On soma in the veda

[s. kalyanaraman]

     Mr. Christopher Fynn; thanks a lot for the info. Of course, during the 
     historical periods, soma is referred to as a creeper with appellations 
     such as soma-lata. My submission is that the textual references have 
     to be interpreted in the total context of the process involved in 
     making a product which seems to have been an important life activity 
     of the ancient rk-chanters. If it were hemp, it will reduce to pure 
     carbon too, if subjected to incessant firing/purification. 
     Kalyanaraman.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: On soma in the veda
Author:  indology at liverpool.ac.uk at INTERNET
Date:    10/02/1995 11:31 AM


The Tibetan "so.ma ra.tsa"  or  "so.ma r'a.dz'a" 
(soma raajaa) is the word commonly used there 
for Indian hemp. 

bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo (pg 2956) has:
 
SO.MA R'A.DZ'A
(legs) zla ba'i rdul te shing sman gyi rigs
shig /  ro tsha zhing kha/ zhu rjes snyoms/
nus pas srin nad dang/  pags nad/ chu ser
gyi nad bcas sel /

[Syn]
ming gi rnam grang la 'dab bzang dang/ 
b'a gu dz'i/  'bras nag po/  mdze 'joms/
zla ba'i lchug ma/ zla ba'i ri mo/
zla tshe kyi rdul/ lug nag  
su ri pha l'i/ so ma blli ka bcas so/  

-- 
Christopher J Fynn <cfynn at sahaja.demon.co.uk>