Guest guest Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 This is to announce a new issue of EJVS, vol.13-1, pp.1-93 Capturing Light in the Rgveda : Soma seen botanically, pharmacologically, and in the eyes of the Kavis by Rainer Stuhrmann It is availabe as pdf on our web site: <http://users.primushost.com/~india/ejvs/issues.html> See the brief introduction below (The paper itself is in German) ====== Capturing Light in the Rgveda : Soma seen botanically, pharmacologically, and in the eyes of the Kavis The nature of the intoxicating substance Soma, as found in the Rgveda, has not yet been decided. After a period of intensive research, though, the majority of Vedicists again tend to favor Ephedra, a stimulant that keeps one awake and alert. The present study, however, will show, after a brief overview of the history of research, that the arguments for the Ephedra theory rest on erroneous textual interpretations of the Rigveda. They neither agree with an exact analysis of those textual clues that are botanically utilizable nor with the pharmacology of the intoxication effects, as described by the poets of the Soma hymns. Rather, a detailed investigation of the Soma ritual indicates that Soma must have been Amanita muscaria or pantherina. The data about preparing and consuming this mushroom fit all technical details of the Soma ritual, and the effects of intoxication, including its dreaded damaging side effects, match best those of Amanita as described in toxicology and pharmacology. Next to general euphoria --sometimes, however, also fear-- and a sensation of immortality, the most salient hallucinogenic effects of intoxication are an intensive perception of light and of changes in the dimensions of perceived sensory objects. Soma inebriation is expressively glorified by the poets of the Soma hymns as an important source of their poetical inspiration. The intensified perception of light is cosmologically interpreted as the creation of light by God Soma. The hallucinogenically caused changes in the size of perceived objects is developed as macroscopy of the sensory details of the Soma ritual itself. Poetical daring creates a web of seemingly fantastic pictures that are the key to the ‘obscure’ Soma hymns and their ‘bizarre’ cosmology. The experience of hallucinogenic inebriation was understood by the poets and the participants of the Soma ritual as an actual, true world, higher than reality. For the poet-seers Soma was, in the first instance, a drink of truth that unfolded hidden truths and illuminated the cosmic principle of truth. The powerful effect of the Soma ritual rests on the actualization, by overcoming reality in inebriation, of this cosmic principle. At the same time, Soma inebriation was interpreted as a temporary voyage into the world of immortality. In the late Rgvedic period, Soma intoxication went out of practice. The original, hallucinogenically effective mushrooms were substituted, due to increasing settlement in the riverine plains and the expansion toward the east, by other plants that had different effects. While the original hallucinogenic experience of inebriation gradually was lost, the high reputation of the Soma ritual was employed as a pattern that was usable in ritual for sacrificial speculations and for models of macrocosmic explanations of the world. The spiritual synthesis of the hallucinogenic Soma intoxication can be understood well in the Rigveda, but the history of traces of intoxication in post-Rgvedic time has not yet been written, and Soma’s echo in Indian intellectual history has not yet been grasped. Michael Witzel Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University 1 Bow Street , 3rd floor, Cambridge MA 02138 1-617-495 3295 Fax: 496 8571 direct line: 496 2990 <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm> <Indo-Eurasian_research/> < http://users.primushost.com/~india/ejvs/> ______ If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. (Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.) Cardinal Richelieu, Minister of Louis XIII (Quoted: January 1641, in "Mirame") ------ --------------------------- Michael Witzel Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University 1 Bow Street , 3rd floor, Cambridge MA 02138 1-617-495 3295 Fax: 496 8571 direct line: 496 2990 <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm> <Indo-Eurasian_research/> < http://users.primushost.com/~india/ejvs/> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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