Soma (सोम) occupies a uniquely tripled role in the Rigveda. It is at once a ritually prepared drink, the plant from which the drink is pressed, and the deity who presides over both. The entire ninth Mandala — 114 hymns, more than a tenth of the whole Rigveda — is devoted to Soma Pavamāna (सोम पवमान), "Soma the self-purifying," sung while the freshly pressed juice flows through the filter of sheep's wool into the wooden vat.
The Ritual Setting
The somayāga — the sacrifice — was the most elaborate of Vedic rites, requiring multiple priests, a marked-out sacrificial ground, and special pressing-stones called grāvāṇaḥ. The plant was first soaked in water, then pounded between the stones, the juice strained through wool, and finally mixed with milk or water before being offered to the gods (above all Indra) and partially consumed by the priests. The hymns of Mandala 9 are sung while the juice flows — they are working liturgy, not commemorative recitation.
Opening of Mandala 9
The ninth Mandala begins:
स्वादिष्ठया मदिष्ठया पवस्व सोम धारया । इन्द्राय पातवे सुतः ॥
svādiṣṭhayā madiṣṭhayā pavasva soma dhārayā
indrāya pātave sutaḥ
"Flow on, O , with your sweetest, most intoxicating stream — pressed out for Indra to drink."
The imagery throughout Mandala 9 is luminous: the juice is the "tawny one" (hari), the "drop" (indu), the "wave" (ūrmi); it crosses the filter as a hero crosses a river, dresses itself in the milk as in a robe, roars like a bull, illuminates the priests like the sun. Few sections of any sacred literature sustain such concentrated sensual brilliance.
the God
Beyond its ritual function is theologized as a deity in his own right. He is identified with the moon — the celestial cup of amṛta whose waxing and waning mirrors the depletion and replenishment of the ritual vessel. He is called the "lord of the plants" (oṣadhīnāṃ patiḥ) and "father of the gods." Several late hymns make him the source of inspiration and immortality: we have drunk the Soma, we have become immortal (apāma somam amṛtā abhūma, RV 8.48.3), declares one of the most quoted verses in the entire corpus.
The Botanical Question
What plant did the ancient Vedic priests press? The text describes as growing in mountains, having stalks rather than leaves, and producing a juice that intoxicates without producing the heaviness of alcohol. Several candidates have been proposed:
- Ephedra (Ephedra sinica or related species) — a stimulant containing ephedrine, native to the highlands of Central Asia. This is the candidate most accepted by mainstream Indology and supported by archaeological residues at the Bactria–Margiana sites.
- Amanita muscaria — the fly agaric mushroom, proposed by R. Gordon Wasson in 1968 on the basis of comparative mythology.
- Cannabis and various Sarcostemma species — proposed by others.
- Peganum harmala (Syrian rue) — containing harmaline, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor.
The Zoroastrian tradition preserves the cognate term haoma and a continuous ritual use of Ephedra, lending weight to the Ephedra identification. Strict certainty, however, remains elusive.
Loss and Substitution
By the late Vedic period the original plant had become difficult to obtain — perhaps because of climatic change or the migration of the Vedic peoples away from the mountains where it grew. The Brahmanas and Shrauta Sutras explicitly permit substitutes (pratinidhi) such as the pūtīka or adāra plants, and in modern rituals — still performed by the Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala and elsewhere — the substitute is generally a species of Sarcostemma. The deity, however, is undiminished: the hymns of Mandala 9 still flow, sung over a pressing whose botany has changed but whose meaning persists.