15 
1873.] Rajendralala Mitra —Spirituous Drinks in Ancient India. 
drinking without the purification aforesaid. “ The three mantras for the 
neutralization of the curse of the Brahman (S'ukracharya) should always be 
repeated. Then only does arrack become full of Brahma. Even as a fire 
flames up when clarified butter is poured on it, so does arrack become the 
giver of salvation on the neutralization of the curse. Therefore should 
Brahmans always drink (after purifying his grog). Such a drinker, is a 
true Brahman ; he is proficient in the Yedas ; he is truly an Agnihotri ; he is 
thoroughly initiated ; what more can I say, O noblest of goddesses, when I 
add that he rises above the three .qualities (inherent in matter). This is the 
true path to salvation ; but it should be kept a secret from bestial people 
( pasu , men who do not drink wine), for disclosure leads to want of success, 
and is highly disreputable.”* 
The Kdmakhya Tantra speaks very much in the same vein. “ Whoever,” 
it says, “ after being initiated in the salvation-giving mantra of Kalika, fails 
to drink wine, is a fallen man in this iron age. He has no right to the 
performance of Yedic and Tantric ceremonies; he is called unbrahman, 
ignorant as an elephant; and whatever oblations he offers his manes, 
becomes as impure as the urine of a dog. Having obtained the mantra 
of Kali or Tara, he who conducts not himself as a YiYa (or hero, i. e., 
drinker of wine), unmistakeably acquires in his person the degradation of a 
S'udra.”! 
It will be naturally supposed that those who wrote the above panegyric 
must have had various kinds of liquor for their use ; and the S'astras afford 
the most convincing proof on this head. Pulastya, an ancient sage and 
author of one of the original Smritis, enumerates twelve different kinds of 
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