Soma

An Executive Summary

Authors

  • Andrew Dalby Independent Scholar Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.29676

Keywords:

Soma, Haoma, Stimulant drinks, Zoroastrian religion, Hindu religion

Abstract

An outline of the nature of the ritual drink soma (Sanskrit) or haoma (Avestan) as described in ancient Indo-Iranian poetic traditions: how it was obtained, prepared, and consumed; what effects were reported. Several proposed identifications of the plant source are briefly discussed. The identification that is probably correct (Ephedra species) is placed in its context.

Author Biography

  • Andrew Dalby, Independent Scholar

    Andrew Dalby writes on food history, always working from original sources. He studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, and University College London. He lives in France, grows fruit and makes cider. A part-time PhD at Birkbeck College, London, was his introduction to food history. His dissertation was revised as Siren Feasts (Routledge, 1996), and in the same year he and Sally Grainger published The Classical Cookbook (British Museum Press, 1996). Later food history books include Food in the Ancient World from A to Z (Routledge, 2003), Flavours of Byzantium (Prospect Books, 2003), The Shakespeare 
    Cookbook (with Maureen Dalby: British Museum Press, 2012) and Gifts of the Gods (with Rachel Dalby: Reaktion Books, 2018). He has translated three source texts, all published by Prospect Books: Cato On Farming (1998), Geoponika: Farm Work (2011), and The Treatise of Walter of Bibbesworth (2012).

References

‘Soma’ in Vicipaedia: online at <https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma>

C. C. Bakels, ‘Report concerning the contents of a ceramic vessel found in the “white room” of the Gonur Temenos, Merv Oasis, Turkmenistan’, Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, vol. 9 (2003)

Mary Boyce, ‘Haoma. II, the rituals’, Encyclopaedia Iranica 11 (2003): 662–7

John Brough, ‘Soma and Amanita muscaria’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 34 (1971): 331–362

Willem Caland, Victor Henry, L’Agnistoma, 2 vols. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1906

Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, ‘The post-Vedic history of the soma plant’, in Robert Gordon Wasson, Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968): 95–147

Harry Falk, ‘Soma I and II’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 52 (1989): 77–90

Harry Falk, ‘Decent drugs for decent people: further thoughts on the nature of soma’, Orientalia Suecana, 51/52 (2002/2003)

David Stophlet Flattery, Martin Schwartz, Haoma and Harmaline: The Botanical Identity of the Indo-Iranian Sacred Hallucinogen ‘Soma’ and its Legacy in Religion, Language, and Middle Eastern Folklore. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989

Daphne E. González-Juárez et al., ‘A review of the Ephedra genus: distribution, ecology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry and pharmacological properties’, Molecules, 25 (2020)

A. A. Macdonell, A. B. Keith, Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, vol. 2 (London: John Murray, 1912): 474–9

W. W. Malandra, ‘Hom Yašt’, Encyclopaedia Iranica 12 (2004): 431–4

Sandeep Pandey, ‘Ethnomedicinal potential of Sarcostemma acidum in different regions in India’, Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 11 (2018): 395–400

Matthew Scarborough, ‘Hom Yašt (Yasna 9): translation and parsing’: online at <https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:30460/datastreams/CONTENT/content>

Frits Staal, ‘How a psychoactive substance becomes a ritual: the case of soma’, Social Research, 68 (2001): 745–778

Dieter Taillieu, ‘Haoma. I, botany’, Encyclopaedia Iranica 11 (2003): 659–662

George Thompson, ‘Soma and ecstasy in the Rgveda’, Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, 9 (2003)

Downloads

Published

2024-09-13

Issue

PPC 129 (2024)

Section

Notes and Short Reports

How to Cite

Dalby, Andrew. 2024. “Soma: An Executive Summary”. Petits Propos Culinaires, September, 16-22. https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.29676.