1873.] Rajendralala Mitra —Spirituous Drinks in Ancient India. 5 
Other authorities on law and religion are in no respect less stringent. 
And yet it would seem that at no time in their history have the Hindus as 
a nation altogether abstained from the use of spirituous drinks as a means 
of sensual gratification. Elders, anchorites, sages and learned men, forming 
the hulk of the priestly race, doubtless scrupulously abstained from them, as 
they do now in this and other countries ; and a good number of pious and 
respectable householders, and men of rank and position of the other classes 
followed their example, even as they do now ; hut as they constituted hut a 
fraction of the sum total of the community, their abstinence could not lead 
to abstinence on the part of the whole nation, or the bulk of it. There was 
probably also a considerable amount of hypocrisy, or outward expression of 
horror against wine on the part of the higher orders of the people, such as 
we know does prevail in the present day ; hut Sanskrit literature, both ancient 
and modern, leaves no room for doubt as to wine having been very exten¬ 
sively used in this country at all times, and by all classes. 
Manu, notwithstanding his stern anathema, found the public feeling or 
practice so strong against him as to be under the necessity of observing in 
one place that “ there is no turpitude in drinking wine,” but “ a virtuous 
abstinence from it produces a signal compensation.Elsewhere he provides 
that the soldier and the merchant should not deal in spirituous liquors, 
leaving the S'udras to follow the trade at their pleasure.f The prohibition 
in the case of the soldier and the merchant refers to arrack only, so they 
were at liberty to take all other kinds of liquor, and accordingly the Mitak- 
shara comes to the conclusion that Brahmans alone have to abstain from 
all kinds of spirituous drinks, the Kshatriya and Vaishya from arrack or 
paisliti , leaving the S'udras to indulge in whatever they liked. J 
Coming from the age of the Vedas to that of the Sutras, I find that not 
only the soma and the sura of the Sanhitas and the Brahmanas retained 
their firm hold on the people, hut several new candidates for public favour 
appeared in the forms of Mddhvika or mown, Gaudt or rum, tcda or toddy 
wine, and so on. They could not have been manufactured had there been 
no demand for them, and the conclusion becomes irresistible, that they were 
used to a considerable extent as a means of sensual gratification, though 
they seem never to have found a footing in religious ceremonies. 
* «t wn I 
t X, 89. 
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