572 MR J. MUIR ON THE PRINCIPAL DEITIES OF THE RIGVEDA. 



to their worshippers are enumerated, and among them a few cures are specified. 

 They are frequently supplicated for various kinds of blessings ; they are implored 

 to prolong life, and even to forgive sin ; and their hereditary friendship with the 

 worshipper is sometimes appealed to. 



Soma. 

 I have already alluded to the important share which the exhilarating juice of 

 the soma plant [Asclepias acida or Sarcostemma mminale) assumes in bracing 

 Indra for his conflict with the hostile powers in the atmosphere. This juice, or 

 rather the plant from which it is extracted, is personified in a god Soma, who is, 

 or rather at one time was, the Indian Bacchus. The whole of the hymns in the 

 ninth book of the Rigveda, 114 in number, besides a few in the other books, 

 are dedicated to his honour. It is clear, therefore, as Professor Whitney 

 remarks,* that his worship must have been at one time remarkably popular. 

 The soma sacrifice, in fact, formed an important part of the old Brahmanical 

 ritual, as well as that of the ancient Persian worship. f But with the decline of 

 the Vedic rites, and the transformation of the old, or the introduction of new, 

 deities, the early popularity of Soma has long since passed away, and his name 

 is familiar to those learned Brahmans only who, in a few places, maintain the 

 old tradition of the Vedic observances. The hymns addressed to Soma were 

 intended to be sung while the juice of the plant from which he takes his name 

 was being pressed out and purified.^ They describe enthusiastically the flow- 

 ino- forth and filtration of the divine liquid, and the efffects produced on the 

 worshippers, § and supposed to be produced on the gods, by partaking of the 



* Journal of the American Oriental Society, iii. 299. 



f See Dr Haug's Aitareya Brahmana, i. 59, ff. ; and Windischmann's " Somacultus der Arier ;" 

 as well as my "Sanskrit Texts," vol. ii. pp. 469, fF., where the most important parts of this dissertation 

 are translated or abstracted. See also the extract there given from " Plutarch de Isid. et Osir." 46, 

 where the soma plant, which in Zend is called haoma, is mentioned under the name of o/iufii. 



+ Whitney Journal of the American Oriental Society, as above: " Sanskrit Texts," vol. ii. p. 470. 



§ These effects are thus described in a verse (Rigveda, viii. 48, 3) which may be freely trans- 

 lated as follows : — 



" We've quaffed the Soma bright, and are immortal grown : 

 We've entered into light, and all the gods have known. 



" What mortal now can harm, or foeman vex us more ? 

 Through thee beyond alarm, immortal god, we soar." 



Compare Euripides, " Cyclops," 578, ff., — 



6 5' ougavof fj,oi avfi/jjS/iiypi'evos dox.7i 

 77) jr\ (pe^isOai. tou A/og re rov S^ovov 

 "KiuGOoi TO 'jrav n buiiJMOiv ayvh BijSa;. 



I subjoin a free translation of the 119th Hymn of the Tenth Book, in which Indra himself is sup- 

 posed to express his sensations when in a state of exhilaration : — 



"1. Yes, yes, I will be generous now; and grant the bard a horse and cow. 

 I've quaffed the soma draught. 



