Ancient India and her beverages for the gods - Soma and Amrita
What is the weirdest cocktail of all?
MOREThere are plenty of weird cocktails but Sourtoe wins the title of the weirdest cocktail hands down, and why not! for it features a mummified human toe in a simple shot of Whiskey, usually Yukon Jack.
The custom has a story, and it all started during the prohibitions. In the 1920s, the rum running Linken brothers, Louie and Otto were caught in a blizzard and Louie accidentally wet his right foot and when they reached their cabin, his right foot was frozen solid. To prevent gangrene Otto used his axe to chop off Louie's toes and he kept them in a jar of alcohol.
In 1937, legend has it that Captain Dick Stevenson found this jar and the idea of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club popped in his mind, the membership criteria being “You can drink it fast. You can drink it slow. But your lips must touch that gnarly toe.”
The Indian subcontinent and it's alcoholic beverages date back the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation
Historians have found evidence of consumption of alcoholic beverages in The Indus Valley Civilization of the Chalcolithic Era, which is between 3000 BCE and 2000 BCE. Thus Indus Valley civilization is considered to be among the first few civilizations to discover the science of distillation.
Although some historians argue that distillation has been invented in Europe in the 12th century. Some also stated that Indians may not have the right ingredients to ferment, like grapes or barley so the reference is to distilled alcoholic beverage although references in Vedas do not categorically state that the beverages were distilled.
A counter argument is that Indians were into Alchemy since it's ancient past, which lead them to both fermentation and distillation of their alcoholic beverages. For the love of this distillation science it is said that Indians produce variety of drinks and perfumes from the very early stages of civilisation.
Indus Valley Pottery
Soma or Somrasa of the Rigveda
Rigveda the oldest of the known scripts from the Indian subcontinent, with hymns composed in around 1700 BCE, mentions of a probably intoxicating or psychoactive drink, Soma has been described by historians and Indic Scholars. Soma is a Vedic Sanskrit that literally means to distill, extract or sprinkle and is often connected to rituals. It is equivalent to the ancient Persian haoma. Soma was probably was intoxicating juice of a plant consumed fresh or distilled, the actual plant has not been identified yet, and there is a difference of opinion between historians and scholars and some point at the herb Somlata, while many point at different mushrooms and other plants capable of intoxications.
The other ancient reference of Alcoholic beverage in ancient India is of Sura, a strong distilled alcoholic beverage, referred to as an anaesthetic by Susruta ( a surgeon in india of around 400 BCE ), other medical treatise like Charaka Samhita also mentions Sura in it's book of ancient medicine.
Sura, the drink of the Atharvaveda texts
The other ancient reference of Alcoholic beverage in ancient India is of Sura, a strong distilled alcoholic beverage, referred to as an anaesthetic by Susruta ( a surgeon in india of around 400 BCE ), other medical treatise like Charaka Samhita also mentions Sura in it's book of ancient medicine.
Many of the Vedic and post Vedic texts resources had documented and referenced the components of these alcoholic drinks, the process of brewing, the ingredients connected to brewing it. Vedic literature states that in ancient times alcoholic beverages where also consumed by the orthodox population.
In Buddhist texts, Sura is mentioned as one of the intoxicating drinks along with Maireya, a drink made from sugar cane and spices, and Majja or Madhu, which would be an equivalent of Mead. Buddhists texts refer to these fermented drinks that cause heedlessness as drinks to be abstained form as one of the Buddhist precepts of renunciation.
Susruta Samhita or Sahottara Tantra - a Treatise on Ayurvedic Medicine
Earthen Pottery -Taxila Museum PakistanDistillation in the ancient Indian Republics
Distillation was also evident from baked clay retorts and receivers found at Taxila and Charsadda in modern Pakistan, dating back to the early centuries of the Common Era. These "Gandhara stills" were only capable of producing very weak liquor, as there was no efficient means of collecting the vapors at low heat
Distillation was known to ancient Indians, and that is evident from the baked clay retors and receivers found in Taxila and Charsadda, Taxila known for the eistence of the Taxila University, the oldest university of the world, established in around 1000 BCE.
Dating to the early centuries of the Common Era, baked clay retorts and receivers were excavated from Charsadda in Pakistan, from the site of Pushkalavati, the capital of the Mahajanapada Gandhara ( Mahajanapada were sixteen oligarchic republics on ancient India between 300 and 500 BCE ) .
These "Gandhara stills" were only capable of producing very weak liquor, as there was no efficient means of collecting the vapors at low heat.
Evidence beginning from excavations of the Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3000 BCE and right upto the evidence from the early Common Era India, clearly suggests knowledge of distillation and fermentation of alcoholic beverages using sweet and starch laden food like sugar cane and rice.
A foot note on Soma and Sura - the ancient elixirs of Vedic India
Soma
Soma is the juice extracted from a trunkless unidentified plant,used as an offering to the Vedic sacrifices. The stalks of the plant were pressed between stones and the extracted juice were filtered through sheep?s wool and then mixed with water and milk. After the offering, the rest of it were consumed by the priest and those that invoked the sacrifice. It was highly valued for its exhilarating, probably hallucinogenic, effect. - Britannica
Sushruta the ancient sage and doctor, in his famous medical compendium, the Sushruta Samhita, mentioned that one who consumes soma will be immortal thus this was also called ?Amrita?. Apart from immortality, soma will stop ageing and the one who consumes soma, will be a master in all Vedas and will have the energy of a thousand elephants.
The Vedic soma also has similarities with the ancient Iranian Haoma. These two elixirs have some similarities like both were mountain plants considered to be from heaven.
"In post Vedic period soma is identified with Moon, which wanes when soma is drunk by the gods. "
Sura
Sura, an alcoholic beverage brewed from rice, wheat, grapes, sugar cane and other fruits, was popular among the warriors and working class in ancient India. Sura was considered as an anesthetic in Sushruta Samhita.
Ancient Ayurveda and practitioners like Charaka, in his Charaka Samhita, one of the fundamental treatise on Indian Ayurveda, lists 84 alcoholic beverages made from fermented grains, sugar cane, honey, coconut tree sap, palmyra tree sap, various seasonal fruits such as grapes, mangoes, dates and Indian jujube.
Even alcoholic beverages from flowers like mahua and kadamba found place in his Samhita. Three distilled drinks were also mentioned, they were Sura, Madya and Sidhu.
The Vedas also have prescribed particular alcoholic beverage for classes. Brahmins and students for example, were prohibited from consuming Sura, the stronger distilled liquor, but they were allowed to consume Soma, since it was offered to the God.
In later texts, it can be seen that, the King of Heaven and the God of War, Lord Indra, is shown as the one drinking Sura before going to a war and eventually winning wars powered by Sura, which might indicate that Sura gained prominence and acceptance in the post Vedic period, and the teacher of the Asuras/Daityas( Asuram the mythological Titans or anti-Gods which had further clans namely Daityas ( Monsters ) and Danavas ( Giants)), Guru Shukracharya, the purest Brahmin, is depicted as a drinked of Sura.
In the Valmiki Ramayana, Sita the wife of Lord Rama, was offered a special alcoholic drink by Rama, named Maireya. This was a spicy wine made from fruits and flowers with a natural sugar base. She it can be noted, was not served Sura, sincein ancient Indian class and caste hierarchy, Sura was not for the royalty and priestly class, but they could consume these wines like Maireya and Soma.
However in this epic it is also written that Sita, when they were banished from Ayodhya for fourteen years, had offered a thousands pots of the alcoholic drink Sura along with meat cooked with rice, to the great river goddess Ganga , upon their safe return. (Sura Ghat Sahastrena mans bhutodanen cha/Yakshye tvam preeyatam Devi, pureem punrupagata ? Ayodhya Kand-89.)
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