The Rig Veda: An Anthology

Soma, the sacred drink of ancient Indian mythology and ritual, was prepared by crushing the leaves or stalks of the Soma plant in wooden bowls with a stone and filtering the extracted liquid through a woolen sieve. The Soma juice was diluted with water, mixed with milk, and then offered to the gods and drunk by the male participants of the Soma ritual. Drinking Soma produces an exhilarating feeling of power or immortality, and like Agni, Soma exists in the Rig Veda as both a physical substance and a god. Richly figurative and metaphorical language describes the preparation of Soma, the subject of many Vedic hymns. This chapter contains 10 hymns describing Soma’s form, effects, and mythology.

In hymn 8.79, the poet praises King Soma as a fierce protector and credits him with many powers: “He covers the naked and heals all who are sick,” and has the power to “drive out of the sky and the earth the evil deed of the enemy” (121). The poet implores Soma not to terrify or enrage the worshipper with the furor of his energy, acknowledging the destructive potential the god harbors alongside his miraculous gifts.

Three hymns describe the processing of Soma in metaphorical images. In hymn 9.74, the crushing of the leaves of the soma plant and the extraction of the juice is akin to the milking of rain and butter from a raincloud. Soma appears simultaneously as a newborn child, bellowing in the wood, a racehorse striving to win the sun, a celestial bull, the “navel of Order,” and the sky-born ambrosia that pours like clarified butter down from heaven (122). He drinks (i.e., mixes with) water, whitening in the process, and reaches the finish line of the race when poured into a bowl with milk. Polished (or “groomed”) by the poets, Soma is now sweet for Indra to drink.

The stones that press the Soma juice are the subject of hymn 10.94. The noise of the stones grinding the plant fibers is similar to the voices of thousands hungrily gnawing at cooked meat. Like bulls, they bellow, excited by their first taste of the plant’s juice. During the ritual, the stones come alive, raising their voices for the sacred drink like children playing around their mother. The poet ends by praying that the stones be released from their intoxication after the ritual and return to their inanimate state.

Hymn 4.58 is dedicated to butter, which is simultaneously the butter used in the ritual offering, Soma juice, and the honeyed speech of the poet. In all three aspects, butter is the “’tongue of the gods’” and the “’navel of immortality’” (126). Poured onto the sacrificial fire, streams of butter “rush to Agni like beautiful women to a festival […] like girls anointing themselves with perfumed oil to go to a wedding” (127). As the great god Soma, butter enters mortals, giving immortality and inspiration to the poet, whose heart ecstatically swells like the ocean.

Two hymns (4.26-7) focus on the heavenly origin of Soma, which an eagle brought to earth as the elixir of immortality. In the first hymn, the drunken Indra glories in his feats, ecstatically comparing himself with the sun and boasting of his release of the waters and other heroic deeds. An eagle steals the honeyed Soma from the highest heaven and carries to earth, possibly accompanied by Indra. In the second hymn, the eagle declares its own divine origin and escape from imprisonment by demons. Soma replies that the eagle (or Indra) did not drag him away unwillingly from his confinement, for Soma surpasses his rescuer in strength and energy. A demon, the guardian of Soma, shoots an arrow at the eagle, causing one feather to fall to the ground. Indra carries the sacred drink on the back of the eagle to earth, and the poet invites the god to drink until ecstatic with Soma.

The four remaining hymns describe the euphoric effects of Soma and a similar drug on gods and holy men. “The Soma-Drinker Praises Himself” (10.119) describes the progressive intoxication of a sage or god as he feels ever more invincible under the influence of the drink: “In my vastness, I surpassed the sky and this vast earth. Have I not drunk Soma?” (131). The question is a recurring refrain, as the speaker, possibly a poet identifying himself with Indra, feels himself expanding to encompass the earth and heavens. In “The Ecstasy of Soma” (9.113), the poet invites Indra to drink Soma to perform a heroic deed. He imagines the Soma juice pressed with sacred words of truth, and prays for the elixir to make him (the poet) immortal and transport him to heaven. Another hymn (8.48) praises the liberating effect of the drink, which expands the sense of self with feelings of power and bliss: “We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods” (134). Conjoined with this sense of exaltation is the contrasting feeling of being bound or paralyzed, and the poet prays not to stumble under the influence of the drug. The hymn concludes by asking the gods to protect the Soma drinkers from sleep and harmful speech. The last poem (10.136) depicts an ascetic in an ecstatic trance caused by an unspecified hallucinogenic drug, apparently not Soma. The god Rudra, excluded from the Soma ritual, accompanies him. Intoxicated, the soul of the longhaired ascetic rides “with the rush of the wind” in an out-of-body experience. Lifted beyond the realm of mortality, he moves like divine nymphs or of wild beasts and is able to read their minds. Uninitiated men can only see his body; his spirit soars, displaying the light of the sun.