Botanical
clues show the shared heritage of the Rig Veda and the Avesta.
Source: indianexpress
Soma is a celebrated plant in the RV as well as the
AV where it is called haoma, later shortened to Hom in Pahalvi. (Representative
image)
Theories
about the homeland of the Aryans have been in news of late because of genetic
studies. The theory that ascribes an indigenous origin to the Aryans can be
shown to be untenable on very simple considerations based on a comparative
study of the Rig Veda (RV) and the related Zoroastrian sacred text Avesta (AV).
The Rig Vedic and Avestan languages are essentially the same, with very minor
differences in grammar. They share a common vocabulary in the fields of
mythology, ritual, culture, and religious practices. There are some phonetic
differences but the changes take place according to well-defined rules
(Sanskrit s into h, h into z). Ahura in AV (as in Ahura Mazda) is cognate with
asura in RV with the same meaning, lord (asura as a demon is a later development.)
Yama son of Vivasvan is known to AV. Nabhanedishta is a son of Manu in RV; it
becomes a common noun in AV meaning “nearest in relation”.
The
Avesta proper consists of three parts: Yasna, Visperad, and Vendidad. Yasna in
turn includes 17 hymns, called Gathas, which are attributed to Zarathushtra
himself and thus constitute the oldest parts of AV. He describes himself as a
zaotar (hotr), while later texts call him athaurvan (atharvan).
Zarathushtra
introduces some points of departure from the Rig Veda but does not repudiate
the joint Indo-Iranian legacy. Deva and Indra become demons in AV, but
Vrtrahana (slayer of Vrtra) who is identified with Indra in RV retains his
position in AV as a god in his own right The Rig Vedic and the Avestan people
both called themselves Arya, meaning noble. RV and AV are Aryan documents, and
therefore need to be read together.
There are
no dependable chronological clues in either the RV or the AV. But the common
botanical information in them can be used to disceren geography. Soma, for
example, is a celebrated plant in the RV as well as the AV where it is called
haoma, later shortened to Hom in Pahalvi. A drink of the same name was squeezed
from the plant for offering to the gods and for drinking. RV devotes a full mandala
to soma, and the longest hymn in RV is addressed to it. There is a striking
similarity between the Vedic agnishtoma and the Zoroastrian haoma ceremony,
both of which must therefore have originated in the common Indo-Iranian period.
From the textual references we learn that soma/haoma was a scented leafless
plant with long-jointed finger-like juicy stalks. Though the ritual was
elaborate, the process itself was very simple. The stalks and shoots of the
plant were crushed either between two stones or in mortar and pestle. The juice
was collected, purified and drunk unfermented.
Yasna
(10.10) mentions Haraiti Bareza as the soma habitat. Haraiti is identified with
Mount Elburz, which earlier denoted the whole range of mountains extending from
the Hindu Kush in the east to the Caucasus in the west. RV informs us that soma
grew in the mountains. RV (9.46.1) calls soma parvatavrdh ( mountain grown).
The Atharvaveda (3.21.10) calls the mountains somaprashtha ( carrying soma on
their back). RV (10.34.1) uses the term soma maujavata, the soma from Mujavat,
which according to Yaska’s Nirukta (9.8) was a mountain.
Soma was
a common plant in the places where the Rig Vedic and Avestian people lived. In
RV (8.80), a maiden, Apala by name, plucks Soma twigs by the wayside and chews
them with the purpose of becoming attractive to men. Anyone who maltreats haoma
is cursed to remain childless (Yasna 11.3). As if aware of this, in RV
(8.31.5), husband and wife “with one accord” press out the soma juice, no doubt
as a prelude to sexual intercourse. While there is continuity in the
Zoroastrian soma ritual, there are clear signs that the Vedic people moved away
from the soma habitat. In the Baudhyayana Shrautasutra (6.14) the Adhvaryu asks
the seller if the soma came from Mujavat which obviously was still a source of
supply. Katyayana Shrautasutra (10.9.30) talks of rationing soma. It enjoins
the priests not to give it to a kshatriya or a vaishya even if available, but
asks the priests to give them a substitute. Shatapatha Brahmana (4.5.10.2-6)
lists the substitutes to be used in the ritual when soma is not available. In
course of time, soma became a mythical plant even for medical texts. Sushruta
Samhita (29.21-22) and Charaka Samhita (1.4-6) both believe that soma had 15
leaves which appeared one per day during the waxing moon (shuklapaksha) and
dropoff one by one during the waning moon (krishnapaksha).
The
Brahmana texts reverentially reserve the name soma for the original soma plant
and talk of its substitutes. The reverence disappears in later times when the
term soma, suffixed with lata or valli (meaning creeper) is applied to
different local plants, which like the original soma are leafless.
There is
a broad consensus among scholars that the ancient soma/haoma plant be
identified with high-altitude varieties of ephedra which have a high alkaloid
content. (ephedra grows in plains also but these varieties have no juice.) The
botanical identification of soma is however not quite relevant for our present
discussion.
There can
be no doubt whatsoever that the Rig Vedic and the Avestan people had a common
heritage and lived in close proximity to one another. Their joint habitat was
the Somaland. Indian plains do not match the RV and AV description of
Soma-growing areas. Even otherwise, if India were the Indo-Iranian homeland, it
is the ancient Iranians who would have been looking for soma substitutes and
not Indians. The conclusion is inescapable: Rigvedic people, like ancient
Iranians, must have lived in mountainous areas where the soma plant grew.
Kochhar
is the author of ‘The Vedic People’
