which she offered to her god. I doubt very much if she
had ever drunk a wine-glassful of arrack at once in all her life, and
certain it is that she never had any idea of the pleasures of drinking;
but as a faithful Kaula she felt herself in duty bound to observe the
mandates of her religion with the greatest scrupulousness." [282]
In this case it seems clear that the liquor was considered to have
a purifying effect, which was perhaps especially requisite for the
offerings of a widow.