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On soma in the veda - Part 3 (fwd)
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To: alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: On soma in the veda - Part 3 (fwd)
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From: CR <cranki1@zeus.towson.edu>
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Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 14:44:40 -0500
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From news@news.umbc.edu Fri Feb 10 14: 35:35 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 02:21:20 GMT
From: s. kalyanaraman <s._kalyanaraman@mail.asiandevbank.org>
To: Members of the list <indology@liverpool.ac.uk>
Subject: On soma in the veda - Part 3
Re: Soma as an allegory or metaphor
From: s._kalyanaraman@ctlmail.asiandevbank.org (until 28 Feb. 1995); 20/7 Warren
Road, Mylapore, Madras 600004, India; Tel. 91-44-493-6288; Fax. 91-44-499-6380
(After 1 March 1995)
Let me cite some texts:
uta syaa vaam madhuman maakshikaarapan madey somasyausijo huvanyati (To you, O
Aswins, that fly betrayed the soma: RV 119.9); maakshika = pyrite ores; fly. cf.
"maakshikam (pyrites), digested hundred times with juice of plantain leaves, and
then steeped for three days in oil, clarified butter and honey, and then heated
strongly in a crucible yields its essence" (alchemical treatise: Rudrayamala
Tantra, cited in P.Ray, History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India,
p.157);
somam adrau; cf. "it is plucked from the rock by the falcon (RV. 1.93.6); soma
comes from the mountains, girishthaam: RV V.43.4; soma seated on the mountain
top: RV IX.18.1 [Notes: why the reference to adrau, in dual, two stones? maybe,
silver ore and gold ore co-mingled in electrum? cf. Marshall's notes re: the
silver content of the ore from Kolar gold-fields which might have been used by
the Indus-Sarasvati valley artisans circa 2500 B.C.]
amsu is the shape of soma : RV I.137.3; amsu means a shoot, stalk (not only
plants have this attribute, but also ore-blocks); cf. soma with sharpened horns
(tigma srngo): RV IX.97.9; with his thousand knobs, he conquers mighty renown
(sahasra bhrshtir jayati sravo brhat): RV IX.86.40; soma stalk... seated on the
mountain top : RV IX.62.4; your fingers grow on the back of the earth: RV
IX.79.4; it was pounded with stones or in a mortar: RV I.83.6;
color of soma is babhru (greyish brown): by night it appears silvery white and
by day it is hari (color of fire): RV IX.97.9;
soma is not suraa; it is gods' drink; the process is the key: adribhih sutah
pavase pavitra aan indav indrasya jatharesv aavihan (pressed by the pressing
stones, thou clarifiest thyself in the filter, O soma juice, when penetrating
into the entrails of Indra): RV IX.86.23; "thy filter, O agni, equipped with
flames, may it cleanse us, cleanse us with the fruits of sacred songs! with
these both, the filter and the fruits (of song), O god Savitr, cleanse me
through and through: RV IX.67,22-25; so, agni is the filter! Baudhaayana
(Taittireeya rescension) provides a list of substances used in the pravargya:
skin of black antelope, earth grubbed by a boar, earth from an ant-hill,
potsherds from a deserted place, hair from the skin of a black antelope, hair of
a goat, a clump of ootikaa or aadaara plant, milk of goat, lumps of dung of a
stallion (cf. asvamedha; imagine a drink using these for filtering! they are
reducing/oxidizing agents or kshaara in a metallurgical process);
soma is not a drink of mortals: "one thinks to have drunk soma, when they crush
the plant. Of him (soma), which the braahmanas know, no one ever tastes.": RV
X.85.3; same hymn in AV. XIV.1.3; "No earthly one eats you." : RV X.85.4; soma
is for Indra: "Boldy drink soma from tbe beaker, Indra!...": AV VII.77;
[Hillebrandt and Oldenburg treat soma as a metaphor for the moon or the sun]
Falk, Harry, Soma I and II in BSOAS, Vol. LII, Part I, 1988; this is an
outstanding bibligraphical essay on over 40 decipherments of soma.
It is extraordinary that soma is referred to in dual, or plural (re-inforcing
the allegorical nature of the descriptions): "with those two forms" (RV
IX.yy.2,3,5); "the forms (plural, not dual) that are thine" (RV IX.66.3); "the
shining rays spread a filter on the back of the heaven, O soma, with (thy) forms
(plural, not dual)" (RV IX.66.5); the dual reference is to the ore-form and the
purified/processed form.
