Tran.slafion: 



II is said in the Great C\>nimcntar\ { \tahuat thakajhaf thai 

 .sukaianunlilava is siift aiui tallv pi)ik (flesh o( pig) availabk' (in 

 the market). But some sa>: sukaranun/c/avu does not mean pork 

 (flesh oi pig). hiU bambot! shtnU (banibtio sprout) trtulden b\ 

 pigs: cnhers sa\ that it is mushroom grovMi on a spot trotlden b\' 

 pigs: still others have maintained that \uk(n(iniai/(/a\(i is a eertain 

 elixir. Vhcx sax that Cunda. the smith, havinu heard that the 

 Exahed One would attain parinihhana thai da\ (lit,. toda\ ) 

 thought that it would be good if He eould li\e longer after eating 

 lliis (preparation), and offered it wishing tlie Master's l(Mige\it\. 



EPILOCiUE 



When I began working with Gordon Wasson on SOMA, 

 almost twent\' \'ears ago, \Ne had, at first, no suspicion that 

 Soma might ha\'e been a mushroom: v\e just wished to collect 

 the texts relating to Soma and look at them with a botanical as 

 well as an Indological eye. It was only when I casually men- 

 tioned to RCAV the urine-drinking, Soma-drinking episode in 

 the Mahahharaia that he thought of Amanita niuscaria as a 

 possible identitx for Soma, but from that moment on he became 

 increasingly convinced that this was the case. I was certain that 

 the evidence proved Soma was an entheogen (we called it an 

 hallucinogen then), and that it was not a form of alcohol (as had 

 been theretofore widely believed) but was a drug prt)\oking an 

 ecstasx of a very special kind. Here is a truth of great importance 

 in the study of later Indian religion and this was the major 

 contribution that RCIW had made to Vedic studies. 



1 was, however, not vet convinced that Soma was a mush- 

 room. I felt that the arguments rested primarily on the 

 interpretation of adjectives, many of them words for colors, and 

 mythological traits, many of which applied to other gods as well. 



2. The Muhaat fhakdfha ((ireat Ctmimentary) is the most important ol the 

 aneient original Sinhala commentaries dating hack at least to the 3rd century 

 FVC. on whicti are based the present axailable Pali commentaries of the 5th 

 Centura AC, inchiding the Commentaries on the Pii^/ianika\a and the [ 'c/ana 

 fr(mi which these two ccnnmcntai ial passages are taken. W.R. 



246 



