8 
Rajendralala Mitra —Spirituous Drinks in Ancient India. [No. 1, 
not included in the pale of Hinduism and the city belonged to a race of 
monkeys. 
Buddhism must have contributed much to check the spread of drunken¬ 
ness in India, as it did in putting down the consumption of flesh-meat, hut 
it never was equal to the task of suppressing it. The Jatakas and Avadanas 
abound in stories of drunkenness, and among the sculptures of Sanchi, several 
ladies of high rank, standing in the verandahs of the upper storeys of their 
mansions to behold religious processions in the street, are represented with 
attendants holding forth tazzas and flagons, which evidently were intended 
to contain something more potent than water or sharbat. In three love- 
scenes, the lovers are represented offering overflowing goblets to their mis¬ 
tresses, certainly not with a view to smother the flames of Cupid with a cool¬ 
ing draught. In a Buddhist drama, entitled Nagdnanda , lately translated into 
English by Mr. Ralph Boyd, a scene occurs, the plot of which depends upon 
the vagaries of a drunkard, who had for his lady-love a maid of honor of the 
queen. 
In the time of Kalidasa drinking seems to have been very common, for 
we find in the Sakuntala, the Superintendent of Police, who was no other 
than the king’s brother-in-law, proposing, like an English policeman, or 
cabby, to spend the present offered him by the fisherman who recovered the 
lost ring, at the nearest grog shop. 
“ Fisherman. —Here’s half the money for you, my masters. It will 
serve to purchase the flowers you spoke of, if not to buy me your goodwill. 
“ Ja'nuka.—W ell, now, that’s just as it should he. 
“ Superintendent. —My good fisherman, you are an excellent fellow, and 
I begin to feel quite a regard for you. Let us seal our first friendship over 
a glass of good licpior. Come along to the next wineshop, and we’ll drink 
your health.”* 
In his graphic description of the triumphal march of Raghu, Kalidasa 
specially notices drinking-booths set up by the soldiery at Rajamundri, to 
drink the famous cocoa-nut liquor of the place.f The proper way to drink 
it was in betel leaf cups. So profusely was this liquor partaken of, that, 
in the hyperbolical language of the poet, the water of the Oauvery was 
tainted by the smell. { In a subsequent part of the description, the same 
soldiery appear to have in Persia drunk grape-wine, seated on leather 
* Williams’s Sakuntala, p. 153. 
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