6 
Rajendralala Mitra —Spirituous Drinlcs in Ancient India. [No. 1, 
Turning now to the Mahabharata we have abundant evidence to show 
that most of the leading characters in that great epic were addicted to strong 
chunks, and no picnic or pleasure party was complete in which wine did not 
hold a prominent part. The extract from the Harivans' a published in the last 
volume of this Journal (p. 340 et seq.) affords a very graphic account of the 
manner in which such distinguished personages as Balacleva and Krishna 
and Arjuna indulged in drink in the company of their wives, sisters and 
daughters, and other extracts equally precise and full, might be easily 
multiplied, if needed. The description of Arjuna’s picnic on the Raivata moun¬ 
tain given in the Adiparva, offers a remarkable instance in point. Elsewhere 
Krishna and Arjuna are described as “ having wine-inflamed eyes.” “Both 
Krishna and Arjuna have been seen by me, both lying on a cot, or in their cars, 
besprinkled with sandal paste, and having their eyes reddened by madhvi and 
asava.” # Sudeshna, the queen of Maharaja Virata, in the Virata larva, feeling 
thirsty, sends her maid, Draupadi, to her brother, Kichaka, to obtain from 
him a flagon of good wine for her use.f In the Mans ala Jdarva, the Yadavas 
are described to have been so overcome by drink at the sea-side watering-place 
of Prabliasa as to have destroyed each other in sheer drunkenness. 
According to the Bhagavata Purana, when questioned by his brother 
Judliisthira as to how the Yadavas were doing, Arjuna is reported to have 
said—“ 0 king, our friends, of whom you are inquiring, losing, through a 
Brahman’s curse on the house of our well-wishers, their senses by over- 
indulgence in Varuni liquor, have, without recognising each other, exchanged 
blows and destroyed themselves. Now only four or five are left alive to tell 
the tale.”J 
The Ramayana also frequently notices wine and drinking. In one 
place no less a personage than the great sage, Visvamitra, who is the author 
of a considerable number of the hymns of the Rig Veda, is said to have been 
entertained with maireya and surd by his host, Vasishtha.§ Bharadvaja 
Wwt ^ II 
t I 
I 
fq<rwT *?f ww ii 
t *r: wR l 
'j ■j 
cK sj 
Rten ^rerfsm^cr^T i 
§ Ramayana, Carey’s edition, I, p. 462. 
