20 
Rajendralala Mitra— &Spirituous Drinks in Ancient India. [No. 1, 
from distant countries, must have been much more costly than the spirituous 
liquors of India, and consequently none hut the wealthy could afford to 
drink them. 
The different liquors were always taken neat, and it was necessary, 
therefore, to take some saline, sub-acid, or sweet stuff, to remove the pungency 
or smarting caused in the mouth by the raw spirit. For this purpose fruits, 
roasted mince meat, and cakes were most approved by the higher classes, but 
the lower orders had to content themselves with parched or fried grains and 
pulses seasoned with salt and chilly. These wine biscuits were held in great 
requisition, and were known by various technical or slang names, such as 
Up a dans'a, Up a dans a , A v ad ansa , Chakshana, ATadyapasana, JMudra, &c. I have 
noticed the word nakula also so used in the Bengali Chandi and some of the 
Tantras, but I am not able to put my hand on the text of the latter just now. 
The word probably came from nakuli ilesh-meat; but I learn from my friend 
Mr. Blochmann, that in Arabic the word is used in the same sense, and it is 
possible that some of the modern Tantras borrowed it from the Muham¬ 
madans. Anyhow the word has become generally current, and one of 
the names of S lva is Nakules'a or “ lord of wine biscuits,” and no drinking 
party was formerly complete without a good supply of these tit-bits. 
Looking to the nature of the climate, the character and temper of the 
people, and the anathemas which the S'astras have, from time to time, hurled 
against the drunkard, it might be taken for granted that men of the higher 
castes, and good people generally, did set their faces against drinking, or, at 
least, did preserve an outward appearance of horror against those who openly 
outraged the mandates of the Smriti ; but it would seem that for all that 
cases of delirium tremens turned up pretty frequently, and several very 
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