xxxiv 
INTRODUCTION. 
This plant has not yet been satisfactorily identified. The Indo- 
Aryans used the plant for sacrificial purposes and its juice is 
described in the ancient Aryan literature as a stimulating 
beverage. The word (oshadhi) literally means heat-pro- 
ducer. When the Indo-Aryans came to use the Soma plant 
for therapeutical purposes, they came to possess a knowledge 
of the medicinal properties and uses of herbs and plants. 
Hence, Oshadhi (slrefa) applied to all herbs and medicinal 
plants. 
The knowledge of medicinal plants must have been accumu- 
lated in the course of many centuries. In bis work on Plants and 
Animals under Domestication, Darwin says : — “ From innumer- 
able experiments made through dire necessity by the savages of 
every land, with the result handed down by tradition, the 
nutritious, stimulating and medicinal properties of the most 
unpromising plants were probably first discovered.”* 
The “ doctrine of signatures ” would also account for the use 
of several plants as medicinal agents. This doctrine is based 
on the resemblance in shape or color of some product of the 
vegetable kingdom with some organ in the animal economy. 
In the ignorance of anatomical or physiological data to work 
upon the primitive man thinks that these articles possess some 
action on those organs which they resemble in shape, size or 
color. Again, another reason for the extensive use of vegetable 
drugs may be the fact that plants are everywhere at hand, their 
number is very great and their forms are distinct and peculiar 
and thus are procured without trouble. 
It is greatly to the credit of the people of India that they 
were acquainted with a far larger number of medicinal plants 
“ Waters bring to perfection all disease, — dispelling medicaments for (the 
good of) my body, that I may long behold the sun. 
“ Waters take away whatever sin has been (found) in me, whether I have 
(knowingly) done wrong or have pronounced imprecations (against holy men) 
or (have spoken) untruth. 
“ I have this day entered into the waters : we have mingled with their 
essence.” (Wilson’s translation of the Rig. Veda. Vol. I. p. 57). 
“Thou, Soma, fond of praise, the lord of plants, art life to us." 
“Be unto us, Soma, the bestower of wealth, the remover of disease, 
Exulting Soma 1 increase with all twining plants.” (Ibid p : 234). 
* Vol. I, p. 325. 
