Divinity Atlas
Soma's Three Debated Facts Are the Vedic Philology Question Again, Asked of the God Instead of the Plant
Soma carries three debated facts in this atlas, all under one property, botanical-identification: fly agaric, Syrian rue and ephedra. This is the identical unresolved question already told at length on this atlas's own Vedic Philology essay, the same three candidates and the same unresolved verdict. This entry does not repeat that argument. It says instead what the Vedic Philology essay had no room to say, because it was asking about a plant, and Soma is not only a plant.
The Question Already Told Elsewhere
The three facts anchored here, fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), Syrian rue (Peganum harmala) and ephedra, are the same open candidates covered by this atlas's Vedic Philology essay, down to the naming of Gordon Wasson's 1968 case for fly agaric and the reason no candidate has won consensus: the Rig Veda's own description of soma never mentions its root, leaf, flower, seed or fruit, and by the age of the Brahmanas the tradition was already prescribing substitutes. That essay is where the botanical dispute belongs, and where what would resolve it, archaeobotanical residue analysis or a phytochemical match, is already stated. Repeating it here would be a second essay in the same substance rather than a fresh one.
A Substance That Is Also a God
What the plant question does not touch is what Soma actually is in the atlas's own description: the pressed plant juice of the Vedic sacrifice, and the god who is that juice. Mandala 9 of the Rigveda, one hundred and fourteen hymns, is given over entirely to Soma Pavamana, Soma being purified, making Soma the only Vedic ritual substance with a book of scripture to itself. Priests crushed the stalks, strained the liquid through a woollen filter and offered it to Indra before drinking it themselves, an act of worship performed on and with the same matter being worshipped. The unresolved botany is a genuine gap; the double identity, a substance that is also the god it is offered to, is not in dispute at all, and it is the more unusual fact this page actually carries.
Where To Read More
- SomaSacred Foods and DrinksThe same plant dispute as the Vedic Philology essay; fresh here is its double identity as substance and god