JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY. 
Part I—HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. 
No. I.—1873. 
Spirituous Drinks in Ancient India. — lly Babtt Ba'jendeala'la Mitea. 
Sages and moralists have, in all ages and in every clime, expatiated in 
strong terms on the impropriety of indulgence in spirituous drinks, and some 
physiologists have recently discovered that such drinks do not possess any 
of the virtues which tradition has all aloim’ ascribed to them. We are told 
O 
that they do not add to our strength, or power of digestion ; they have no 
influence on the heart’s action ; they are powerless to increase the tempera¬ 
ture of the body; they cannot help us to resist the chilling effect of 
cold; and are inert as aliments, failing alike in affording fuel for the lungs 
and material for the formation of the tissues. But neither the anathema of 
sages and moralists, nor the dicta of the professors of science, have any¬ 
where sufficed to suppress their use. They prevail in some form or other in 
almost every part of the world ; and those primitive races which have no 
knowledge of them, seize them with the greatest avidity the moment they 
find them ; for, like tobacco, spirituous drinks have a peculiar charm which 
enables them, if not to defy, at least to hold their own alike against the 
deductions of science and the mandates of religion. In the eye of reason, 
voluntary inebriation may appear in the most offensive light; but there seems 
to be a craving in human nature to elevate the spirit above the dull routine of 
every-day existence, and to produce a temporary frenzy during which the 
cares and troubles of life are forgotten, and trains of delightful ideas lill the 
mind, which nothing can completely eradicate. 
The history of Muhammadan civilization affords a most striking illus¬ 
tration of the truth of this assertion. None condemned the use of wine 
A 
