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Menes [Mneues] [Mannus] [Manu]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/2/23

-- Manu (Hinduism), by Wikipedia
-- Manusmriti, by Wikipedia
-- Institutes of Hindu Law: Or, The Ordinances of Menu, According to the Gloss of Culluca. Comprising the Indian System of Duties, Religious and Civil, Verbally translated from the original Sanscrit, With a Preface, by Sir William Jones
-- Matsya, by Wikipedia
-- Sethona. A Tragedy. As it is Performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by Alexander Dow
-- Menes [Mneues], by Wikipedia
-- Mannus, by Wikipedia

Menes
Africanus: Mênês
Eusebius: Mênês
The cartouche of Menes on the Abydos King List
Pharaoh
Reign c. 3200–3000 BC[1] (First Dynasty)
Successor Hor-Aha (possibly)
Royal titulary

Menes (fl. c. 3200–3000 BC;[1] /ˈmeɪneɪz/; Ancient Egyptian: mnj, probably pronounced */maˈnij/;[6] Ancient Greek: Μήνης[5]) was a pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt credited by classical tradition with having united Upper and Lower Egypt and as the founder of the First Dynasty.[7]

The identity of Menes is the subject of ongoing debate, although mainstream Egyptological consensus identifies Menes with the Naqada III ruler Narmer[2][3][4][8] or First Dynasty pharaoh Hor-Aha.[9] Both pharaohs are credited with the unification of Egypt to different degrees by various authorities.

Name and identity

The commonly-used name Menes derives from Manetho, an Egyptian historian and priest who lived during the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Manetho noted the name in Greek as Μήνης (transliterated: Mênês).[5][10] An alternative Greek form, Μιν (transliterated: Min), was cited by the fifth-century-BC historian Herodotus,[11] but this variant is no longer accepted; it appears to have been the result of contamination from the name of the god Min.[12] The Egyptian form, mnj, is taken from the Turin and Abydos King Lists, which are dated to the Nineteenth Dynasty, whose pronunciation has been reconstructed as */maˈnij/. By the early New Kingdom, changes in the Egyptian language meant his name was already pronounced */maˈneʔ/.[13] The name mnj means "He who endures", which, I.E.S. Edwards (1971) suggests, may have been coined as "a mere descriptive epithet denoting a semi-legendary hero [...] whose name had been lost".[5] Rather than a particular person, the name may conceal collectively the Naqada III rulers: Ka, Scorpion II and Narmer.[5]

Narmer and Menes


Two Horus names of Hor-Aha (left) and a name of Menes (right) in hieroglyphs.

Main article: Narmer

Ivory tablet of Menes


The ivory label mentioning Hor-Aha along with the mn sign.


Reconstructed tablet.

The almost complete absence of any mention of Menes in the archaeological record[5] and the comparative wealth of evidence of Narmer, a protodynastic figure credited by posterity and in the archaeological record with a firm claim[3] to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, has given rise to a theory identifying Menes with Narmer.

The chief archaeological reference to Menes is an ivory label from Naqada which shows the royal Horus-name Aha (the pharaoh Hor-Aha) next to a building, within which is the royal nebty-name mn,[14] generally taken to be Menes.[5][a] From this, various theories on the nature of the building (a funerary booth or a shrine), the meaning of the word mn (a name or the verb endures) and the relationship between Hor-Aha and Menes (as one person or as successive pharaohs) have arisen.[2]

The Turin and Abydos king lists, generally accepted to be correct,[2] list the nesu-bit-names of the pharaohs, not their Horus-names,[3] and are vital to the potential reconciliation of the various records: the nesu-bit-names of the king lists, the Horus-names of the archaeological record and the number of pharaohs in Dynasty I according to Manetho and other historical sources.[3]

Flinders Petrie first attempted this task,[3] associating Iti with Djer as the third pharaoh of Dynasty I, Teti (Turin) (or another Iti (Abydos)) with Hor-Aha as second pharaoh, and Menes (a nebty-name) with Narmer (a Horus-name) as first pharaoh of Dynasty I.[2][3] Lloyd (1994) finds this succession "extremely probable",[3] and Cervelló-Autuori (2003) categorically states that "Menes is Narmer and the First Dynasty begins with him".[4] However, Seidlmayer (2004) states that it is "a fairly safe inference" that Menes was Hor-Aha.[9]

Two documents have been put forward as proof either that Narmer was Menes or alternatively Hor-Aha was Menes. The first is the "Naqada Label" found at the site of Naqada, in the tomb of Queen Neithhotep, often assumed to have been the mother of Horus Aha.[15]

The commonly used name Hor-Aha is a rendering of the pharaoh's Horus-name, an element of the royal titulary associated with the god Horus, and is more fully given as Horus-Aha meaning Horus the Fighter.

Manetho's record Aegyptiaca (translating to History of Egypt) lists his Greek name as Athothis, or "Athotís".

-- Hor-Aha, by Wikipedia

The label shows a serekh of Hor-Aha next to an enclosure inside of which are symbols that have been interpreted by some scholars as the name "Menes". The second is the seal impression from Abydos that alternates between a serekh of Narmer and the chessboard symbol, "mn", which is interpreted as an abbreviation of Menes. Arguments have been made with regard to each of these documents in favour of Narmer or Hor-Aha being Menes, but in neither case is the argument conclusive.[ b]

The second document, the seal impression from Abydos, shows the serekh of Narmer alternating with the gameboard sign (mn), together with its phonetic complement, the n sign, which is always shown when the full name of Menes is written, again representing the name “Menes”. At first glance, this would seem to be strong evidence that Narmer was Menes.[19] However, based on an analysis of other early First Dynasty seal impressions, which contain the name of one or more princes, the seal impression has been interpreted by other scholars as showing the name of a prince of Narmer named Menes, hence Menes was Narmer's successor, Hor-Aha, and thus Hor-Aha was Menes.[20] This was refuted by Cervelló-Autuori 2005, pp. 42–45; but opinions still vary, and the seal impression cannot be said to definitively support either theory.[21]

Herodotus, after having mentioned the first king of Egypt, Min, he wrote that Linus, called by the Egyptians Maneros, was "the only son of the first king of Egypt" and that he died untimely.[22]

Dates

Egyptologists, archaeologists, and scholars from the 19th century have proposed different dates for the era of Menes, or the date of the first dynasty:[23][c]

• John Gardner Wilkinson (1835) – 2320 BC
• Jean-François Champollion (Published posthumously in 1840) – 5867 BC
• August Böckh (1845) – 5702 BC
• Christian Charles Josias Bunsen (1848) – 3623 BC
• Reginald Stuart Poole (1851) – 2717 BC
• Karl Richard Lepsius (1856) – 3892 BC
• Heinrich Karl Brugsch (1859) – 4455 BC
• Franz Joseph Lauth (1869) – 4157 BC
• Auguste Mariette (1871) – 5004 BC
• James Strong (1878) – 2515 BC
• Flinders Petrie (1887) – 4777 BC

Modern consensus dates the era of Menes or the start of the first dynasty between c. 3200–3030 BC; some academic literature uses c. 3000 BC.[1]

History

Ebony plaque of Menes in his tomb of Abydos





By 500 BC, mythical and exaggerated claims had made Menes a culture hero, and most of what is known of him comes from a much later time.[24]

Ancient tradition ascribed to Menes the honour of having united Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom[25] and becoming the first pharaoh of the First Dynasty.[26] However, his name does not appear on extant pieces of the Royal Annals (Cairo Stone and Palermo Stone), which is a now-fragmentary king's list that was carved onto a stela during the Fifth Dynasty. He typically appears in later sources as the first human ruler of Egypt, directly inheriting the throne from the god Horus.[27] He also appears in other, much later, king's lists, always as the first human pharaoh of Egypt. Menes also appears in demotic novels of the Hellenistic period, demonstrating that, even that late, he was regarded as an important figure.[28]

Menes was seen as a founding figure for much of the history of ancient Egypt, similar to Romulus in ancient Rome.[29] Manetho records that Menes "led the army across the frontier and won great glory".[10][26]

Capital

Manetho associates the city of Thinis with the Early Dynastic Period and, in particular, Menes, a "Thinite" or native of Thinis.[10][26] Herodotus contradicts Manetho in stating that Menes founded the city of Memphis as his capital[30] after diverting the course of the Nile through the construction of a levee.[31] Manetho ascribes the building of Memphis to Menes' son, Athothis,[26] and calls no pharaohs earlier than Third Dynasty "Memphite".[32]

Herodotus and Manetho's stories of the foundation of Memphis are probably later inventions: in 2012 a relief mentioning the visit to Memphis by Iry-Hor—a predynastic ruler of Upper Egypt reigning before Narmer—was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula, indicating that the city was already in existence in the early 32nd century BC.[33]

Cultural influence


Labels from the tomb of Menes

Diodorus Siculus stated that Menes had introduced the worship of the gods and the practice of sacrifice[34] as well as a more elegant and luxurious style of living.[34] For this latter invention, Menes' memory was dishonoured by the Twenty-fourth Dynasty pharaoh Tefnakht and Plutarch mentions a pillar at Thebes on which was inscribed an imprecation against Menes as the introducer of luxury.[34]

In Pliny's[clarification needed] account, Menes was credited with being the inventor of writing in Egypt.

[T]he date and the mechanism of the creation of hieroglyphs are much harder to determine.

An obvious point for the date would be the beginning of the first dynasty. Here, according to Egyptian tradition, Menes of This in Upper Egypt conquered the Delta, unified the country, founded Memphis as his capital, and introduced many of the traits of classical Pharaonic culture; although, interestingly, he is not credited with the invention of hieroglyphs. A minimalist modern interpretation of what happened at the beginning of Egyptian history would be that there was no Menes, the search for him among the historical records is therefore meaningless, and that there was probably no unification either; all that happened was that the Egyptians invented writing and began to record their history systematically. The date for this can be obtained by a combination of astronomical data and dead reckoning from later king-lists such as the Turin canon: 3089 + x B.C., where x is the length of the obscure 'first intermediate period'. Considerable attempts have been made by historians to reduce this figure, but it is rather supported by some of the most recent Carbon-14 calibrations (see most cautiously Shaw 1984). A date of 3100 would not be far wrong, therefore, in which case there is a suitable time-lag behind the Mesopotamian introduction of writing.

The problem, however, is complicated by the known existence of Egyptian kings before Menes. The Palermo Stone, essentially a fifth-dynasty composition (although almost certainly a much later copy), clearly shows, on a separate fragment, the existence of kings wearing the crown of united Egypt well before 'Menes' and the supposed unification. Names of nine kings of Lower Egypt are also preserved, and outlandish they are, at least by later standards; this may be explicable by their Lower Egyptian origin, or more likely some form of oral tradition has been at work, but the very existence of these names must make us cautious (Sethe 1903). More disturbing are the contemporary monuments of kings, principally from the royal cemetery at Abydos but also from elsewhere, with names such as the increasingly attested Ro or Iry, the obscure Ka or Sekhen, and the better-known Scorpion (reading uncertain), who seems to be almost a prototype of Menes in his achievements (Barta 1982). The embarrassment caused by the existence of these kings is reflected in the term 'Dynasty O' which is frequently applied to them. Names of these kings appear clearly on contemporary monuments such as jars, and even the Scorpion macehead, and this leaves us in no doubt that writing existed in Egypt before the first king of Dynasty I. Our date of 3100 must therefore be raised to 3150 or even slightly earlier, and it is always possible that archaeological discovery will upset this picture even more. 'Menes', therefore, was not the inventor of hieroglyphs.

-- The emergence of writing in Egypt, by John D. Ray

Crocodile episode

Diodorus Siculus recorded a story of Menes related by the priests of the crocodile god Sobek at Crocodilopolis, in which the pharaoh Menes, attacked by his own dogs while out hunting,[35] fled across Lake Moeris on the back of a crocodile and, in thanks, founded the city of Crocodilopolis.[35][36][37]

Gaston Maspero (1910), while acknowledging the possibility that traditions relating to other kings may have become mixed up with this story, dismisses the suggestions of some commentators[38] that the story should be transferred to the Twelfth Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III and sees no reason to doubt that Diodorus did not correctly record a tradition of Menes.[35] Later, Edwards (1974) states that "the legend, which is obviously filled with anachronisms, is patently devoid of historical value".[36]

Death

According to Manetho, Menes reigned for either 30, 60 or 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.[10][39]

In popular culture

Alexander Dow (1735/6–79), a Scottish orientalist and playwright, wrote the tragedy Sethona, set in ancient Egypt. The lead part of Menes is described in the dramatis personæ as "next male-heir to the crown" now worn by Seraphis, and was played by Samuel Reddish in a 1774 production by David Garrick at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.[40]

-- Sethona. A Tragedy. As it is Performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by Alexander Dow

https://archive.org/stream/sethonatrage ... a_djvu.txt

-- History of Hindostan; From the Earliest Account of Time, To the Death of Akbar; Translated From the Persian of Mahummud Casim Ferishta of Delhi: Together With a Dissertation Concerning the Religion and Philosophy of the Brahmins; With an Appendix, Containing the History of the Mogul Empire, From Its Decline in the Reign of Mahummud Shaw, to the Present Times,(1768), by Alexander Dow.

-- History of Hindostan, Translated from the Persian. To Which are Prefixed Two Dissertations; The First Concerning the Hindoos, and the Second on the Origin and Nature of Despotism in India, A New Edition. In Three Volumes, Volume I (1812), by Alexander Dow, Esq.

See also

• First Dynasty of Egypt family tree
• Mannus, ancestral figure in Germanic mythology
• Minos, king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa
• Manu (Hinduism), Progenitor of humanity
• Nu'u, Hawaiian mythological character who built an ark and escaped a Great Flood
• Nüwa, goddess in Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind
• Min (god)
• Hor-Aha

Notes

1. Originally, the full royal title of a pharaoh was Horus name x nebty name y Golden-Horus name z nesu-bit name a Son-of-Ra name b. For brevity's sake, only one element might be used, but the choice varied between circumstances and period. Starting with Dynasty V, the nesu-bit name was the one regularly used in all official documents. In Dynasty I, the Horus-name was used for a living pharaoh, the nebty-name for the dead.[3]
2. In the upper right hand quarter of the Naqada label is a serekh of Hor-Aha. To its right is a hill-shaped triple enclosure with the “mn” sign surmounted by the signs of the “two ladies”, the goddesses of Upper Egypt (Nekhbet) and Lower Egypt (Wadjet). In later contexts, the presence of the “two ladies” would indicate a “nbty” name (one of the five names of the king). Hence, the inscription was interpreted as showing that the “nbty” name of Hor-Aha was “Mn” short for Menes.[16] An alternative theory is that the enclosure was a funeral shrine and it represents Hor-Aha burying his predecessor, Menes. Hence Menes was Narmer.[17] Although the label generated a lot of debate, it is now generally agreed that the inscription in the shrine is not a king’s name, but is the name of the shrine “The Two Ladies Endure,” and provide no evidence for who Menes was.[18]
3. Other dates typical of the era are found cited in Capart, Jean, Primitive Art in Egypt, pp. 17–18.

References

1. Kitchen, KA (1991). "The Chronology of Ancient Egypt". World Archaeology. 23 (2): 201–8. doi:10.1080/00438243.1991.9980172.
2. Edwards 1971, p. 13.
3. Lloyd 1994, p. 7.
4. Cervelló-Autuori 2003, p. 174.
5. Edwards 1971, p. 11.
6. Loprieno, Antonio (1995). Ancient Egyptian: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge University press. ISBN 0-521-44384-9.
7. Beck et al. 1999.
8. Heagy 2014.
9. Seidlmayer 2010.
10. Manetho, Fr. 6, 7a, 7b. Text and translation in Manetho, translated by W.G. Waddell (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1940), pp.26–35
11. Herodotus: 2.4.1, 2.99.1ff.
12. Lloyd 1994, p. 6.
13. Loprieno 1995, p. 38.
14. Gardiner 1961, p. 405.
15. Naqada Label | The Ancient Egypt Site
16. Borchardt 1897, pp. 1056–1057.
17. Newberry 1929, pp. 47–49.
18. Kinnear 2003, p. 30.
19. Newberry 1929, pp. 49–50.
20. Helck 1953, pp. 356–359.
21. Heagy 2014, pp. 77–78.
22. Herodotus (1958). The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Translated by Harry Carter. Haarlem, Netherlands: Joh. Enschedé en Zonen. p. 122. OCLC 270617466.
23. Budge, EA Wallis (1885), The Dwellers on the Nile: Chapters on the Life, Literature, History and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 54, Many dates have been fixed by scholars for the reign of this king: Champollion-Figeac thought about BC 5867, Bunsen 3623, Lepsius 3892, Brugsch 4455, and Wilkinson 2320.
24. Frank Northen Magill; Alison Aves (1998). Dictionary of World Biography. Taylor & Francis. pp. 726–. ISBN 978-1-57958-040-7.
25. Maspero 1903, p. 331.
26. Verbrugghe & Wickersham 2001, p. 131.
27. Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p. 218.
28. Ryholt 2009.
29. Manley 1997, p. 22.
30. Herodotus: 2.99.4.
31. Herodotus: 2.109
32. Verbrugghe & Wickersham 2001, p. 133.
33. P. Tallet, D. Laisnay: Iry-Hor et Narmer au Sud-Sinaï (Ouadi 'Ameyra), un complément à la chronologie des expéditios minière égyptiene, in: BIFAO 112 (2012), 381–395, available online
34. Elder 1849, p. 1040.
35. Maspero 1910, p. 235.
36. Edwards 1974, p. 22.
37. Diodorus: 45
38. Elder 1849, p. 1040, ‘in defiance of chronology’.
39. "Comparing the King Lists of Manetho".
40. Dow 1774.

Bibliography

• Beck, Roger B; Black, Linda; Krieger, Larry S; Naylor, Phillip C; Shabaka, Dahia Ibo (1999), World history: Patterns of interaction, Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, ISBN 0-395-87274-X
• Cervelló-Autuori, Josep (2003), "Narmer, Menes and the seals from Abydos", Egyptology at the dawn of the twenty-first century: proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, vol. 2, Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, ISBN 978-977-424-714-9.
• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, vol. 1
• Dow, Alexander (1774), Sethona: a tragedy, as it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, Collection of plays. [1767-1802] ;v. 1, no. 5, London: T. Becket, hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t2z31pr8f
• Edwards, IES (1971), "The early dynastic period in Egypt", The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Elder, Edward (1849), "Menes", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, vol. 2, Boston: Charles C. Little & James Brown.
• Faber, George Stanley (1816), "The origin of pagan idolatry: ascertained from historical testimony and circumstantial evidence", 3, London: F&C Rivingtons, vol. 2.
• Gardiner, Alan (1961), Egypt of the Pharaohs, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• of Halicarnassus, Herodotus, The Histories.
• Heagy, Thomas C. (2014), "Who was Menes?", Archeo-Nil, 24: 59–92. Available online "[1]"..
• Lloyd, Alan B. (1994) [1975], Herodotus: Book II, Leiden: EJ Brill, ISBN 90-04-04179-6.
• Maspero, Gaston (1903), Sayce, Archibald Henry (ed.), History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, vol. 9, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 9780766135017.
• ——— (1910) [1894], Sayce, Archibald Henry (ed.), The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldæa, translated by McClure, M L, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, ISBN 978-0-7661-7774-1.
• Manley, Bill (1997), The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt, London: Penguin, ISBN 0-14-051331-0.
• Rachewiltz, Boris de (1969), "Pagan and magic elements in Ezra Pound's works", in Hesse, Eva (ed.), New approaches to Ezra Pound, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Ryholt, Kim (2009), "Egyptian historical literature from the Greco-Roman period", in Fitzenreiter, Martin (ed.), Das Ereignis, Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Vorfall und Befund, London: Golden House.
• Schulz, Regine; Seidel, Matthias (2004), Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs, HF Ullmann, ISBN 978-3-8331-6000-4.
• Shaw, Ian; Nicholson, Paul (1995), The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, Harry N Abrams, ISBN 0-8109-9096-2.
• Seidlmayer, Stephan (2010) [2004], "The Rise of the State to the Second Dynasty", Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs, ISBN 978-3-8331-6000-4.
• Verbrugghe, Gerald Paul; Wickersham, John Moore (2001) [1996], Berossos and Manetho, introduced and translated: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-08687-0.
• Waddell, Laurence A (1930), Egyptian civilization: Its Sumerian origin, London, ISBN 978-0-7661-4273-2.

External links

• Menes, Ancient Egypt.
• "The Contendings of Horus and Seth", Egypt, IL: Reshafim, archived from the original on 2010-09-24, retrieved 2007-07-22.
• "Menes", Ancient Egyptian Civilization (image), Aldokkan.
• "Menes" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

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Menes, king of Egypt [Alternate titles: Aha, Mena, Meni, Min, Narmer, Scorpion
by Britannica
Accessed: 3/2/23

Alternate titles: Aha, Mena, Meni, Min, Narmer, Scorpion
Flourished: c.2930 BCE - c.2900 BCE


Figure perhaps representing Menes on a victory tablet of Egyptian King Narmer, c. 2925–c. 2775 BCE. Courtesy of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo; photograph, Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munich

Menes, also spelled Mena, Meni, or Min, (flourished c. 2925 BCE), legendary first king of unified Egypt, who, according to tradition, joined Upper and Lower Egypt in a single centralized monarchy and established ancient Egypt’s 1st dynasty. Manetho, a 3rd-century-BCE Egyptian historian, called him Menes, the 5th-century-BCE Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as Min, and two native-king lists of the 19th dynasty (13th century BCE) call him Meni. Modern scholars have inconclusively identified the legendary Menes with one or more of the archaic Egyptian kings bearing the names Scorpion, Narmer, and Aha.

In addition to crediting Menes with the unification of Egypt by war and administrative measures, a tradition appearing in the Turin Papyrus and the History of Herodotus credits him with diverting the course of the Nile in Lower Egypt and founding Memphis—the capital of ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom—on the reclaimed land. Excavations at Ṣaqqārah, the cemetery for Memphis, revealed that the earliest royal tomb located there belongs to the reign of Aha. Manetho called Menes a Thinite—i.e., a native of the nome (province) of Thinis in Upper Egypt—and, in fact, monuments belonging to the kings Narmer and Aha, either of whom may be Menes, have been excavated at Abydos, a royal cemetery in the Thinite nome. Narmer also appears on a slate palette (a decorated stone on which cosmetics were pulverized) alternately wearing the red and white crowns of Lower and Upper Egypt (see crowns of Egypt), a combination symbolic of unification, and shown triumphant over his enemies. Actually, the whole process probably required several reigns, and the traditional Menes may well represent the kings involved. According to Manetho, Menes reigned for 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.

**************************************

Menes: Legends Say He United Egypt Under its First Dynasty … But Did He Even Exist?
by Alicia McDermott
Ancient Greece (ancient-origins.net)
December 21, 2018

Much like the ancient Romans had Romulus and Remus to thank for the foundation of their civilization, so too did the ancient Egyptians have a legendary figure that united the Upper and Lower lands – King Menes. And like the Roman brothers, there is much mythology tied into Menes’ story. Controversy also surrounds the king, with scholars questioning if Menes was his real name, or if he even existed.

He Who Endures

Menes appears in several ancient texts. He is the first human king after the divine and demi-god rulers in the Turin Canon and has the first cartouche in the Abydos King List of Seti I. The Ramesseum Min reliefs also name Menes as the first king of Egypt. It’s worth noting that Menes is, however, absent on a seal listing the first six rulers of the First Dynasty that was found at Umm el-Qaab. In fact, nothing that has been found from the time Menes would have lived names him as a king. One explanation is that kings in the Early Dynastic period were identified by a Horus name, not a private name.


The cartouche of Menes on the Abydos King List. (Olaf Tausch/ CC BY 3.0 )

And Menes was a man of many names; Manetho's Chronology from the 3rd century BC names him as Menes, but two Egyptian 19th dynasty king lists write his name as Meni. The Greek historian Herodotus called him Min and he was Manas to another Greek historian - Diodorus Siculus. Jewish historian Josephus gives him yet another name – Minaios.

Many modern scholars suggest that the name Menes, which means “He Who Endures”, may actually be a reference to Menes being a figure that encompassed all the kings that worked to unify Egypt. But not everyone agrees.


Limestone head of a man thought to be the 1st Dynastic King of Egypt, Menes or Narmer. Egyptologist Flinders Petrie believed it was the latter. (Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)/CC BY SA 4.0)

Who was King Menes?

There is little that can be said of Menes’ life for certain, however it is generally agreed that if he existed, he was born in either Hierakonpolis (Nekhen) or Thinis and he ruled sometime between about 3000 BC to 3100 BC. Ancient sources also tend to agree that he ruled for more than 60 years.


An ancient Nekhen tomb painting in plaster with barques, staffs, goddesses, and animals - possibly the earliest example. (Francesco Raffaele/ CC BY SA 3.0 )

Apart from those aspects of his life, there are many stories that seem to mix fact with myth. Combine that with a lack of archaeological evidence and it is near impossible to ascertain more details of Menes’ life. This had led some to question if he even was a real historical figure, or if King Menes solely acted as a legendary founding father and hero for ancient Egyptians.

I another theory, as others suggest, Menes was the personification of the Naqada III rulers Ka, Scorpion II and Narmer. Narmer in particular has been singled out as the pharaoh who inspired the story of Menes, or who really was Menes. Aha, possibly Narmer’s son and the second dynastic king, has also been proposed as the true identity of Menes due to the appearance of ‘Mn’ (signifying ‘Menes’) in some ancient Egyptian sources beside the names of both men.


The ivory label mentioning Hor-Aha along with the mn sign. (Public Domain)


Reconstruction of the Narmer-Menes Seal impression from Abydos. (Heagy1/ CC BY SA 4.0)

The well-known Egyptologist Flinders Petrie believed that ‘Menes’ was actually a title, not a personal name, and said Narmer was the first real Egyptian pharaoh. It is true that some of the stories line up. For example, Narmer is also credited with having completed the process of unifying Upper and Lower Egypt. (Although some ancient sources have also credited Aha with this.)

Pharaoh Menes Unifies Egypt

The biggest accomplishment that has been credited to Menes is the unification of Egypt. It has been said that King Menes used both political strategy and force to do so. A possible marriage with a member of the southern royal family has been named as one of the ways he unified Upper and Lower Egypt. And once the lands were joined, policies were put in action to maintain peace and bring order to his realm.

While it sounds great for one king to have managed such an incredible feat, most historians agree that there were probably several rulers who worked over time to eventually reach that goal. Yet the naming of one central figure as having completed the arduous task would have been important to the ancient Egyptians. In this light, Menes acts as a beginning in history for the ancient Egyptians.


The smiting side of the Narmer Palette. ( Public Domain ) Scholars have interpreted this as a representation of the pharaoh conquering Lower Egypt.

Menes’ Other Achievements

Menes has been credited with many other accomplishments in the ancient Egyptian culture, including the introduction of sacrifice and worshipping the gods. It has been said that a ‘Golden Age’ set in after Egypt was unified and that positive period has also been attributed to Menes. For example, Pliny claims Menes introduced papyrus and written script to the ancient Egyptians. And Diodorus Siculus wrote that he was the first Egyptian law-giver. Manetho wrote of Menes as a strong warrior that expanded his kingdom’s borders and then provided a sense of order.

In the Turin Papyrus and also Herodotus’ ‘ History’, Menes is said to have had a dam constructed in the Nile to divert the flow over the land where Memphis lies. He is credited with founding the city and making it luxurious. But a 2012 discovery of a relief describing the visit of a pre-dynastic ruler to Memphis in the early 32nd century BC means that this story is nothing more than a tall tale.


Monuments from the ancient city of Memphis. (Gabriel Indurskis/ CC BY NC 2.0)

Regardless, Memphis as a capital for Egypt was a good choice. The land around it was fertile and its location was strategic. In that city, Menes allegedly taught the residents to live elegant, luxurious lives – ones that included less work and more time for hobbies, and even beautiful cloths covering couches and tables. For many of Menes’ people, life was good, food was plenty, and peace was prevalent.

A Crocodile and a Hippopotamus – The End of a Legend

No article on Menes would be complete without mention of two tales involving the king and iconic ancient Egyptian animals.

In the first, Menes is given credit for founding the city of Crocodilopolis. All because he rode a crocodile to safety when his hunting dogs turned on him. The king decided a city was a suitable way to honor the animal for saving his life.


Crocodiles of various ages mummified in honor of the crocodile god Sobek. The Crocodile Museum, Aswan. (JMCC1/ CC BY SA 3.0)

But it is another well-known Egyptian animal that ended that life. Manetho and others write that Menes was either killed or carried off by a hippopotamus. This was considered one of the worst ways to die in ancient Egypt. His tomb lies in Saqqara – Memphis’ necropolis.


View of Saqqara necropolis, including Djoser's step pyramid (center), the Pyramid of Unas (left) and the Pyramid of Userkaf (right). (Hajor/ CC BY SA 3.0 )

Following the tragic event, Djer, Menes’ son, ascended the throne as an infant and his widowed wife, Queen Neithotepe, acted as regent until the child came of age.

_______________

References

Boddy-Evans, A. (2018) ‘The Story of Menes, the First Pharaoh of Egypt.’ ThoughtCo. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/who-was-the-f ... gypt-43717

Gill, N.S. (2017) ‘Menes-First King of Egypt.’ ThoughtCo. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/menes-first-k ... ypt-119800

Heagy, T. ( 2014) ‘Who Was Menes?’ Archéo-Nil 24, pp. 59-92. Available at: https://www.narmer.org/menes

KingtutOne.com (n.d.) ‘Menes the 1st Pharaoh.’ KingtutOne.com. Available at: http://kingtutone.com/pharaohs/menes/

Kinnaer, J. (2014) ‘Menes.’ The Ancient Egyptian Site. Available at: http://www.ancient-egypt.org/who-is-who/m/menes.html

New World Encyclopedia. (2014) ‘Menes.’ New World Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Menes

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2018) ‘Menes: King of Egypt.’ Encyclopaedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Menes

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The emergence of writing in Egypt
by John D. Ray
World Archaeology
Volume 17 No. 3
©R.K.P. 1986

In Pliny's account, Menes was credited with being the inventor of writing in Egypt.

-- Menes [Mneues] [Mannus] [Manu], by Wikipedia

Abstract

The cultural history of ancient Egypt is markedly different from that of contemporary Mesopotamia, and the adoption of the idea of writing by the Egyptians conforms to a general pattern, which shows the tendency of Egypt to adopt and perfect inventions made elsewhere in the Near East. Theories of a conquering 'dynastic race', which gave rise to Egyptian civilisation, are unnecessary. Hieroglyphs show many of the signs of deliberate invention, probably in association with the royal court, appearing suddenly, and developing rapidly. They are so well suited to the underlying language, one of the Afroasiatic group, that their creation seems to be deliberate. Uniconsonantal, or 'alphabetic', signs are a striking and unique feature of the system, which was essentially complete by 3000 B.C.

Egyptology and Assyriology can be seen as complementary sciences, celestial twins or ugly sisters, depending on the standpoint of the describer. Egyptology is the slightly older sister - if we take the date of the respective decipherments to represent the moments of their birth as disciplines - and both have a similar history of development, liberating themselves slowly from Biblical and classical studies, and gradually finding their own places. Egyptology is also the more romantic and popular of the two, and perhaps the more extrovert; Assyriology compensates for this in the range of material, especially texts, at its disposal, and the growing challenges that it presents to its admirers.

Comparisons between the two disciplines go hand-in-hand with attempts to characterise the two civilisations which gave rise to them, and the best-known example is probably the one which occupies most of Before Philosophy, otherwise known as The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (Frankfort). Such comparisons are designed to stimulate as much as to illuminate, and it is in the same spirit that we can suggest another, superficial and light-hearted though it has to be: the political, and to some extent the cultural, history of Egypt has several points in common with that of modern France, whereas if we look for a parallel with that of Mesopotamia, we can see things which remind us of modern Germany. The situation of Egypt in the ancient world was relatively secure: her borders were easily defended, except for the vulnerable section in the north-east, and this relative isolation was reinforced by a favourable climate and the ability to support a comparatively large population. Within the country political unity, although by no means constantly achieved in Egyptian history, was fairly easy to maintain and tended to centre upon a royal court with far-reaching powers. Local regionalism existed, and could assume a strong form, but in general the monarchy was able to overcome this, either by force or by inducement. With the rise of this centralised state - the first in history - went a pattern of culture which was essentially imposed from above by the courtly circles; and the strong visual sense, and all-pervading sense of style, as in France, is one of the most noticeable and appealing aspects of ancient Egypt. Egypt, like France, was also an absorber of immigrants, who rapidly adopted Egyptian culture and rose to positions of prominence in the state by virtue of doing so. The price that has to be paid for these advantages is a certain cultural complacency and even a 'superiority complex', which can hamper original perceptions. Egypt's role wasthat of a perfecter of ideas, rather than an inventor; most of the innovations in the ancient Near East come from outside Egypt, but Egypt, once it adopts a new idea, produces a form of it which is often more effective than it was in its original home. Mesopotamia, on the other hand, does have more in common — to attempt a'generalisation - with the experience of Germany: open frontiers leading to frequent invasion and disruption, a less favourable environment for the growth of political unity, and a restiveness which leads to unity being imposed by a more militaristic culture (Assyria). The results are a creativity, caused in part by competition between its constituent areas, and a restless profundity in intellectual life which contrasts with the general performance in the visual arts, which is not on the whole the equivalent of Egypt's. This is no doubt an oversimplified view of the two civilisations, but it does hold true for quite a few areas of activity, and the emergence of writing is arguably one of them.

It is worth qualifying this picture slightly, by reminding ourselves of the limitations of archaeology, especially in the Nile valley. Here excavation, until quite recently, has concentrated on remains which are well-preserved and likely to produce objects of art or major texts - which in effect meant that the main emphasis in Egyptian archaeology was on tombs and similar monuments. Town sites have been relatively unrewarding and unattractive: close mud-brick work, combined with constant infiltration by sub-soil water, often in the midst of a modern urban area, could hardly compete with leisurely epigraphy amid the sands of the desert, especially if a sensational discovery was likely to be had. Egyptology, therefore, has less chance of producing economic and social information than Mesopotamian archaeology, where clay tablets are easily preserved in large numbers. The situation is now changing, but it will be quite some time, if ever, before we can be sure that our conclusions about Egyptian society, especially early Egyptian society, are true and not merely dictated by what the inhabitants of that society chose to take into the next world with them. This familiar fact still has to be borne in mind. It may also be true that our notions of what ancient Egypt was like are distorted by the accident that most of our evidence comes from the south; an Egyptologist, if he could be transported magically into the eastern Delta at most periods of Pharaonic rule, might well decide that he was in a country quite foreign to the land of his imagination.

Prehistoric Egypt is best seen in the recent study by Hoffman (1980). Whatever the situation may have been in the Palaeolithic, Egypt of the fourth millennium does seem to exhibit many of the characteristics of later Egypt: a strong cultural unity (except that the Delta and Upper Egypt are still markedly different), artistic creations of a high standard, and, at least to judge from tomb structures and furnishing, an increasedly stratified society, with a leisured or wealthy class creating a demand for luxuries which involves a considerable section of the population. The tone, at least in Upper Egypt, seems to be aristocratic and agricultural, rather than mercantile. Towards the end of the period, however, in the phase known as Nagada II or Gerzean, change seems to occur at an accelerated pace. The main feature of this transformation, other than general changes in the styles and ranges of artefacts, is the adoption of foreign motifs, in particular Mesopotamian, or in some cases Proto-Elamite. These motifs - the cylinder-seal, artistic devices comprising animals with intertwined necks, fashions in clothing, and even architectural designs such as the 'palace facade' - are undeniable, even if the explanation is hard to find. Mere trade seems an inadequate reason, and some Egyptologists have fallen back on the concept of a full-scale invasion, either by way of Syria-Palestine, or by sea around the coasts of Arabia. Inadequate pathology was often used to bolster up this theory, and the 'dynastic race' was created as a convenient model. But if we bear in mind the cultural generalisations suggested above, and if we adopt more recent explanations of how primitive societies can 'take off into a more sophisticated level of culture, we can probably see that Egypt, on the eve of its emergence as a historical state, was adopting foreign influences in order to assist its own development. Mesopotamian and Elamite motifs were chosen, not because of political events, but because they were the only models which fitted her stage of development: and these models, once adapted, were almost entirely discarded as soon as Egypt had found its self-confidence and identity. The young civilisation needed a prop with which to learn to walk; then it could throw away the prop.

Writing was the most important of these adoptions, and the only one which was not to be thrown aside. At the moment it does look as if writing, or rather the idea of writing, was extraneous to Egypt. In Mesopotamia, we can see the gradual emergence of picturewriting as a form of accounting or similar record-keeping, at a date earlier by a couple of centuries than its appearance, Athena-like, from the head of the Egyptian hierarchy. This at least is the accepted wisdom, and it is likely to be right, although Arnett (1982) has produced an interesting alternative. Arnett has made a study of the motifs and decorative signs found quite frequently on predynastic pottery and other artefacts from Egypt, and concludes that a rudimentary writing-system was in use several centuries before the unification of Egypt into a historical state. This is certainly an original idea, although Petrie (1912) experimented with a parallel notion when trying to trace the origin of the alphabet to potters' marks found on predynastic vessels; but the weakness of this sort of argument is that it is merely an extrapolation from later usages. The later hieroglyph for 'foreign land', for example, does occur on predynastic pottery, but since it is merely a schematised drawing of desert hills, it is impossible to say that the sign means what it is used to mean later. It may, in its early stage, be merely an element of design, and some of the other 'hieroglyphs' detected by Arnett are very difficult to explain in the light of their historical values. The more likely conclusion seems to be at the moment that, throughout the predynastic period, characteristically Egyptian ways of portraying the natural world were slowly developed, and that it was from this 'reserve', or artistic repertoire, that the first hieroglyphs were chosen. The same would apply to symbols for gods, or shrines, or even spiritual concepts such as the ka, represented by arms stretched upwards, which are likely to have existed in Egyptian thinking long before the need to create a formal system of writing (Arnett, Plate 16). There is no reason to believe that the Egyptians took their individual hieroglyphs from any foreign source.

What then did the Egyptians adapt from Mesopotamia, when it came to creating a writing system? The simplest answer is probably the best: they took the idea of writing. There presumably came a point in the development of the Egyptian state when some agency responsible for economic and political matters decided on the need for recording its activities. This agency, given what we know about dynastic, and what we can reasonably extrapolate about predynastic, Egypt was almost certainly a royal court, or possibly the sole royal court if there was a 'Pharaoh' in Gerzean or late-Gerzean Egypt. The inscriptions surviving from the first dynasty, even when allowance is made for the one-sided archaeological record, are almost exclusively concerned with royal administration: major cult activities in which the king almost inevitably played a major part, events in palace ceremonial or in symbolic public works, such as cutting large canals, which would have been used to enhance the position of the sovereign and his entourage. The milieu, therefore, is reasonably clear, but the date and the mechanism of the creation of hieroglyphs are much harder to determine.

An obvious point for the date would be the beginning of the first dynasty. Here, according to Egyptian tradition, Menes of This in Upper Egypt conquered the Delta, unified the country, founded Memphis as his capital, and introduced many of the traits of classical Pharaonic culture; although, interestingly, he is not credited with the invention of hieroglyphs. A minimalist modern interpretation of what happened at the beginning of Egyptian history would be that there was no Menes, the search for him among the historical records is therefore meaningless, and that there was probably no unification either; all that happened was that the Egyptians invented writing and began to record their history systematically. The date for this can be obtained by a combination of astronomical data and dead reckoning from later king-lists such as the Turin canon: 3089 + x B.C., where x is the length of the obscure 'first intermediate period'. Considerable attempts have been made by historians to reduce this figure, but it is rather supported by some of the most recent Carbon-14 calibrations (see most cautiously Shaw 1984). A date of 3100 would not be far wrong, therefore, in which case there is a suitable time-lag behind the Mesopotamian introduction of writing.

The problem, however, is complicated by the known existence of Egyptian kings before Menes. The Palermo Stone, essentially a fifth-dynasty composition (although almost certainly a much later copy), clearly shows, on a separate fragment, the existence of kings wearing the crown of united Egypt well before 'Menes' and the supposed unification. Names of nine kings of Lower Egypt are also preserved, and outlandish they are, at least by later standards; this may be explicable by their Lower Egyptian origin, or more likely some form of oral tradition has been at work, but the very existence of these names must make us cautious (Sethe 1903). More disturbing are the contemporary monuments of kings, principally from the royal cemetery at Abydos but also from elsewhere, with names such as the increasingly attested Ro or Iry, the obscure Ka or Sekhen, and the better-known Scorpion (reading uncertain), who seems to be almost a prototype of Menes in his achievements (Barta 1982). The embarrassment caused by the existence of these kings is reflected in the term 'Dynasty O' which is frequently applied to them. Names of these kings appear clearly on contemporary monuments such as jars, and even the Scorpion macehead, and this leaves us in no doubt that writing existed in Egypt before the first king of Dynasty I. Our date of 3100 must therefore be raised to 3150 or even slightly earlier, and it is always possible that archaeological discovery will upset this picture even more. 'Menes', therefore, was not the inventor of hieroglyphs.

Can we talk about an invention of writing in Egypt at all? Since, as argued above, the only element necessary to set off a chain reaction within protodynastic Egypt was the knowledge that ways to do the things the Egyptians wished to do existed elsewhere, the realisation that in Sumer pictures of material objects were being used in a punning way to express ideas, or other objects which were impossible to draw explicitly, was the only catalyst required; and this was in fact the only element which was borrowed. Kaplony (1966b, 1972a) speaks blithely of an 'inventor' of Egyptian hieroglyphs who did precisely this, and while this is probably an over-simplification, there are certainly indications within the hieroglyphic system that conscious planning has been applied to the script from the very beginning of its employment. It is distinctly possible, therefore, that one mind may have formulated the basic principles. The Egyptians themselves both confirm this, and beg the question, when they ascribe the creation of writing to the god Thoth (compare the anecdote in Plato, Phaedrus, 274c-275b, where the king of Egypt is presented with the new-fangled system by the god but accepts reluctantly, fearing that his subjects would cease to rely on their memories).

SOCRATES: But there is something yet to be said of propriety and impropriety of writing.

PHAEDRUS: Yes.

SOCRATES: Do you know how you can speak or act about rhetoric in a manner which will be acceptable to God?

PHAEDRUS: No, indeed. Do you?

SOCRATES: I have heard a tradition of the ancients, whether true or not they only know; although if we had found the truth ourselves, do you think that we should care much about the opinions of men?

PHAEDRUS: Your question needs no answer; but I wish that you would tell me what you say that you have heard.

SOCRATES: At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

PHAEDRUS: Yes, Socrates, you can easily invent tales of Egypt, or of any other country.

SOCRATES: There was a tradition in the temple of Dodona that oaks first gave prophetic utterances. The men of old, unlike in their simplicity to young philosophy, deemed that if they heard the truth even from 'oak or rock,' it was enough for them; whereas you seem to consider not whether a thing is or is not true, but who the speaker is and from what country the tale comes.

PHAEDRUS: I acknowledge the justice of your rebuke; and I think that the Theban is right in his view about letters.

SOCRATES: He would be a very simple person, and quite a stranger to the oracles of Thamus or Ammon, who should leave in writing or receive in writing any art under the idea that the written word would be intelligible or certain; or who deemed that writing was at all better than knowledge and recollection of the same matters?

PHAEDRUS: That is most true.

SOCRATES: I cannot help feeling, Phaedrus, that writing is unfortunately like painting; for the creations of the painter have the attitude of life, and yet if you ask them a question they preserve a solemn silence. And the same may be said of speeches. You would imagine that they had intelligence, but if you want to know anything and put a question to one of them, the speaker always gives one unvarying answer. And when they have been once written down they are tumbled about anywhere among those who may or may not understand them, and know not to whom they should reply, to whom not: and, if they are maltreated or abused, they have no parent to protect them; and they cannot protect or defend themselves.

PHAEDRUS: That again is most true.

SOCRATES: Is there not another kind of word or speech far better than this, and having far greater power—a son of the same family, but lawfully begotten?

PHAEDRUS: Whom do you mean, and what is his origin?

SOCRATES: I mean an intelligent word graven in the soul of the learner, which can defend itself, and knows when to speak and when to be silent.

PHAEDRUS: You mean the living word of knowledge which has a soul, and of which the written word is properly no more than an image?

SOCRATES: Yes, of course that is what I mean. And now may I be allowed to ask you a question: Would a husbandman, who is a man of sense, take the seeds, which he values and which he wishes to bear fruit, and in sober seriousness plant them during the heat of summer, in some garden of Adonis, that he may rejoice when he sees them in eight days appearing in beauty? at least he would do so, if at all, only for the sake of amusement and pastime. But when he is in earnest he sows in fitting soil, and practises husbandry, and is satisfied if in eight months the seeds which he has sown arrive at perfection?

PHAEDRUS: Yes, Socrates, that will be his way when he is in earnest; he will do the other, as you say, only in play.

SOCRATES: And can we suppose that he who knows the just and good and honourable has less understanding, than the husbandman, about his own seeds?

PHAEDRUS: Certainly not.

SOCRATES: Then he will not seriously incline to 'write' his thoughts 'in water' with pen and ink, sowing words which can neither speak for themselves nor teach the truth adequately to others?

PHAEDRUS: No, that is not likely.

SOCRATES: No, that is not likely—in the garden of letters he will sow and plant, but only for the sake of recreation and amusement; he will write them down as memorials to be treasured against the forgetfulness of old age, by himself, or by any other old man who is treading the same path. He will rejoice in beholding their tender growth; and while others are refreshing their souls with banqueting and the like, this will be the pastime in which his days are spent.

PHAEDRUS: A pastime, Socrates, as noble as the other is ignoble, the pastime of a man who can be amused by serious talk, and can discourse merrily about justice and the like.

SOCRATES: True, Phaedrus. But nobler far is the serious pursuit of the dialectician, who, finding a congenial soul, by the help of science sows and plants therein words which are able to help themselves and him who planted them, and are not unfruitful, but have in them a seed which others brought up in different soils render immortal, making the possessors of it happy to the utmost extent of human happiness.

PHAEDRUS: Far nobler, certainly.

SOCRATES: And now, Phaedrus, having agreed upon the premises we may decide about the conclusion.

PHAEDRUS: About what conclusion?

SOCRATES: About Lysias, whom we censured, and his art of writing, and his discourses, and the rhetorical skill or want of skill which was shown in them—these are the questions which we sought to determine, and they brought us to this point. And I think that we are now pretty well informed about the nature of art and its opposite.

PHAEDRUS: Yes, I think with you; but I wish that you would repeat what was said.

SOCRATES: Until a man knows the truth of the several particulars of which he is writing or speaking, and is able to define them as they are, and having defined them again to divide them until they can be no longer divided, and until in like manner he is able to discern the nature of the soul, and discover the different modes of discourse which are adapted to different natures, and to arrange and dispose them in such a way that the simple form of speech may be addressed to the simpler nature, and the complex and composite to the more complex nature—until he has accomplished all this, he will be unable to handle arguments according to rules of art, as far as their nature allows them to be subjected to art, either for the purpose of teaching or persuading;—such is the view which is implied in the whole preceding argument.

PHAEDRUS: Yes, that was our view, certainly.

SOCRATES: Secondly, as to the censure which was passed on the speaking or writing of discourses, and how they might be rightly or wrongly censured—did not our previous argument show—?

PHAEDRUS: Show what?

SOCRATES: That whether Lysias or any other writer that ever was or will be, whether private man or statesman, proposes laws and so becomes the author of a political treatise, fancying that there is any great certainty and clearness in his performance, the fact of his so writing is only a disgrace to him, whatever men may say. For not to know the nature of justice and injustice, and good and evil, and not to be able to distinguish the dream from the reality, cannot in truth be otherwise than disgraceful to him, even though he have the applause of the whole world.

PHAEDRUS: Certainly.

SOCRATES: But he who thinks that in the written word there is necessarily much which is not serious, and that neither poetry nor prose, spoken or written, is of any great value, if, like the compositions of the rhapsodes, they are only recited in order to be believed, and not with any view to criticism or instruction; and who thinks that even the best of writings are but a reminiscence of what we know, and that only in principles of justice and goodness and nobility taught and communicated orally for the sake of instruction and graven in the soul, which is the true way of writing, is there clearness and perfection and seriousness, and that such principles are a man's own and his legitimate offspring;—being, in the first place, the word which he finds in his own bosom; secondly, the brethren and descendants and relations of his idea which have been duly implanted by him in the souls of others;—and who cares for them and no others—this is the right sort of man; and you and I, Phaedrus, would pray that we may become like him.

PHAEDRUS: That is most assuredly my desire and prayer.

SOCRATES: And now the play is played out; and of rhetoric enough. Go and tell Lysias that to the fountain and school of the Nymphs we went down, and were bidden by them to convey a message to him and to other composers of speeches—to Homer and other writers of poems, whether set to music or not; and to Solon and others who have composed writings in the form of political discourses which they would term laws—to all of them we are to say that if their compositions are based on knowledge of the truth, and they can defend or prove them, when they are put to the test, by spoken arguments, which leave their writings poor in comparison of them, then they are to be called, not only poets, orators, legislators, but are worthy of a higher name, befitting the serious pursuit of their life.

-- Phaedrus, by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett

When considering the question of invention, it is also worth looking at one of the distinctions frequently made between the Mesopotamian writing-system and the Egyptian. It is sometimes argued that, because of the largely mercantile character of Sumerian civilisation and the fact that writing in southern Mesopotamia seems to be linked to accounting techniques and economic purposes, writing in Sumer was primarily a form of 'book-keeping', a convenient tool. On the other hand, runs the argument, Egyptian writing was essentially a royal accomplishment, used to commemorate the achievements of the palace and the status of courtiers and the king's relatives; as such it was ceremonial, designed only to record features which were already well-enough known to the ruling elite. Hieroglyphs, on this view of things, would merely be boasting made permanent. There is really no reason, apart from a spurious neatness, for such a clear-cut distinction. Writing is writing, and once the basic principles are established -- which could take little more than a few months -- the uses to which it may be put are already complex, while the flexibility of the Egyptian writing system, and the way that it fits the language for which it was intended, is such that it could be applied immediately to any useful purpose; the difference, after all, between writing 'the royal tutor Mehy' and 'the royal tutor, two sacks of corn' is not very daunting. A similar point has also been made by Kaplony (1966b, 67 n. 36).

A compromise might be suggested here. Since the Egyptians ascribed the invention of their writing system, not to a king, but to a god, and since they consistently maintained this view later, it may be that Egyptian writing was essentially a temple creation, perhaps even, to pursue the idea, an invention by the priests of Thoth at Ashmunein (Hermopolis in middle Egypt), or one of his other cult-centres. This is tempting, since priests are likely to have had both the leisure and the training for abstract speculation, but it leads us into a difficulty. Temples, at most periods of Egyptian history, were essentially government departments, and the 'Church and State' theory of Egyptian society receives very little support from the surviving documents. Temple officials in the archaic period, and therefore probably in the century or so preceding, seem to have been essentially royal appointees, even princes or royal relatives, and the involvement of the royal court is once again seen to be almost inevitable.

Leaving aside this rather inconclusive line, it is also possible, and more promising, to see the influence of an inventor, or group of inventors, in the way in which the Egyptian writing system is applied so successfully to the Egyptian language. This language, at least in its latest phase, that of Coptic, is comparatively well known, and our knowledge of Coptic, combined with intuitive argument and comparisons with related languages, is the basis for our understanding of the earlier phases, especially Late Egyptian, the vernacular from at least 1500 B.C. and a written form of the language from slightly later. Middle Egyptian, the 'classical' form of the language, has many of the characteristics of an artificial, or at least highly literary idiom, and may never have been spoken in the form in which we have it. Our grasp of this phase is correspondingly less, but even this is markedly greater than our knowledge of archaic Egyptian, such as appears in the Pyramid Texts, the earliest connected body of writing in Egyptian, even though surviving only in copies from the fifth and sixth dynasties (see now Allen 1984). But even in this rather unsatisfactory state of affairs, we do know enough to be able to characterise the Egyptian language and try to place it in its context (see in general Kees 1973, Sethe 1935).

Ancient Egyptian is one of the language-family, widespread in North Africa and the Near East, which is traditionally known as Hamito-Semitic, but now increasingly referred to as Afro-asiatic (Hodge 1971). Within this rather diffuse collection, the best known, and the easiest to define, are the Semitic languages. These are a coherent group which range over the Near East and Ethiopia, and include modern Hebrew and Arabic as well as ancient Babylonian (Akkadian) and the almost extinct Aramaic. The relations between these languages are close, as close, mutatis mutandis, as those between the various Romance languages of Europe, and they are characterised by roots, normally composed of three radical consonants, in which the changes of meaning corresponding to our verbs, nouns or participles are normally expressed by varying the vowels according to fixed rules (there are hardly any 'irregularities' in the sense that most European languages exhibit). There are some prefixes, and a series of terminations corresponding to number, gender, and case endings (frequently obsolescent). The existence of some features common to both the Semitic and the Indo-European families of languages is worth some thought: case-endings, the existence of a dual number alongside singular and plural, certain resemblances in numerals and prepositions, aspects in the verb, and above all grammatical gender, which is absent from the remainder of the world's languages. However, if these two groups are related, it must be at a stage so far distant in time that it is now impossible to chart. The other languages of the Afro-asiatic family are confined to Africa, and are sometimes termed 'Hamitic1, although the differences between these are so much greater than is the case with the Semitic languages that the whole group is really questionable. Egyptian, however, does have some links with several Berber languages, but these are distinctly elusive. The links with the Semitic languages, on the other hand, are clear enough, and have even led some authorities to believe that Egyptian is a Semitic language, with some unusual sound-changes. This is rather far-fetched as it stands. Egyptian has a unique series of palatalised consonants on the one hand, and while it does have one tense, the Stative or misleadingly named 'Old Perfective', its verbal system is largely based on nominal roots, which Callender (1975) has interestingly seen as the various case-endings of a verbal noun with appropriate suffixes. It is a pity that no trace of case-endings survives in Egyptian from any period, since Callender's theory is extremely tempting, and rather informative. But the exact status of Egyptian within the Afro-asiatic family is almost impossible to define. An earlier theory, that Egyptian was a mixed language, rather like modern English, with the Semitic-speaking 'dynastic race' filling the role of the Normans, is grammatically extremely unlikely and historically unnecessary. It may be that Egyptian was merely one of a whole series of languages, or dialects, spoken in the areas of the Sahara and 'Arabian' deserts, which disappeared, or coalesced, with the increasing desiccation of these regions after the last pluvial phase. These may have survived as Beduin languages or dialects well into the historical period, but nothing at all is known of them. Nevertheless, their disappearance was responsible for the apparent isolation of Egyptian which is otherwise so puzzling. (Among the unidentified scripts which have been found in Egypt, one from 'Ain Amur between Kharga and Dakhla is certainly interesting (Fakhry 1940, 764 and PI. 96b. It resembles Egyptian demotic, but is not readable as such. A similar oddity appears on the Colossus of Memnon (Bernand 1960, 213 and PI. 54), but these scripts are too late to be of much help for the present purpose.)

Whatever the exact position of Egyptian as a language, the writing system which came into being with such relative speed was ideally suited to it. The characteristics of the hieroglyphic system have been well described by Sethe (1935) and, more recently, Fischer. In Sumerian, pictures were applied to other concepts, less easy to portray literally, which sounded identical, or perhaps similar (the language as preserved to us shows a remarkable number of homophones). Sumerian is not a Semitic language, and indeed has no known cognates, but Egyptian shared the triconsonantal root system of the Afro-asiatic family. One such root, for example, whose consonants are h-t-r, has been well studied by Ste Fare Garnot. Words involving these three consonants are known from later Egyptian, with meanings such as 'twin', 'tax, imposition', 'necessity' and 'horse'; this is puzzling, and the words may be put down as mere coincidences, until the underlying meaning ('yoke') is realised. Similarly another root, n-f-r, means both 'good' and 'final', which are extended meanings from the same idea, much as 'perfect' comes from Latin perfectus 'finished'. In general, there is a clear tendency for all words from a single root to be written with one pictorial sign, or ideogram, apparently chosen from the range of words available from this root. The vowels are apparently ignored for this purpose. Whether the roots were systematically recognised by the Egyptians or not is debatable, but a tendency to group such words together in the mind must have been almost inevitable. This classification in terms of roots, conscious or unconscious, is probably the real meaning of the so-called 'vowellessness' of the Egyptian script. This is completely different from the Sumerian pattern, where true puns are the basis of the signs chosen, and it seems to involve a much greater abstraction, surprising perhaps at such an early date. The absence of vowels is more striking when applied to a language where changes of vowels indicate major shifts in meaning. It is true that the later Semitic alphabets, such as Hebrew and Arabic, also omit vowels, but these alphabets are probably essentially derived - via the so-called proto-Sinaitic script - from the Egyptian writing system anyway, and the principle may have been kept because it made for a convenient semi-shorthand. One explanation sometimes put forward for the Egyptians' ignoring of vowels is particularly unconvincing: dialects may have existed which used differing vowel patterns, as in later Coptic, but it is difficult to imagine that the vowels were ignored in order to avoid confusion or embarrassment. It is simpler to believe that the very structure of the root-system in Egyptian imposed vowellessness when a picture-system was evolved; in most cases there might be only one possible object portrayable for the whole 'family' of words. Vowels were simply irrelevant, rather than ignored. It is probable that cuneiform would also have been vowelless if Semitic-speaking Mesopotamians had invented it.

In addition to triradical ideograms, there are also a fair number of biradical signs, which appear alongside the triradicals. Some so-called biliterals are probably triliterals in disguise; for example, the words, hmt 'wife' and hmt 'maidservant', which look identical in our transliteration, are written with different ideograms. The reason for this is probably not desire for clarity, as Fischer (1977, 1190) supposes, but the fact that Coptic shows that the word for 'wife', hiome, was formed from a triradical root, hym. (For the reconstruction of such forms see among others Fecht, 1960.)

This system is obviously a clear step towards writing, but it still lacks precision; how is a picture being used in any particular context? The definition is supplied by the other feature of the Egyptian script, the existence of uniconsonantal signs. This is something not found in Mesopotamian writing, and again has the hallmark of being a deliberate invention. A naive view might be to decide that uniconsonantal signs are a later stage of the script's development, derived either from worn-down biliterals or from increasing abstraction and sophistication. But uniconsonantals are present from the beginning, and are used either to 'anchor' the ideograms to specific values and meanings, or to add grammatical or other elements which by definition cannot be present in the ideograms themselves. The origin of these uniconsonantals, or 'alphabetic' signs, is far from clear. The obvious explanation is acrophony - the 'A is for apple' principle, a system which seems to lie behind the proto-Sinaitic script. This is far from convincing, however. More likely is Kaplony's explanation (1966, 1973a) that uniconsonantal signs were derived from, and on occasions could even stand for, words in which the key consonant was the most characteristic, and where the other consonants were weak (semi-vowels or the feminine ending -t, which was regarded as extraneous and which may have ceased to be pronounced at an extremely early date). Thus the hieroglyph 'high ground' (kyt, pronounced something like *kdyat) became k, that for 'cobra' (possibly \v3dyt or *wadjdyai) became dj, and so on. Unfortunately not all uniconsonantal signs can be pinned down in this way, but the idea is certainly suggestive.

The uniconsonantal signs are not merely a remarkable abstraction, but they are also convenient in the extreme. With them the complexity of a pictographic script is cut down to manageable proportions (while 2500 signs exist in the corpus, the beginner can make considerable progress if he knows 250). Since the signs are pictorial, they are much easier to memorise than Mesopotamian signs, which rapidly developed into abstract patterns. The reason why hieroglyphs did not become the standard script of the Near East, rather than the more difficult cuneiform, must be cultural rather than a question of convenience. The 'alphabetic' signs are genuinely such; the attempt by Gelb (1963) to see in them a sort of 'vowelless syllabary' runs contrary to most of what we know about their use.

Archaic hieroglyphs -- for we are now in the first two dynasties -- show almost all the characteristics of the later system (see the convenient tabulation by de Cenival 1982, 61-2); the test of this is that they can, after a certain culture-shock, be read by a student of classical Egyptian. As the system develops, determinatives (signs which are not read, but indicate the class of object to which the word belongs) are introduced more frequently, although they too are present in the system from its inception. This is equally a feature of Mesopotamian writing (although some cuneiform determinatives begin the word, all Egyptian ones end it, and act as a rudimentary form of word-divider). The system of ideograms, displaced ideograms (determinatives), and phonetic signs may sound cumbersome, but it can be mastered fairly quickly and successfully. Certainly when Egyptian is found written in an alphabetic script, as in Hellenistic and Roman texts where the Greek alphabet is applied to the language, the result, perversely enough, is extremely difficult to follow, and the advantages of the native script become clear. This in itself, rather than cliches about Oriental conservatism, helps to explain why the Egyptians never took their alphabetic scheme to what to us would seem to be the obvious conclusion - writing with an alphabet.(The difficulties which even an alphabetic script can entail are shown well by Levine (1964), who republishes an Aramaic ostracon in which every important word has been re-translated; the text then becomes an account of "a dream instead of a discussion about vegetables. This could not happen in hieroglyphs.)

The corpus of archaic inscriptions from Egypt, on cylinder seals, jar-labels, funerary monuments and sherds, has been published by Kaplony (1963 and 1966a). Cursive tendencies are already apparent in ink inscriptions on stone vases, even from the so-called 'Dynasty O'. In the tomb of Hemaka, a high functionary of the reign of king Den (c. 3000 B.C.) there was found a flattened roll of papyrus (Emery 1938, 41; Cerny 1952, 11). Unfortunately it was blank; but papyrus did not remain unused for long, and the civilisation of ancient Egypt was already set on its rare and beautiful course.

16.vii. 1985

University of Cambridge

_______________

References

Allen, J. P. 1984. The inflection of the verb in the Pyramid Texts. Malibu.
Arnett, W. S. 1982. The predynastic origin of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Washington (University Press of America).
Barta, W. 1982. Zur Namenform und zeitlichen Anordnung des Königs "Ro". Göttinger Miszellen 53: 11-13.
Bernand, A. and E. 1960. Les incriptions grecques et latines du colosse de Memnon. Cairo. Callender, J. B. 1975. Middle Egyptian. Malibu.
Cerny, J. 1952. Paper and books in Ancient Egypt. London: University College.
de Cenival, J.-L. 1982. La naissance de l'écriture. In Naissance de l'écriture, Catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais 7 mai - 9 août 1982, pp. 61-2. Paris.
Emery, W. B. 1938. The Tomb of Hemaka. Cairo.
Fakhry, A. 1940. A Roman temple between Kharga and Dakhla. Annales du Service 40: 763-8.
Fecht, G. 1960. Wortakzent und Silbenstruktur. Glückstadt, Hamburg and New York.
Fischer, H. G. 1977. Hieroglyphen. In Lexikon der Ägyptologie II, pp. 1189-99. Wiesbaden.
Frankfort, H. et al. 1946. The intellectual adventure of Ancient Man. Chicago.
Gelb, I. J. 1963. A study of writing. Revised edn. Chicago.
Hodge, C. T. 1971. Afroasiatic: a survey. The Hague and Paris.
Hoffman, M. A. 1980. Egypt before the Pharaohs. London (Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Kaplony, P. 1963. Die Inschriften der ägyptischen Frühzeit. 3 vols. Wiesbaden.
Kaplony, P. 1966a. Kleine Beiträge zu den Inschriften der ägyptischen Frühzeit. Wiesbaden.
Kaplony, P. 1966b. Strukturprobleme der Hieroglyphenschrift. Chronique d'Egypte 41: 60-99.
Kaplony, P. 1972a. Die Prinzipen der Hieroglyphenschrift. In Textes et langages de l'Egypte pharaonique I, pp. 3-4. Cairo.
Kaplony, P. 1972b. Die ältesten Texte. In op. cit. II, pp. 3-13.
Kees, H. et al. 1973. Ägyptische Schrift und Sprache. Leiden.
Levine, B. A. 1964. Notes on an Aramaic dream text from Egypt. Journal of the American Oriental Society 64: 18-22.
Petrie, W. M. F. 1912. The formation of the alphabet. London (Quaritch).
Ste Fare Garnot, J. 1959. Sur le rôle du vocalisme en ancien égyptien et en copte. Bull, de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientate du Caire 58: 39-47.
Sethe; K. 1903. Beiträge zur ältesten Geschichte Ägyptens. Leipzig.
Sethe, K. 1935. Das hieroglyphische Schriftsystem. Glückstadt and Hamburg.
Shaw, I. M. E. 1984. The Egyptian archaic period: a reappraisal of the C-14 dates (1). Göttinger Miszellen 78: 79-85.
 

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Aliah University [Mohammedan College of Calcutta] [Calcutta Mohammedan College] [Aliah Madrasha] [Calcutta Madrasha/Calcutta Madrassa] [Islamic College of Calcutta] [Madrasah-e-Aliah.]
by Wikipedia

Fort William College, Calcutta (variant College of Fort William) (1800 - 1854) was an academy of Oriental studies and a centre of learning. Founded on 10 July 1800, within the Fort William complex in Calcutta by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India. The statute of foundation was passed on 4 May 1800, to commemorate the first anniversary of the victory over Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam. Thousands of books were translated from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu into English at this institution. This college also promoted the printing and publishing of Urdu books.

Fort William College aimed at training British officials in Indian languages and, in the process, fostered the development of languages such as Bengali and Urdu. The period is of historical importance. In 1815, Ram Mohan Roy settled in Calcutta. It is considered by many historians to be the starting point of the Bengali Renaissance. Establishment of The Calcutta Madrassa in 1781, the Asiatic Society in 1784 and the Fort William College in 1800, completed the first phase of Kolkata’s emergence as an intellectual centre.

Teaching of Asian languages dominated: Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali. Later, Marathi and even Chinese were added. Each department of the college was staffed by notable scholars. The Persian department was headed by Neil B. Edmonstone, Persian translator to the East India Company's government since 1794. His assistant teacher was John H. Harington, a judge of Sadar Diwani Adalat and Francis Gladwin, a soldier diplomat. For Arabic studies, there was Lt. John Baillie, a noted Arabist. The Urdu department was entrusted to John Borthwick Gilchrist, an Indologist of great repute. Henry Thomas Colebrooke, the famous orientalist, was head of the Sanskrit department. William Carey, a non-civilian missionary and a specialist in many Indian languages, was selected to head the department of vernacular languages. While notable scholars were identified and appointed for different languages, there was no suitable person in Calcutta who could be appointed to teach Bengali. In those days, the Brahmin scholars learnt only Sanskrit, considered to be the language of the gods, and they did not study Bengali. The authorities decided to appoint Carey, who was with the Baptist Mission in Serampore. He, in turn, appointed Mrityunjoy Vidyalankar as head pandit, Ramnath Bachaspati as second pandit and Ramram Basu as one of the assistant pandits.

Along with teaching, translations were organized. The college employed more than one hundred local linguists. There were no textbooks available in Bengali. On 23 April 1789, the Calcutta Gazette published the humble request of several natives of Bengal for a Bengali grammar and dictionary.

-- Fort William College [East India College Calcutta], by Wikipedia

The Making of an Ur-Text

One can imagine how delighted Holwell must have been to find such stunning similarities between the description of India's ancient religious texts and Ilive's vision. But the doctrines that had been translated or summarized from old texts by the likes of Roger, Baldaeus, and the Catholic missionaries showed little similarity with this. All of it seemed "very defective, fallacious, and unsatisfactory" to Holwell, in fact, no more than "unconnected scraps and bits, picked up here and there by hearsay" from ignorant Hindoos rather than solid "literal translations" (Holwell1765:I.5-6). Hence the need to "rescue" this distant nation "from the gross conceptions entertained of them by the multitude" (p. 9) and "to vindicate them" by "a simple display of their primitive theology" (Holwell 1767: Dedication). Disgusted by all these misunderstandings and misrepresentations (1767.2:4), converted by Ilive's theory of delinquent angels, and possibly already fascinated by Ramsay's vision of Ur-tradition, Holwell collected materials about the Gentoo religion and "on his departure from Bengal in the year 1750 imagined himself well informed in the Gentoo religion" about which he had learned through "conversations with the Bramins of those Bhades who were near" (pp. 63-64). He had already thought of writing a book about this but did not find the time (p. 64). Given the fact that he already had such a plan, it is likely that during his stays in Europe he also collected relevant Western literature about India and its religions. If he was not already acquainted with Ramsay and Couto before, he must have studied them after his return to India in 1751 and as a result gained a rather precise idea of what he was looking for. If Holwell was trying to find the Vedas, he was not alone; but Couto's description of the first Veda, which seemed so similar to Ilive's ideas, certainly brought more motivation and focus to his search. He knew that he was looking for an extremely ancient scripture treating of God, the creation Story, angels and their fall, the immortality of souls, the purification of delinquent angels in human bodies, transmigration, the punishment of evil and reward of good, and remission and salvation.

What could happen when a wealthy foreigner was trying to locate such information in old Indian texts is exemplified by the case of Francis WILFORD (1761?-1822), a respected member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal who lived in India four decades after the sack of Calcutta rang in the British Empire. Unlike Holwell, Wilford had studied Sanskrit. He was intent on proving on the basis of Indian texts that India and Egypt had from ancient times been in close contact and that their religions came from a common source. Since that source was, of course, ultimately Noah's ark, Wilford had Indian assistants look for a precise set of topics: the deluge, the name of Noah and his sons, and so forth. Like Holwell some decades before him, Wilford had to tell a learned Indian what he was looking for "as a clue to guide him," and for several years he faithfully translated what this Indian guru gave him. But suddenly he detected that he had fallen victim to fraud:

In order to avoid the trouble of consulting books, he conceived the idea of framing legends from what he recollected from the Puranas, and from what he had picked up in conversation with me. As he was exceedingly well read in the Puranas, and other similar books ... it was an easy task for him; and he studied to introduce as much truth as he could, to obviate the danger of immediate detection .... His forgeries were of three kinds; in the first there was only a word or two altered; in the second were such legends as had undergone a more material alteration; and in the third all those which he had written from memory. (Wilford 1805:251)

The output of this Indian expert was quite astonishing, and the most famous example shows what good remuneration, a sense of what the customer is looking for, and skill in composition can achieve. The learned Indian composed a story "which in nine Sanskrit verses ... reprises the story of Noah, his three sons, and the curse of Ham" and convinced no less a man than William Jones that Noah and his three sons figured in genuine Indian Puranas (Trautmann 1997:90-91). Wilford described how his Indian teacher proceeded in this case:

It is a legend of the greatest importance, and said to be extracted from the Padma. It contains the history of NOAH and his three sons, and is written in a masterly style. But unfortunately there is not a word of it to be found in that Purana. It is, however, mentioned, though in less explicit terms, in many Puranas, and the pandit took particular care in pointing out to the several passages which confirmed, more or less, this interesting legend. Of these I took little notice, as his extract appeared more explicit and satisfactory. (Wilford 1805:254)

Since Wilford had told his pandit exactly what he was looking for, the forger produced an ingenious narrative that presented elements of the story of Noah and his sons in an Indian dress and included some surprising details such as "the legend about the intoxication of NOAH" which, as Wilford now realized, "is from what my pandit picked up in conversation with me" (p. 254). In all, this man "composed no less than 12,000 brand new Puranic slokas -- about half the length of the Ramayana! -- and inserted them into manuscripts of the Skanda and Brahmanda Purana" (Trautmann 1997:92). This was a fraud committed on a man who was far more learned than Holwell; the texts were in Sanskrit, not Hindi; and the source texts could be verified.

In Holwell's case, there is always the possibility that his description of Veda content led some knowledgeable Indian to the very texts that Azevedo had used for the description that Couto plagiarized and Roger and others then used. Caland (1918:49-50) concluded on the basis of the book titles mentioned by Couto that these texts were Saivite Agamas; but an able Indologist would need to substantiate this not just by titles but by contents. While it is possible that similar texts in Hindi were sold to Holwell, I think that the likelihood of a fraud is greater. If Holwell, ready as he was to spend almost any amount of money on this text after the 1756 loss, could not manage to recuperate more than a few fragments -- or, more likely, nothing at all -- one would think that the people who sold it to him in the first place had produced only two slightly different manuscripts and, having sold them to Holwell, were in no position to repeat that feat. If Holwell's text had been available to various people, then someone would probably have sold it to him, especially given the fact that for a while he was governor of Bengal and certainly did not lack the means to get what he wanted.

But who could have forged such a text? Since Holwell remarked that members of the tribe of writers "are often better versed in the doctrines of their Shastah than the common run of the Bramin themselves" (Holwell 1767:2.21) and that "a few others of the tribe of the Batteezaaz Bramins ... can read and expound from the Chatah Bhade [Text II], which still preserved the text of the original [Text I)" (p. 15), the culprit(s) might have come from either or both of these groups.

-- The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App

Aliah University
Motto: Advancement of Education and culture
Type: Public
Established: 1780; 243 years ago as Calcutta Mohammedan College/Aliah Madrasha/Calcutta Madrasha/Calcutta Madrassa
2007; 16 years ago as Aliah University
Academic affiliation: UGC[1]AICTE[2]INCNCTE
Budget: ₹162.6506 crore (US$20 million) (2021–22 est.)[3]
Chancellor: Governor of West Bengal
Vice-Chancellor: Abu Taher Kamruddin[4]
Academic staff: 211 (2022)[5]
Students: 6,366 (2022)[5]
Undergraduates: 3,548 (2022)[5]
Postgraduates: 2,426 (2022)[5]
Doctoral students: 392 (2022)[5]
Address: Action Area ll-A, 27, New Town, West Bengal, 700160, India
22°35′22″N 88°29′07″ECoordinates: 22°35′22″N 88°29′07″E
Campus: Urban
Website: aliah.ac.in

Aliah University (AU; Urdu: جامعہ عالیہ) is a state government controlled autonomous university in New Town, West Bengal, India. Previously known as Mohammedan College of Calcutta,[circular reference][6] it was elevated to university in 2008.[7] It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in different Engineering, Arts, Science, Management and Nursing subjects.

History

The Aliah University (AU) is one of the oldest modern-style educational institutes in Asia, and first in India. It was set up in October 1780 by Warren Hastings, the British Governor general of East India Company near Sealdah in Calcutta.[8] A number of titles were used for it, such as Islamic College of Calcutta, Calcutta Madrasah, Calcutta Mohammedan College and Madrasah-e-Aliah. Of these, Calcutta Mohammedan College was that used by Warren Hastings.[8]

The original building was completed in 1782 at Bow Bazaar (near Sealdah). The college moved to its campus on Wellesley Square in the 1820s. Initially it taught natural philosophy, Arabic, Persian, theology and Islamic Law, astronomy, Grammar, logic, arithmetic, geometry, rhetoric and oratory.[9] The Calcutta Madrasa [Calcutta Madrassa] followed different models for different subjects, like Dars-i Nizami of Firingi Mahal for Persian and Arabic, and the old Peripatetic School Model for the Logic and Philosophy.[10]

The first head preceptor of the college was Mulla Majduddin, a well-known personality and erudite in the Islamic learning of that time in Bengal.

Majd ad-Dīn al-Madanī (Arabic: مجد الدین المدنی; d. 1813), also known as Madan Shāhjahānpūrī (Arabic: مدن شاہجہانپوری), was an 18th-century Indian Muslim theologian. He served as the first principal of the Calcutta Madrasa, the first Alia Madrasa of Bengal.

Early life and education

Majduddin was born in the 18th-century to Tahir al-Husayni in Shahjahanpur, greater Bareilly, North India. He studied under Shaykh Wahhaj ad-Din in Gopamau, Hardoi, who was also the teacher of Muhammad Salih Bengali. It is also said that Majduddin was a student of Qazi Mubarak, as well as being a senior student of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, the erstwhile Imam al-Hind. In addition to Islamic jurisprudence, Majduddin was trained in rhetoric and logic.

Career

In the last quarter of the 18th century, British administrators realised that it was essential to learn the various religious, social, and legal customs and precedents of the subcontinent in order to better manage its administration. As part of this initiative, Warren Hastings, the inaugural Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William, founded the Calcutta Mohammedan College in October 1780. Mullah Majduddin visited Calcutta in September, where he had a large following. On 21 September, several Muslims requested Hastings to use his influence to employ Majduddin as a teacher at the madrasa. Thus, Majduddin became the madrasa's first Head Preceptor, serving that role for roughly a decade. He is often credited for introducing the Dars-i Nizami, a popular Islamic curriculum of North India, to Bengal and neighbouring lands, although students of Nizamuddin Sihalivi had reached Bengal, such as Abdul Ali Bahrul Ulum (teacher of Ghulam Mustafa Burdwani). He formulated the syllabus of the madrasa. Alongside fundamental Islamic teachings and jurisprudence, he also included the teaching of mathematics, logic and philosophy. The activities of the Madrasa-i-Alia were undertaken in his own home for the first seven months. During this time, he received a monthly wage of 300 takas as the madrasa's principal.

In 1791, Majduddin was removed following an investigation conspired by the British Collector of 24 Parganas accusing him of alleged mismanagement. Following his dismissal from Calcutta, Majduddin found employment as the Qadi of Lucknow, under the Nawab of Awadh Saadat Ali Khan II. However, under political circumstances, he left this career and returned to Bareilly, where he began teaching Islamic jurisprudence at the Dargah of Hafizul Mulk. One of his notable students of Bareilly was Salamat Ullah Kashfi. Majduddin died in 1813.

-- Majduddin [Majd ad-Dīn al-Madanī] [Madan Shāhjahānpūrī], by Wikipedia

In 1791, he was replaced by Muhammad Ismail because of allegations of mismanagement. Captain Ayron, a British army officer, was appointed in 1819 as the first secretary by the East India Company, to take control of the administration of the Madrasa, and he was in that position until 1842. Ayron made several reforms: the first annual examination of the madrasah was held on 15 August 1827, and the first medical class of India was instituted in 1826 under Peter Breton, the professor of medicine. After 10 years of medical classes, the administration of the Madrasa decided to establish the separate Calcutta Medical College in 1836. The Madrasah students could still study medical subjects at the Calcutta Medical College. Introduction of elementary English courses was also started in college in 1826 under his administration but this English course was not to get huge success. Nawab Abdul Latif and Waheedunnabi were the first English scholars from this college. Dr. Aloys Sprenger was appointed as a Principal for the first time in 1850 to resist the college from a current of continuing deterioration. In 1854, another reform attempt consisting of opening the Anglo-Persian department to make English as an official language under the direct control of Calcutta Madrasah College. The college failed to create enthusiasm. FA level college classes added to the Calcutta Madrasa in 1863, this reform also failed. After the Dr. Aloys Sprenger, few other European Principals was appointed and AH Harley [1910-11] was the last European Principals of this Madrasa. One by one failure of the reforms of Madras and after 1857, the year of the Sepoy Mutiny, the British Government started to see the Muslim community of the Bengal as constant suspicion. Lord Macaulay was a British Whig politician and historian, who advised the British Government to introduce English education to produce to Anglicized Indians. The main aim of this was to extend the British influence into vast areas of India. Then British Government was decided to establish the Calcutta University in 1857.[8] After the establishment of the Calcutta University created a precarious position for the Calcutta Madrasah. There were a number of proposals for closure to Calcutta university to British Authority in India, but the Authority allowed it to continue to function with only a traditional Madrasah teaching Arabic and Sharia Laws. Thus from the year 1857, the Calcutta Madrasa grew up as a separate stream in the education system of the Indian subcontinent. Shamsul Ulema Kamaluddin Ahmed was appointed as the first Indian principal of the Calcutta Madrasah College in 1927. In this same year, the first madrasah education board was established (called Board of Central Madrasah Examinations) for the conducting various examinations the Alim, Fazil, Kamil and Mumtazul Muhaddesin. The year of 1947 in which portion of India took place was very painful in the history of the Calcutta Madras in Bengal. All moveable properties like large numbers manuscripts and books were transferred to East Bengal (Now Bangladesh) at Dhaka madrasah and other things became topsy-turvy. Later in 1949 with help of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Calcutta Madrasah was reopened. Now the Calcutta Madrasah was elevated to the university as the Aliah University under West Bengal state government controlled minority autonomous university in 2008. The newly set up buildings of Aliah University are located in Taltala, Park Circus and New Town in Kolkata. The New Town campus is used for Science, technology students and the main office while the Park circus campus and Taltala campus Nursing and Arts students, and the Islamic Theology students. Now this university offers undergraduate, postgraduate and Doctorates programs in different Arts, Science, Management, Engineering, Nursing and Islamic theology subjects.

Campus

Aliah University has three campuses for different types of curriculum located at New Town,[11] Park Circus and Taltala.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal laid the foundation stone of 'Aliah University Campus' at New Town on 15 December 2011.[12] Later on 11 November 2014 Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the finished campus. New Town campus contains 156 class rooms with a capacity of 12,000 students and houses Science and Technology students only. The campus also has separate boy's and girl's hostel. New Town campus also has three annexure buildings dedicated to various laboratories and a central library.

The Park circus campus is used to house Arts & Nursing students, while the Taltala campus houses the Islamic Theology students and the main office.

Academics

Admission

Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Aliah University is granted through written entrance examinations and for B.Tech. programs through WBJEE. Admission to M.S. and PhD programmes is based on a written test and a personal interview.

Admission to undergraduate programmes is based on merit rank of the "Aliah University Admission Test" (AUAT), which consists of a written examination of "Multiple Choice Type Questions" (MCQ), clearing of which leads to an interview and final selection of the candidate. Candidates who qualify for admission through AUAT can apply for admission to LLM. ( Masters of Law ), B.Tech. (Bachelor of Technology), Integrated MBA (Master of Business Administration), MCA (Master of Computer Applications), M.Sc. (Master of Science) and M.A (Master of Arts) courses in different Engineering, Business, Science and Arts subjects.[13] Aliah University has also M.Tech. (Master of Technology) program.

Accreditation

The University Grants Commission (U.G.C.) accorded recognition to the university in terms of Section 12B of the U.G.C. Act, in 2019.[14]

University library

Aliah University has three libraries in its three different campuses. All of them, the library of New Town Campus has a central library including 1.33 lac books.

Aliah University has a library rich in collection of literature in Islamic Theology, Islamic Jurisprudence & Law, and Arabic.

The library is now diversifying in the areas of Science, Engineering, Management Science, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Controversy and criticism

In 2016, a series of protests by the students of the university took place on the main campus (New Town) against the disordering principle of the then vice chancellor, Prof. Dr. Abu Taleb Khan; because students were experiencing lack of books in library, lack of faculty, bad condition of lab etc. from the beginning of the university. The protest began on 8 November 2016. On 18 November 2016, students insulted their VC Prof. Abu Taleb Khan giving a black rose to him. They blockaded the main gates of the university and the students made a loud slogan. With the help of police and security guards of the university, the VC entered in his office.[15][16]

Students were requested by the EC members, Fact Finding Committee and also the Minority and Madrasah Education Minister Giasuddin Molla to stop the protest and class boycotts. But students said they will continue to boycott classes until the vice chancellor resigns.[17]

Notable people

Alumni

• Ismail Alam, teacher, poet and activist of the Khilafat Movement
• Syed Ameer Ali, jurist
• Shamsul Haque Faridpuri, educationist, and social reformer
• Syed Ahmad Hashmi, General Secretary of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind
• Mohammad Akram Khan, Bengali journalist
• Nawab Abdul Latif, educator and social worker in Bengal
• Sayeed Mohammed, Freedom Fighters and philanthropist
• Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, writer and intellectual in 19th century Bengal
• Shawkat Osman, novelist and short story writer
• Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda, organic chemist, educationist and writer
• Azangachhi Shaheb, Indian Sufi Saint
• Nawsad Siddique, member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
• Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Prime Minister of Bengal and a lawyer
• Ibrahim Suhrawardy, Indian educationist, author and linguist
• Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy, educationist and writer

Faculty

• Abu Nasr Waheed, Islamic scholar[18]

See also

• List of oldest universities in continuous operation
• University of Calcutta
• Colleges and institutes in India
• List of universities in India
• University Grants Commission (India)
• Education in India
• Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)

References

1. "UGC Section 22 of UGC Act" (PDF). University Grants Commission (India). 23 October 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
2. "AICTE Extension of Approval for the Academic Year 2020-21" (PDF). AICTE. 9 June 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
3. "Detailed Demands For Grants For 2021-22" (PDF). 5 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
4. "Aliah University". UGC Official Website. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
5. "NIRF 2022" (PDF). Aliah University.
6. "Puronokolkata". 7 January 2014.
7. "University Grants Commination".
8. "The Madrasah University".
9. "A historic institution falls on bad days".
10. Khan, B.R. (2012). "Calcutta Madrasa, The". In Islam, Sirajul; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-32-0576-6. OCLC 52727562. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
11. "Grand Inauguration of Aliah University". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
12. "CM lays foundation of Aliah varsity campus at Rajarhat". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
13. "Aliah University, India". Study Abroad Universities. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
14. "Proposal for 12-B Status" (PDF). University Grants Commission (India). 19 February 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
15. "একাধিক দাবিতে 'কালা দিবস' পালন আলিয়া বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে". TDN Bangla. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
16. "এবার দাবি আদায়ে 'নফল রোজা' করতে চলেছে আলিয়া বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের ছাত্রছাত্রীরা". TDN Bangla. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
17. "উপাচার্যের পদত্যাগের দাবিতে বিক্ষোভে বেসামাল আলিয়া". ইনকিলাব. Archived from the original on 16 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
18. "Shamsul 'Ulema, Abu Nasar Waheed". Banglapedia.

External links

• Official website

[admin]

Rajabali (1808)
Excerpt from "The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories"
by Partha Chatterjee
Edited by Sherry B. Ortner, Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

A PURANIC HISTORY

The first three books of narrative prose in Bengali commissioned by the Fort William College in Calcutta for use by young Company officials learning the local vernacular were books of history. Of these, Rajabali (1808) by Mrityunjay Vidyalankar was a history of India—the first history of India in the Bengali language that we have in print.7 Mrityunjay (ca. 1762-1819) taught Sanskrit at Fort William College and was the author of some of the first printed books in Bengali. When he decided to set down in writing the story of "the Rajas and Badshahs and Nawabs who have occupied the throne in Delhi and Bengal," he did not need to undertake any fresh "research" into the subject; he was only writing down an account that was in circulation at the time among the Brahman literati and their landowning patrons.8 His book was; we might say, a good example of the historical memory of elite Bengali society as exemplified in contemporary scholarship.

The book starts with a precise reckoning of the time at which it is being written.

In course of the circular motion of time, like the hands of a clock, passing through the thirty kalpa such as Pitrkalpa etc., we are now situated in the Svetavaraha kalpa. Each kalpa consists of fourteen manu; accordingly, we are now in the seventh manu of Svetavaraha kalpa called Valvasvata. Each manu consists of 284 yuga; we are now passing through the one hundred and twelfth yuga of Vaivasvata manu called Kaliyuga. This yuga consists of 432,000 years. Of these, up to the present year 1726 of the Saka era, 4,905 years have passed; 427,095 years are left. (R, pp. 3-4)

The calendrical system is also precisely noted. For the first 3,044 years of Kaliyuga, the prevailing era (saka) was that of King Yudhisthira. The next 135 years comprised the era of King Vikramaditya. These two eras are now past.

Now we are passing through the era of the King called Salivahana who lived on the southern banks of the river Narmada. This saka will last for 18,000 years after the end of the Vikramaditya era. After this there will be a king called Vijayabhinandana who will rule in the region of the Citrakuta mountains. His saka will last for 10,000 years after the end of the Salivahana era.

After this there will be a king called Parinagarjuna whose era will last until 821 years are left in the Kaliyuga, at which time will be born in the family of Gautabrahmana in the Sambhala country an avatara of Kalkideva. Accordingly, of the six eras named after six kings, two are past, one is present and three are in the future. (R, p. 8)

Whatever one might say of this system of chronology, lack of certitude is not one of its faults.

Mrityunjay is equally certain about identifying the geographical space where the historical events in his narrative take place.

Of the five elements—space [akasa], air, fire, water and earth—the earth occupies eight ana [half] while the other four occupy two ana [one-eighth] each.... Half of the earth is taken up by the seas, north of which is Jambudvipa.... There are seven islands on earth of which ours is called Jambudvipa. Jambudvipa is divided into nine varsa of which Bharatavarsa is one. Bharatavarsa in turn is divided into nine parts [khaifda] which are called Aindra, Kaseru, Tamraparna, Gavastimata, Naga, Saumya, Varuna, Gandharva and Kumarika. Of these, the part in which the varnasrama [caste] system exists is the Kumarikakhanda. The other parts [of Bharatavarsa] are inhabited by the antyaja people [those outside caste]. (R, pp. 4-6)

Thus Rajabali is the history of those who ruled over the earth, in which there are seven islands, of which the one called Jambudvipa has nine parts, of which Bharatavarsa is one, and so forth, and so on.

Where does this history begin?

In the Satyayuga, the Supreme Lord [paramesvara] had planted in the form of an Asvathva tree a king called Iksaku to rule over the earth. The two main branches of this tree became the Surya and the Candra vanisa. The kings born in these two lineages have ruled the earth in the four yuga. Of these, some were able to acquire the greatest powers of dharma and thus ruled over the entire earth consisting of the seven islands. Others had lesser powers and thus ruled over only Jambudvipa or only Bharatavarsa or, in some cases, only the Kumarikakhanda. If a king from one lineage became the emperor [samrata], then the king of the other lineage would become the lord of a mandala. The accounts of these kings are recorded in the branches of knowledge [sastra] called the Purana and the Itihasa. (R, pp. 6-7)

A few things may be clarified at this point. In Mrityunjay's scheme of history, the rulers on earth are, as it were, appointed by divine will. They enjoy that position to the extent, and as long as, they acquire and retain the powers of dharma. By attaining the highest levels of dharma, one could even become the ruler of the entire earth. In order to distinguish this variety of history writing from that we are more familiar with today, Mrityunjay's narrative can be called a Puranic history. Mrityunjay would not have quarreled with this description, not because he was aware of the distinction, but because puranatihasa was for him the valid form of retelling the political history of Bharatavarsa.

The discipline of Puranic history cannot be accused of being sloppy in its counting of dynasties and kings. "In the 4,267 years since the beginning of the Kaliyuga, there have been 119 Hindus of different jati who have become samrat on the throne of Delhi" (R, p. 10). The count begins with King Yudhisthira of the Mababharata, who heads a list of twenty-eight Ksatriya kings who ruled for a total of 1,812 years. "After this the actual reign of the Ksatriya jati ended." Then came fourteen kings of the Nanda dynasty, starting with "one called Mahananda born of a Ksatriya father and a Sudra mother," who ruled for a total of 500 years. "The Rajput jati started with this Nanda."

After this came the Buddhist kings: "Fifteen kings of the Nastika faith, from Viravahu to Aditya, all of the Gautama lineage, ruled for four hundred years. At this time the Nastika views enjoyed such currency that the Vaidika religion was almost eradicated."

We then have a curious list of dynasties—nine rulers of the Maytira dynasty, sixteen of the Yogi dynasty, four of the Bairagi dynasty, and so on. Of course, there are "the Vikramadityas, father and son, who ruled for ninety-three years." We are also told of "thirteen kings, from Dhi Sena to Damodara Sena, of the Vaidya jati of Bengal who ruled for 137 years and one month"—from, let us remember, "the throne in Delhi"! The rule of the "Chohan Rajput jati" ends with

Prthoray who ruled for fourteen years and seven months. . . . This is as far as the empire [samrajya] of the Hindu kings lasted.

After this began the samrajya of the Musalman. From the beginning of the empire of the Yavanas to the present year 1726 of the Saka era, fifty-one kings have ruled for 651 years three months and twenty-eight days. (R, pp. 12-13)

What is interesting about this chronology is the way in which its dynastic sequence passes ever so smoothly from the kings of the Mahabharata to the kings of Magadha and ends with the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, "of the lineage of Amir Taimur," occupying the throne in Delhi at the time of Mrityunjay's writing. Myth, history, and the contemporary—all become part of the same chronological sequence; one is not distinguished from another; the passage from one to another, consequently, is entirely unproblematical.9 There is not even an inkling in Mrityunjay's prose of any of the knotty questions about the value of Puranic accounts in constructing a "proper" historical chronology of Indian dynasties, which would so exercise Indian historians a few decades later. Although Mrityunjay wrote at the behest of his colonial masters, his historiographic allegiances are entirely precolonial.

It would therefore be of some interest to us to discover how a Brahman scholar such as Mrityunjay describes the end of "the Hindu dynasties" and the accession to the throne at Delhi of "the Yavana emperors." Curiously, the story of the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan at the hands of Shihabuddin Muhammad Ghuri takes the form of a Puranic tale.

Prithviraj's father had two wives, one of whom was a demoness (raksasi) who ate human flesh. She had also introduced her husband into this evil practice. One day the raksasi ate the son of the other queen who, taken by fright, ran away to her brother. There she gave birth to a son who was called Prthu. On growing up, Prthu met his father. At his request, Prthu cut off his father's head and fed the flesh to twenty-one women belonging to his jati. Later, when Prthu became king, the sons of those twenty-one women became his feudatories (samanta). "Because Prthu had killed his father, the story of his infamy spread far and wide. Kings who paid tribute to him stopped doing so." In other words, Prithviraj was not a ruler who enjoyed much respect among his subjects.

It was at this time that Shihabuddin Ghuri threatened to attack Prithviraj.

When the King heard of the threatening moves of the Yavanas, he called a number of scholars learned in the Vedas and said, "Oh learned men! Arrange a sacrifice which will dissipate the prowess and the threats of the Yavanas." The learned men said, "Oh King! There is such a sacrifice and we can perform it. And if the sacrificial block [yupa] can be laid at the prescribed moment, then the Yavanas can never enter this land." The King was greatly reassured by these words and arranged for the sacrifice to be performed with much pomp. When the learned men declared that the time had come to lay the block, much efforts were made but no one could move the sacrificial block to its assigned place. Then the learned men said, "Oh King!- What Isvara desires, happens. Men cannot override his wishes, but can only act in accordance with them. So, desist in your efforts. It seems this throne will be attacked by the Yavanas."

Hearing these words, Prithviraj was greatly disheartened and "slackened his efforts at war." His armies were defeated by Shihabuddin, who arrived triumphantly at Delhi. Then Prithviraj

emerged from his quarters and engaged Sahabuddin in a ferocious battle. But by the grace of Isvara, the Yavana Sahabuddin made a prisoner of Prthuraja. On being reminded that Prthuraja was son-in-law of King Jayacandra [Jaichand, ruler of a neighboring kingdom, had already collaborated with Muhammad Ghuri], he did not execute him but sent him as a prisoner to his own country of Ghaznin. (R, pp. 109-10)

Let us remember that in Mrityunjay's scheme of history, dynasties are founded by the grace of the divine power, and kingdoms are retained only as long as the ruler is true to dharma. The Chauhan dynasty was guilty of such heinous offenses as cannibalism and patricide. That Prithviraj had lost divine favor was already revealed at the sacrificial ceremony. His defeat and the establishment of "Yavana rule" by Muhammad Ghuri were, therefore, acts of divine will.

Half a century later, when Puranic history would be abandoned in favor of rational historiography, this account of the battle of Thanesar would undergo a complete transformation. English-educated Brahman scholars would not accept with such equanimity the dictates of a divine will.

Mrityunjay has a few more things to say about the reasons for the downfall of the Chauhan dynasty. These remarks are prefaced by the following statement: "I will now write what the Yavanas say about the capture of the throne of Delhi by the Yavana Sahabuddin" (R, pp. 112-13). Mrityunjay then goes back to the earlier raids into various Indian kingdoms by Nasruddin Sabuktagin, father of Mahmud Ghaznavi.

When Nasruddin came to Hindustan, there was no harmony among the kings of Hindustan. Each thought of himself as the emperor [badsah]; none owed fealty to anyone else and none was strong enough to subjugate the others. On discovering this, the Yavanas entered Hindustan. The main reason for the fall of kingdoms and the success of the enemy is mutual disunity and the tendency of each to regard itself as supreme. When Sekandar Shah [Alexander] had become emperor in the land of the Yavanas, he had once come to Hindustan, but seeing the religiosity and learning of the Brahmans, he had declared that a land whose kings had such advisers [hakim] could never be conquered by others. Saying this, he had returned to his country and had never come back to Hindustan. Now there were no more such Brahmans and, bereft of their advice, the kings of this country lost divine grace and were all defeated by the Yavanas. (R, pp. 121-22)

Mrityunjay's accounts of the Sultanate and the Mughal periods were very likely based on the Persian histories in circulation among the literati in late eighteenth-century Bengal. It is possible that some of these texts contained comments on the disunity among Indian kings and perhaps even the statement attributed to Alexander. But the argument that it was because of the failings of the Brahmans that the kings strayed from the path of dharma and thus lost the blessings of god was undoubtedly one formulated by Mrityunjay the Brahman scholar. It was the duty of the Brahmans to guide the king along the path of dharma. They had failed in that duty and had brought about the divine wrath which ended the rule of the Hindu kings and established the rule of the Yavanas. Later, as the role of divine intervention in history becomes less credible, this story of the fall acquires in the modern writings the form of a general decay of society and polity.

But this is anticipating. Note, for purposes of comparison, Mrityunjay's account of the destruction by Mahmud Ghaznavi of the temple at Somnath. The main details of the story are the same as those which would appear in later histories, for they all come from Persian sources such as the Tarikh-i-Firishta. But Mrityunjay mentions one "fact" about the idol at Somnath that is never to be mentioned again. "There was a very large sacred idol called Somnath which was once in Mecca. Four thousand years after the time when the Yavanas say the human race was born, this idol was brought by a king of Hindustan from Mecca to its present place" (R, p. 129). Mrityunjay's source for this information is uncertain, but it is never to be mentioned again by any Bengali historian.

Two Mughal emperors are subjects of much controversy in nationalist historiography, and Mrityunjay has written about them both. On Akbar, Mrityunjay is effusive. "Since Sri Vikramaditya, there has never been in Hindustan an emperor with merits equal to those of Akbar Shah" (R, p. 195). Apart from having a deep sense of righteousness and performing all his duties in protecting his subjects, Akbar also had, according to Mrityunjay, an additional merit:

Because of his knowledge of many sastra, his spiritual views were skeptical of the doctrines of Muhammad and were closer to those of the Hindus. The kings of Iran and Turan often complained about this. ... He did not eat beef and forbid the slaughter of cows within his fort. To this day, cow-slaughter is prohibited in his fort. (R, pp. 191, 194)

On Aurangzeb, on the other hand, Mrityunjay has this to say:

He became very active in spreading the Muhammad faith. And he destroyed many great temples. Many ceremonies of the Hindus such as the worship of the sun and of Ganesa had been performed in the fort of the Badshah since the time of Akbar; [Aurangzeb] discontinued these practices and issued new rules invented by himself.

He then adds:

Although he destroyed many great temples, he was favored by the divine powers at Jvalamukhi and Lachmanbala and made sizable grants of land for the maintenance of those temples. He later lived at Aurangabad for twelve years and, on being cursed by a Brahman, died uttering horrible cries of pain. (R, p. 221)

Where kings acquire kingdoms and hold power by divine grace, the business of arriving at a verdict on the character of rulers has to be negotiated between kings and gods. The only role that the ordinary praja (subject) has in all this is in bearing the consequences of the actions of these superior entities. Of course, the praja knows the difference between a good king and a bad one, which is why he praises a ruler such as Akbar. And when Aurangzeb dies "uttering horrible cries of pain," perhaps the praja shudders a little at the ferocity of divine retribution, but is reassured in the end by the victory of dharma. In all this, however, the praja never implicates himself in the business of ruling; he never puts himself in the place of the ruler. In recalling the history of kingdoms, he does not look for a history of himself.

If it was ever suggested to Mrityunjay that in the story of the deeds and fortunes of the kings of Delhi might lie the history of a nation, it is doubtful that he would have understood. His own position in relation to his narrative is fixed—it is the position of the praja, the ordinary subject, who is most often only the sufferer and sometimes the beneficiary of acts of government. It is from that position that he tells the story of Prithviraj's misdeeds or of Akbar's righteousness. But the thought would never have occurred to him that because of the associations of "nationality," he, Mrityunjay Vidyalankar, a Brahman scholar in the employment of the East India Company in Calcutta in the early nineteenth century, might in some way become responsible for the acts of Prithviraj or Akbar. Rajabali is not a national history because its protagonists are gods and kings, not peoples. The bonds of "nation-ness" have not yet been imagined that would justify the identification of the historian with the consciousness of a solidarity that is supposed to act itself out in history.

THE PRESENT AS PURANIC HISTORY

It is in his telling of the recent history of Bengal that Mrityunjay's position becomes the clearest. Mrityunjay was born only a few years after the battle of Plassey. The history of those times must have been fresh in popular memory in the years of his boyhood and youth. His condemnation of the misrule of Siraj-ud-daulah is severe: "The violations of dharma multiplied when [the Nawab] abducted the wives, daughters-in-law and daughters of prominent people, or amused himself by cutting open the stomachs of pregnant women or by overturning boats full of passengers" (R, pp. 268-69).

When Siraj "attempted to destroy the clan" of Raja Rajballabh, the Raja sought the protection of the English in Calcutta. The English refused to hand him over to the nawab.

"Then Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah sowed the seeds of his own destruction by plundering the kuthi of the Company Bahadur and the town of Calcutta" {R, p. 270). The English were forced temporarily to leave Calcutta. After some time,

[the sahibs] returned to Calcutta and, accepting without a question the estimates of damages suffered in the raid by traders, shopkeepers and residents, compensated all of them. Then, after consulting through Khwaja Petrus the Armenian with leading men such as Maharaj Durlabhram, Bakshi Jafarali Khan, Jagat Seth Mahatabray and his brother Maharaj Swarupchandra, and collecting money and some soldiers, [the English], intending to defend their protege and holding aloft the flag of dharma, marched to battle at Palasi. (R, p. 271)

What happened in the battle is common knowledge. Siraj tried to flee, but was captured.

Then Miran Sahib, son of Jafarali Khan, without informing Maharaj Durlabhram or anyone else and ignoring the pleas of mercy from a terrified Siraj-ud-daulah, carved up the body of the Nawab with his own hands, and putting the dismembered body on top of an elephant, displayed it around the town. Thus, by the will of god, was demonstrated the consequences of such misdeeds as . . . the treacherous murder of Nawab Sarfraz Khan and the secret executions of Alibhaskar and other Maharashtrian sardars and the raping of women by Siraj-ud-daulah. (R, p. 276)

Thus, Miran acted in accordance with the divine will and Siraj faced the consequences of his misdeeds. But what happened to Miran in the end? "Thereafter, Nawab Miran was once coming from Azimabad to Murshi-dabad when at Rajmahal, as a consequence of his having betrayed Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah, he was struck by lightning. Even after his death, lightning struck twice on Nawab Miran's grave." And Mir Jafar? "Nawab Jafarali Khan, on resuming his subahdari for two years, died of leprosy after much suffering" (R, pp. 281, 289).

It is the force of divine will that acts in history, and in the end it is dharma that is vindicated. This belief frames Mrityunjay's description of the most recent events in the history of Bengal. At the conclusion of his story, he locates himself unhesitatingly as someone seeking the protection of the Company—the same Company that, flying the flag of dharma, had gone to battle with the promise to defend those under its protection.

When, because of the evil deeds of certain emperors and kings and nawabs, from Visarad of the Nanda dynasty to Shah Alam and from Nawab Munaim Khan to Nawab Kasemali Khan, this land of Hindustan was facing utter destruction, the Supreme Lord willed that the rule of the Company Bahadur be established. Thus ends this book called Rajataranga composed in the Gaudiya language by Sri Mrtyunjay Sarma, pandit in the school established by the bada saheb [governor-general] who is like the flower and the fruit of the tree which is the Company Bahadur. (R, pp. 294-95)

Let us remember, the Company rules by divine will in order to protect its subjects. It remains a constant implication that if that object is not fulfilled and if the subjects are oppressed, then, by divine intervention, the kingdom would pass to someone else and the truth of dharma would be vindicated once again.

MORE MYTHIC HISTORY

This was the form of historical memory before the modern European modes were implanted in the mind of the educated Bengali. In Mrityunjay, the specific form of this memory was one that was prevalent among the Brahman literati in eighteenth-century Bengal. What, then, was the form followed by Bengali Muslim writers? The court chronicles of the Afghan or the Mughal nobility are not of concern here because these were never written in Bengali. The examples of dynastic history written by Bengali Muslim writers show that notions of divine intervention, punishment for misdeeds, and the victory of righteousness are as prominent in them as they were in Mrityunjay. The following text is from 1875, a much later date than those of the Fort William College histories. But it is so prominently marked by the features of the puthi literature of the village poets of eastern Bengal and so completely devoid of the influence of modern historical education that we should have no difficulty in assuming that this poet from Barisal was in fact following a form that had been conventional for some time.10 The dynastic history begins thus:

How the name of Delhi became Hindustan
Can be learnt from its kings, from beginning to end.

However, Hindu writers cannot tell the full story.

The Hindus believe in the four yuga;
They cannot grasp the full significance.
Satya, Treta, Dvapar and Kali: these are the four yuga
In which the Hindus ruled with pleasure.

That, presumably, is the story that Hindu writers are best qualified to tell. This poet then gives his list of fifty-nine Muslim kings of Delhi ending with "Shah Alam Bahadur," the last Mughal emperor. It is only a list, composed in verse, with no descriptions of events and no comments on the rulers. Then comes a miraculous event.

Suddenly by a miracle [daiva], the English came to this land
And defeated the Nawab in battle.
The English occupied most of the kingdom:
Since then there is the rule of Maharani Victoria.
Putting to death Kumar Singh, the Company
Abolished all ijara and made the land khas of the Maharani.

It is curious that the only event of the Revolt of 1857 that is mentioned is the suppression of Kunwar Singh's rebellion. Then there is a panegyric to Queen Victoria and a list of the marvels of modern technology.

The people are governed with full justice.
In her reign, the praja have no complaints.
Cowries have been abolished; now
People buy what they need with coins.
People exchange news through the mail.
The towns are now lit with gaslights.
The steamer has vanquished the pinnace and the sailboat.
The railway has reduced a week's journey to hours.
In Calcutta they can find out what's happening in England
In a matter of moments—with the help of the wire.
If in court an injustice is done,
Then it is corrected in another court.

But even such a well-ruled kingdom as the Maharani's cannot last forever.

The praja is fortunate that the Maharani rules now.
What happens after this, I do not know.

In particular, if the British occupy Turkey, then all hell will break loose.

If the Queen comes to rule over Rum [Turkey],
Then only Mecca and Medina will be left.
There will be despair and anarchy in the land,
And all will lose jdt and become one jat.

And then, after a series of cataclysmic events, the day of judgment will arrive.

The Prophet Isa [Jesus] will come down from the sky,
And again the Musalmani faith will appear.
From the east to the west, and from north to south,
The world will be shattered by a terrible storm.
This is how it has been written in the Ayat Kudria
And explained clearly in the Hadis.
When the sun rises in the west,
All the doors of tauba will be closed thereafter.
The sun will rise only a few cubits
And will set soon after, and the night will be long.
Each night will stretch for six or seven nights,
And the people will rise only to sleep again. . . .
From the year 1300 Hijri,
And before 1400 is past, let it be known,
Those who are still alive
Will see many unnatural things in this world.

We might compare this with Mrityunjay's prediction: "After this there will be a king called Parinagarjuna whose era will last until 821 years are left in the Kaliyuga, at which time there will be born in the family of Gautabrahmana in the Sambhala country an avatara of Kalkideva" [R, p. 8). There does not seem to be much difference in the mode of historical thinking.

HISTORY AS THE PLAY OF POWER

This framework changed radically as the Bengali literati was schooled in the new colonial education. Now Indians were taught the principles of European history, statecraft, and social philosophy. They were also taught the history of India as it came to be written from the standpoint of modern European scholarship. The Orientalists had, from the last years of the eighteenth century, begun to "recover" and reconstruct for modern historical consciousness the materials for an understanding of Indian history and society. The English-educated class in Bengal, from its birth in the early decades of the nineteenth century, became deeply interested in this new discipline of Indology.

But, curiously enough, the new Indian literati, while it enthusiastically embraced the modern rational principles of European historiography, did not accept the history of India as it was written by British historians. The political loyalty of the early generation of English-educated Bengalis toward the East India Company was unquestioned, and in 1857, when most of northern India was in revolt, they were especially demonstrative in their protestations of loyalty. And yet, by the next decade, they were engaged in open contestation with the colonialist interpretation of Indian history. By the 1870s, the principal elements were already in place for the writing of a nationalist history of India. It is interesting to trace the genealogy of this new history of "the nation."

In 1857-58, with the inauguration of the University of Calcutta, a set of translations was produced in Bengali, for use in schools, of histories of India and of Bengal written by British historians. By then, fifty years had passed after the publication of Rajabali, written in Bengali for the instruction of English officers in the history of India. The new translations were meant for the instruction of Bengali students in the history of their country as written by the colonizer.

One volume of J. C. Marshman's History of Bengal was translated by Iswarchandra Vidyasagar (1820-91)." The other volume was translated at Vidyasagar's request by Ramgati Nyayaratna (1831-94).11 The latter contains sentences like "Sultan Suja arrived as the gabbarnar of Bengal" or "Murshid sent his son-in-law to Orissa as his deputi" betraying in its use of administrative terminology its source in an English history of Bengal. And at the point where the book ends with the Maratha raids on Bengal in the period of Alivardi Khan, Ramgati feels it necessary to indicate the miraculous transformation that was about to take place.

At that time the influence of the Marathas was so strong that everyone thought they would become the rulers of the country. But how ineffable is the greatness of the divine will! Those who had come to this country only as ordinary traders, those who were often on the verge of leaving this country for ever, those who had never even dreamed of becoming rulers of this country—they, the English, ousted Siraj-ud-daulah from the throne of Alivardi and have now become the virtual sovereign of all of India.13

Only ten years later, however, in 1869, a book of questions and answers based on the same English textbooks had the following entry:

Q: How did Clive win?

A: If the treacherous Mir Jafar had not tricked the Nawab [Siraj-ud-daulah], Clive could not have won so easily.

Or, the following question about the ethics of English officials:

Q: Was Nandakumar's execution carried out in accordance with justice?

A: His offenses did not in any way deserve the death sentence. It was at the request of the unscrupulous Hastings that Chief Justice Elijah Impey conducted this gross misdeed.14

A Bengali textbook of 1872 tells the story of the betrayal of Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah in much greater detail. Siraj, says Kshetranath Ban-dyopadhyay, was a tyrant, but, contrary to the canard spread by the English, he was not responsible for the "black hole of Calcutta." Yet it was against him that the English conspired. Siraj was suspicious of the loyalties of his genera] Mir Jafar and made him swear on the Koran. But Mir Jafar betrayed him at Plassey, although his other generals fought valiantly. "If this battle had continued for some time, then Clive would surely have lost. But fortune favored the English, and weakened by the betrayal of Mir Jafar, the Nawab was defeated and Clive was victorious." Kshetranath's hatred is directed particularly against Mir Jafar and Miran. "Mir Jafar was cruel, stupid, greedy and indolent. On becoming the Nawab, he sought to plunder the wealth of prominent Hindus." "Miran was stupid and cruel, a beast among men. He was such an evil character that his oppressions made people forget all the misdeeds of Siraj."15

Nawab Mir Kasim too was a victim of betrayal:

[Mir Kasim] scrapped the duties on all goods. Thus all traders, English or Bengali, were treated on an equal footing, and unlike before, when all except the English were discriminated against, now others began to prosper. This angered the English. They began to prepare for war. .. . Mir Kasim's army was undoubtedly the best in Bengal, and yet it never won a single battle. There was a hidden reason for this, which was the treachery of Gargin [Mir Kasim's Armenian general].16

Kshetranath also describes the condition of the emperor in Delhi:

The emperor at this time was in a pitiable condition. Even his capital was under the control of others. He had no throne to sit on. The table at which the English dined became his throne, from which the emperor of all of India offered to the English the diwani of three provinces and thirty million subjects. The Emperor of Delhi, whose pomp was once without limit and at whose power the whole of India trembled, was now reduced to a condition^ that was truly sad.17

Not only in gaining an empire, but even in administering one, the English resorted to conspiracy and force. In the period before and after Clive, says Kshetranath, "the English committed such atrocities on the people of this country that all Bengalis hated the name of the English." Because of his intrigues, Hastings "is despised by all and is condemned in history." In 1857, just as the soldiers committed atrocities, so did the English: "At the time of the suppression of the revolt, the English who are so proud of their Christian religion wreaked vengeance upon their enemies by cutting out the livers from the bodies of hanged rebels and throwing them into the fire." Even the end of the mutiny did not bring peace.

In no age do the poor and the weak have anyone to protect them. When the disorder died down at other places, a huge commotion began in Bengal. In the areas of Bengal where indigo is grown, the English planters became truculent. The cruelties they perpetrated on the poor tenants will prevent them for all time from being counted among human beings.18

It was in fact in the course of writing the history of British rule in India that English-educated Bengalis abandoned the criteria of divine intervention, religious value, and the norms of right conduct in judging the rise and fall of kingdoms. The recent history of Bengal demonstrated that kingdoms could be won and, what was more, held by resorting to the grossest acts of immorality. The modern historiography seemed to validate a view of political history as simply the amoral pursuit of raison d'etat.

The popular textbook of Krishnachandra Ray portrayed the political success of the British in India as the result of a cynical pursuit of power devoid of all moral principles. On Clive's intrigues, he said, "Most people criticize Clive for these heinous acts, but according to him there is nothing wrong in committing villainy when dealing with villains." The new revenue arrangements of 1772 are described as follows:

"The land belongs to him who has force on his side." It is from this time that the Company stopped being a revenue collector and really became the ruler. If the Emperor [in Delhi] had been strong, there would have been a huge incident over this. But there was nothing left [to the Empire]. Whatever Hastings decided, happened.

The deep hatred we saw in Mrityunjay of Siraj's misrule has disappeared completely in Krishnachandra. In its place, there is a political explanation of his actions. For instance, when the English strengthened their fortifications in Calcutta, Siraj ordered the new constructions demolished. "Which ruler can allow foreigners to build forts within his territory? . . . [Siraj] could not accept any longer that this bunch of traders should suddenly arrive in his kingdom and defy his commands. Humiliated, his anger was now boiling over." Or his role in the so-called black hole incident is explained as follows:

It must have been an inauspicious moment when Siraj-ud-daulah entered Calcutta. He knew nothing of the black hole deaths and did not order the imprisonment of the English captives. Yet, that became the source of his downfall. Intoxicated by power, he had stepped on a tiger thinking it was only a cat. In the end, it was this error of judgment which led to the loss of his kingdom, his death and the endless misery of his family. Indeed, it was the black hole deaths which created the opportunity for the rise of the English power in India.

The downfall of Siraj is not seen any more as the consequence of immoral acts. It is now the result of an error of judgment: mistaking a tiger for a cat.19

History was no longer the play of divine will or the fight of right against wrong; it had become merely the struggle for power. The advent of British rule was no longer a blessing of Providence. English-educated Bengalis were now speculating on the political conditions that might have made the British success impossible.

If this country had been under the dominion of one powerful ruler, or if the different rulers had been united and friendly towards one another, then the English would never have become so powerful here and this country would have remained under the Musalman kings. Perhaps no one in this country would have ever heard of the English.

The book ends with a list of the benefits of British rule. And yet it is clearly implied that this does not establish its claims to legitimacy: "In any case, whatever be the means by which the English have come to acquire this sprawling kingdom, it must be admitted that infinite benefits have been effected by them to this country."20 We have almost reached the threshold of nationalist history.

Kshirodchandra Raychaudhuri's book, published in 1876, had this announcement by its author in the preface: "I have written this book for those who have been misled by translations of histories written in English." The extent to which European historiography had made inroads into the consciousness of the Bengali literati can be judged from the following comment on relations between the European colonial powers:

The English and the French have always been hostile towards each other. Just as the conflict between the Mughals and the Pathans is proverbial in India, so is the hostility between the English and the French in Europe. Thus it was beyond belief that in India they would not attack each other and instead drink from the same water.

The book ends with the following sentences:

Having come to India as a mere trader, the East India Company became through the tide of events the overlord of two hundred million subjects, and the shareholders of the Company, having become millionaires and billionaires, began to institute the laws and customs of foreign peoples. In no other country of the world has such an unnatural event taken place.21

ELEMENTS OF A NATIONALIST HISTORY

Earlier I spoke of Mrityunjay's position with respect to the political events he was describing as that of an ordinary subject. The same could be said of the authors of the textbooks I have just mentioned. But these "subjects" were very different entities. In the seventy years that had passed, the creature known as the educated Bengali had been transmuted. Now he had grown used to referring to himself, like the educated European, as a member of "the middle class." Not only was he in the middle in terms of income, but he had also assumed, in the sphere of social authority, the role of a mediator. On the one hand, he was claiming that those who had wealth and property were unfit to wield the power they had traditionally enjoyed. On the other hand, he was taking upon himself the responsibility of speaking on behalf of those who were poor and oppressed. To be in the middle now meant to oppose the rulers and to lead the subjects. Our textbook historians, while they may have thought of themselves as ordinary subjects, had acquired a consciousness in which they were already exercising the arts of politics and statecraft.

Simultaneously, the modern European principles of social and political organization were now deeply implanted in their minds. The English-educated middle class of Bengal was by the 1870s unanimous in its belief that the old institutions and practices of society needed to be fundamentally changed. It is useful to remind ourselves of this fact, because we often tend to forget that those who are called "conservative" or "traditionalist" and who are associated with the movements of Hindu revivalism were also vigorous advocates of the reform and modernization of Hindu society. Whatever the differences between "progressives" and "conservatives" among the new intellectuals in the nineteenth century, they were all convinced that the old society had to be reformed in order to make it adequate for coping with the modern world.

This becomes clear from reading the most commonplace writings of minor writers in the second half of the nineteenth century. A completely new criterion of political judgment employed in these writings is, for instance, the notion of "impartiality." An 1866 text by an author who is undoubtedly a "traditionalist Hindu" recommends in a chapter titled "The Treatment of Young Women" that "whether indoors or out, no young woman should at any time be left alone and unwatched." Yet, he is opposed to polygamy and the practice of dowry. In another chapter, "The Subject of Political Loyalty," this traditionalist, Tarakrishna Haldar, writes:

In the days when this country was under the rule of the Hindu jati, the arbitrariness of kings led to the complete domination by a particular jati over all the others. That jati wielded the power to send others to heaven or hell. . . . When the kingdom was in the hands of the Yavanas, they treated all Hindus as infidels. In all respects they favored subjects belonging to their own jati and oppressed those who were Hindu. . . . The principles of government followed by the British jati do not have any of these defects. When administering justice, they treat a priest of their own jati as equal to someone of the lowest occupation in this country, such as a sweeper. . . . No praise is too great for the quality of impartiality of this jati.22

One step further and we get the next argument in nationalist history: the reason Hindu society was corrupt and decadent was the long period of Muslim rule. The following is an extract from a lecture by a certain Bholanath Chakravarti at an Adi Brahmo Samaj meeting in 1876:

The misfortunes and decline of this country began on the day the Yavana flag entered the territory of Bengal. The cruelty of Yavana rule turned this land to waste. Just as a storm wreaks destruction and disorder to a garden, so did the unscrupulous and tyrannical Yavana jati destroy the happiness and good fortune of Bengal, this land of our birth. Ravaged by endless waves of oppression, the people of Bengal became disabled and timid. Their religion took distorted forms. The education of women was completely stopped. In order to protect women from the attacks of Yavanas, they were locked up inside their homes. The country was reduced to such a state that the wealth of the prosperous, the honor of the genteel and the chastity of the virtuous were in grave peril.23

Half of nationalist history has been already thought out here. In the beginning, the history of the nation was glorious; in wealth, power, learning, and religion, it had reached the pinnacle of civilization. This nation was sometimes called Bengali, sometimes Hindu, sometimes Arya, sometimes Indian, but the form of the history remained the same. After this came the age of decline. The cause of the decline was Muslim rule, that is to say, the subjection of the nation. We do not get the rest of nationalist history in this lecture I have just cited, because although Bholanach Chakravarti talks about the need for the regeneration of national society, he also thinks that its possibility lies entirely in the existence of British rule.

There are limits to everything. When the oppressions of the Musalman became intolerable, the Lord of the Universe provided a means of escape. . .. The resumption of good fortune was initiated on the day the British flag was first planted on this land. Tell me, if Yavana rule had continued, what would the condition of this country have been today? It must be loudly declared that it is to bless us that Isvara has brought the English to this country. British rule has ended the atrocities of the Yavanas.... There can be no comparison between Yavana rule and British rule: the difference seems greater than that between darkness and light or between misery and bliss.24

[/quote]

However, even if Bholanath Chakravarti did not subscribe to it, the remainder of the argument of nationalist history was already fairly current. Take, for example, the eighteenth edition, published in 1878, of "The History of India," by Tarinicharan Chattopadhyay.25 Tarinicharan (1833-97) was a product of colonial education, a professor at Sanskrit College, and a social reformer. His textbooks on history and geography were extremely popular and were the basis for many other lesser-known textbooks. His History of India was probably the most influential textbook read in Bengali schools in the second half of the nineteenth century.

In the next chapter, I will recount some of the stories from Tarinicharan's history in order to point out how the materials of Hindu-extremist political rhetoric current in postcolonial India were fashioned from the very birth of nationalist historiography.  

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Part 1 of 2

Kayastha [Kayasth] [Cayast’ha] [Koyt] [Caits] [Karanika] [Karana] [Writing Caste]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/10/23

The Making of an Ur-Text

One can imagine how delighted Holwell must have been to find such stunning similarities between the description of India's ancient religious texts and Ilive's vision. But the doctrines that had been translated or summarized from old texts by the likes of Roger, Baldaeus, and the Catholic missionaries showed little similarity with this. All of it seemed "very defective, fallacious, and unsatisfactory" to Holwell, in fact, no more than "unconnected scraps and bits, picked up here and there by hearsay" from ignorant Hindoos rather than solid "literal translations" (Holwell1765:I.5-6). Hence the need to "rescue" this distant nation "from the gross conceptions entertained of them by the multitude" (p. 9) and "to vindicate them" by "a simple display of their primitive theology" (Holwell 1767: Dedication). Disgusted by all these misunderstandings and misrepresentations (1767.2:4), converted by Ilive's theory of delinquent angels, and possibly already fascinated by Ramsay's vision of Ur-tradition, Holwell collected materials about the Gentoo religion and "on his departure from Bengal in the year 1750 imagined himself well informed in the Gentoo religion" about which he had learned through "conversations with the Bramins of those Bhades who were near" (pp. 63-64). He had already thought of writing a book about this but did not find the time (p. 64). Given the fact that he already had such a plan, it is likely that during his stays in Europe he also collected relevant Western literature about India and its religions. If he was not already acquainted with Ramsay and Couto before, he must have studied them after his return to India in 1751 and as a result gained a rather precise idea of what he was looking for. If Holwell was trying to find the Vedas, he was not alone; but Couto's description of the first Veda, which seemed so similar to Ilive's ideas, certainly brought more motivation and focus to his search. He knew that he was looking for an extremely ancient scripture treating of God, the creation Story, angels and their fall, the immortality of souls, the purification of delinquent angels in human bodies, transmigration, the punishment of evil and reward of good, and remission and salvation.

What could happen when a wealthy foreigner was trying to locate such information in old Indian texts is exemplified by the case of Francis WILFORD (1761?-1822), a respected member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal who lived in India four decades after the sack of Calcutta rang in the British Empire. Unlike Holwell, Wilford had studied Sanskrit. He was intent on proving on the basis of Indian texts that India and Egypt had from ancient times been in close contact and that their religions came from a common source. Since that source was, of course, ultimately Noah's ark, Wilford had Indian assistants look for a precise set of topics: the deluge, the name of Noah and his sons, and so forth. Like Holwell some decades before him, Wilford had to tell a learned Indian what he was looking for "as a clue to guide him," and for several years he faithfully translated what this Indian guru gave him. But suddenly he detected that he had fallen victim to fraud:

In order to avoid the trouble of consulting books, he conceived the idea of framing legends from what he recollected from the Puranas, and from what he had picked up in conversation with me. As he was exceedingly well read in the Puranas, and other similar books ... it was an easy task for him; and he studied to introduce as much truth as he could, to obviate the danger of immediate detection .... His forgeries were of three kinds; in the first there was only a word or two altered; in the second were such legends as had undergone a more material alteration; and in the third all those which he had written from memory. (Wilford 1805:251)

The output of this Indian expert was quite astonishing, and the most famous example shows what good remuneration, a sense of what the customer is looking for, and skill in composition can achieve. The learned Indian composed a story "which in nine Sanskrit verses ... reprises the story of Noah, his three sons, and the curse of Ham" and convinced no less a man than William Jones that Noah and his three sons figured in genuine Indian Puranas (Trautmann 1997:90-91). Wilford described how his Indian teacher proceeded in this case:

It is a legend of the greatest importance, and said to be extracted from the Padma. It contains the history of NOAH and his three sons, and is written in a masterly style. But unfortunately there is not a word of it to be found in that Purana. It is, however, mentioned, though in less explicit terms, in many Puranas, and the pandit took particular care in pointing out to the several passages which confirmed, more or less, this interesting legend. Of these I took little notice, as his extract appeared more explicit and satisfactory. (Wilford 1805:254)

Since Wilford had told his pandit exactly what he was looking for, the forger produced an ingenious narrative that presented elements of the story of Noah and his sons in an Indian dress and included some surprising details such as "the legend about the intoxication of NOAH" which, as Wilford now realized, "is from what my pandit picked up in conversation with me" (p. 254). In all, this man "composed no less than 12,000 brand new Puranic slokas -- about half the length of the Ramayana! -- and inserted them into manuscripts of the Skanda and Brahmanda Purana" (Trautmann 1997:92). This was a fraud committed on a man who was far more learned than Holwell; the texts were in Sanskrit, not Hindi; and the source texts could be verified.

In Holwell's case, there is always the possibility that his description of Veda content led some knowledgeable Indian to the very texts that Azevedo had used for the description that Couto plagiarized and Roger and others then used. Caland (1918:49-50) concluded on the basis of the book titles mentioned by Couto that these texts were Saivite Agamas; but an able Indologist would need to substantiate this not just by titles but by contents. While it is possible that similar texts in Hindi were sold to Holwell, I think that the likelihood of a fraud is greater. If Holwell, ready as he was to spend almost any amount of money on this text after the 1756 loss, could not manage to recuperate more than a few fragments -- or, more likely, nothing at all -- one would think that the people who sold it to him in the first place had produced only two slightly different manuscripts and, having sold them to Holwell, were in no position to repeat that feat. If Holwell's text had been available to various people, then someone would probably have sold it to him, especially given the fact that for a while he was governor of Bengal and certainly did not lack the means to get what he wanted.

But who could have forged such a text? Since Holwell remarked that members of the tribe of writers [Kayastha; Kayasth; Karanika; Karana; Writing Caste] "are often better versed in the doctrines of their Shastah than the common run of the Bramin themselves" (Holwell 1767:2.21) and that "a few others of the tribe of the Batteezaaz Bramins ... can read and expound from the Chatah Bhade [Text II], which still preserved the text of the original [Text I)" (p. 15), the culprit(s) might have come from either or both of these groups.

-- The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App

2. Cayast’ha or Koyt.

The children of a Cshatriya father and a Vaisya mother are Cayast’has, (Caits,) commonly called the Writer Caste by Europeans. Most of this Caste can read and write; several practice medicine; many are merchants, tradesmen, farmers, &c. Though not so numerous as the Brahmans, they are, as a body, more wealthy. They perform the same daily religious ceremonies as the Brahmans, but use prayers taken from the Tantras. Some authorities seem to consider them as pure Sudras (As. Res. v. 58).

-- Encyclopædia metropolitana; or, Universal dictionary of Knowledge, on an Original Plan: Comprising the Twofold Advantage of a Philosophical and an Alphabetical Arrangement, with Appropriate Engravings. Edited by The Rev. Edward Smedley, M.A., Late Fellow of Sidney College, Cambridge; The Rev. Hugh James Rose, B.D., Principal of King’s College, London; and The Rev. Henry John Rose, B.D., Late Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. Volume 16. 1845

3. – Dinagepour, called also the havillee of the circar of Penjerah, and sometimes classed with Edrackpoor, under the head of Arungabad, was conferred by Jaffier Khan, like all the other great zemindarries, towards the latter end of his government, in the first instance, on a very intelligent landholder of the caste of koyt or writer, named Ramnaht, originally from upper Hindostan. This man was supposed to have acquired great wealth by the discovery of buried treasure, in digging tanks for the improvement of agriculture; and had therefore repeated application from the nazim for pecuniary aids, under the real or feigned distresses of the State. The truth may be, that by amelioration and good management, in rendering productive the extensive wastes within the circle of his jurisdiction, or secret enlargement of his frontiers on all sides, particularly towards Cooch Behar, he might have realized the necessary operation of husbandry, conducted with intelligence, industry or good fortune. But however this may have been, by personal address, and anticipating the wants or desire of the sovereign representative, in paying large douceurs over and above his current revenue, he enjoyed the annual special privilege of administering internally his own district, without being subject like the zemindars, to either hustabood investigations, on the immediate control of a Mussulman aumildar. Nor did these extraordinary exemptions cease entirely before the year 1757, when a new revolution having strengthened the efficient powers of government, and politically increased the public expenses, through the necessity of maintaining a regular standing military establishment, it was found expedient to resume the equitable, indispensible rights of royalty, by bringing into the exchequer the ascertained surplus exaction levied from the country by the farming collector, and hitherto fraudulently kept for his proper use. Originally this zemindarry, exclusive of jageers, consisted of pergunnahs 89, yielding 4,62,964.

-- The Zemindarries in 1728, from The Fifth Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company, Volume 1, Bengal Presidency. 1812

"Calcutta Kayastha", a late 18th-century depiction by Frans Balthazar Solvyns
Subdivisions: Bengali Kayastha, Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu, Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha and Karana
Minority: Islam[1]

Kayastha (also referred to as Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally located—the Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra, the Bengali Kayasthas of Bengal and Karanas[2][3] of Odisha. All of them were traditionally considered "writing castes", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers.[4][5]

The earliest known reference to the term Kayastha dates back to the Kushan Empire,[6] when it evolved into a common name for a writer or scribe.[7] In the Sanskrit literature and inscriptions, it was used to denote the holders of a particular category of offices in the government service.[8] In this context, the term possibly derived from kaya- ('principal, capital, treasury') and -stha ('to stay') and perhaps originally stood for an officer of the royal treasury, or revenue department.[9][6]

Over the centuries, the occupational histories of Kayastha communities largely revolved around scribal services. However, these scribes did not simply take dictation but acted in the range of capacities better indicated by the term "secretary". They used their training in law, literature, court language, accounting, litigation and many other areas to fulfill responsibilities in all these venues.[10][11] Kayasthas, along with Brahmins, had access to formal education as well as their own system of teaching administration, including accountancy, in the early-medieval India.[12]

Modern scholars list them among Indian communities that were traditionally described as "urban-oriented", "upper caste" and part of the "well-educated" pan-Indian elite, alongside Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits, Parsis, Nagar Brahmins of Gujarat, Chitpawans and Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus (CKPs) of Maharashtra, South-Indian Brahmins including Deshastha Brahmins from Southern parts of India and upper echelons of the Muslim as well as Christian communities that made up the middle class at the time of Indian independence in 1947.[13][14][15]

Origins

Etymology

According to Merriam-Webster, the word Kāyastha is probably formed from the Sanskrit kāya (body), and the suffix -stha (standing, being in).[16]

As a class of administrators

As evidenced by literary and epigraphical texts, Kayasthas had emerged as a 'class of administrators' between late-ancient and early-mediaeval period of Indian history. Their emergence is explained by modern scholars as a result of growth of state machinery, complication of taxation system and the "rapid expansion of land-grant practice that required professional documenting fixation".[17][6] The term also finds mention in an inscription of the Gupta emperor Kumaragupta I, dated to 442 CE, in which prathama-kāyastha (transl. 'chief officer') is used as an administrative designation.[18] The Yājñavalkya Smṛti, also from the Gupta era, and the Vishnu Smriti describe kayasthas as record-keepers and accountants, but not as jāti (caste or clan).[19] Similarly, the term Kayastha is used in the works of Kshemendra, Kalhana and Bilhana to refer to members of bureaucracy varying from Gṛhakṛtyamahattama (transl. 'the chief secretary in the charge of home affairs') to the Aśvaghāsa-kāyastha (transl. 'officer in charge of the fodder for horses').[20]

According to Romila Thapar, the offices that demanded formal education including that of a kayastha were generally occupied by the "Brahmins, revenue collectors, treasurers and those concerned with legal matters".[21]

In Buddhist association

According to Chitrarekha Gupta, it is possible that Buddhists, in their effort to create an educated non-Brahmin class, strove to popularize the utility of education and fostered those vocations that required a knowledge of writing. This is corroborated in Udāna, where the lekha-sippa ('craft of writing'), was regarded as the highest of all the crafts. It is also backed by the fact that the earliest epigraphical records mentioning lekhaka ('writer') or kayastha have been made in association with Buddhism.[22]

As an independent guild of professionals

It is possible that kayasthas may have started out as a separate profession, similar to bankers, merchants, and artisans. As suggested in certain epigraphs, they had a representative in the district-level administration, along with those of bankers and merchants. This is also implied in Mudrarakshasa, where a kayastha would work for any man who paid his wages on time. Possibly secular knowledge, like writing, administration, and jurisprudence, was monopolised by a non-Brahmin professional elite that later came be referred as kayasthas.[23]

History

From classical to early-medieval India

The Kayasthas, at least as an office, played an important role in administering the Northern India from the Gupta period.[24] The earliest evidence comes from a Mathura inscription of Vasudeva I, composed by a Kayastha Śramaṇa.[6] From this point we find, the term kayastha occurring in the inscription of the Gupta Emperor Kumaragupta I as prathama-kāyastha,[25] as karaṇa-kāyastha in Vainayagupta’s inscription,[26] and as gauḍa-kāyastha in an Apshadha inscription dated 672 CE.[27]: 104  The occasional references to individuals of the Karaṇa caste occupying high government offices are made in inscriptions and literary works too.[28] Razia Banu has suggested that Brahmin and Kayastha migrants were brought to Bengal during the reign of the Gupta Empire to help manage the state affairs.[29]: 5–6  According to a legend, a Bengali King named Adisur had invited Brahmins accompanied by Kayasthas from Kannauj who became an elite sub-group described as Kulin.[30] However, such claims are disputable and even rejected by some scholars.[27]: 99 

From the ninth-century and perhaps even earlier, Kayasthas had started to consolidate into a distinct caste.[31] This is evident from a epigraphic record dated 871 CE of the King Amoghavarsha that mentions a branch of Kayasthas referred to as vālabhya-kāyastha. The author of the Sanskrit work Udayasundarī-kathā also referred to himself as vālabhya-kayāstha and characterized Kayasthas as 'ornaments of the Kṣatriyas'.[32]

In Soḍḍhala’s account

According to Soḍḍhala, who claimed to be a Kayastha himself, Kayasthas traced their descent to a younger brother of the Maitrika king, identified as Śilāditya VI or VII, referred to as Kalāditya. He narrates that Kalāditya had besieged Dharmapala of the Pala Dynasty that led to the victory of his elder brother. Subsequently, he was entrusted by Śilāditya to administer his kingdom at the advice of the Goddess Rāja Lakśmī. Kalāditya has been further described as an incarnation of a gaṇa (transl. 'attendant') of Shiva called Kayastha.[33]

In Sanskrit literature

The Mitākṣarā refers to Kayasthas as accountants and scribes, they are described as favorites of the king and cunning.[34]

The Kayastha appears as a figure in Act IX of the Mṛcchakatika, a kāyastha is shown accompanying a judge (adhikaraṇika) and assisting him. In Act V there is mention that: [6]

Moreover, O friend, a courtesan, an elephant, a Kayastha, a mendicant, a spy and a donkey—where these dwell, there not even villains can flourish.

In Mudrarakshasa, a Kayastha named Śakaṭadāsa is a crucial character and one of the trusted men of the Prime Minister of the Nanda King. According to Chitrarekha Gupta, the title Ārya added to the name of Śakaṭadāsa implies that he was a member of the nobility.[35] Another Kayastha called Acala is the scribe of Chanakya.[36]

In early-mediaeval Kashmir too, the term kayastha denoted an occupational class whose principal duty, besides carrying on the general administration of the state, consisted in the collection of revenue and taxes. Kshemendra’s Narmamālā composed during the reign of Ananta (1028-1063 CE) gives a list of contemporary Kayastha officers that included Gṛhakṛtyadhipati, Paripālaka, Mārgapati, Gañja-divira, Āsthāna-divira, Nagara-divira, Lekhakopādhya and Niyogi. Kalhana’s Rājataraṃgiṇī ('The River of Kings') and Bilhana's Vikramāṅkadevacarita ('Life of King Vikramaditya') also mention Kayasthas.[37][38] It is also mentioned that father of Lalitaditya Muktapida of the Karkota Dynasty, Durlabhavardhan, had held the post of Aśvaghāsa-kāyastha.[39]

Kayasthas have been authors of several Sanskrit texts too.

Table 1. Some important Sanskrit works authored by the Kayasthas

Work(s) / Genre(s) / Author / Author's lineage / Date

Rāmacarita / Biography / Sandhyākaranandin / Karana[40] / 12th c.
Udayasundarī Kathā / Champu / Soḍḍhala / Vālabhya[33] / 11th c.
Rasa Saṅketa Kalikā, Varṇanighaṇṭu / Medicine, Tantra / Kāyastha Cāmuṇḍa / Naigama[41] / 15th c.
Kṛtyakalpataru / Administration / Lakṣmīdhara / Vāstavya[42] / 12th c.

In Brahmanical literature

Kayasthas have been recorded as a separate caste responsible for writing secular documents and maintaining records in Brahmanical religious writings dating back to the seventh-century.[43] In these texts, some described Kayasthas as Kshatriyas, while others often described them as a 'mixed-origin' caste with Brahmin and Shudra components. This was probably an attempt by the Brahmins to rationalize their rank in the traditional caste hierarchy and perhaps a later invention rather than a historical fact.[44][45]

Late medieval India

In Bengal, during the reign of the Gupta Empire beginning in the 4th century, when systematic and large-scale colonisation by Indo-Aryan Kayasthas and Brahmins first took place, Kayasthas were brought over by the Guptas to help manage the affairs of state.[29]: 5–6 

After the Muslim conquest of India, they mastered Persian, which became the official language of the Mughal courts.[46] Some converted to Islam and formed the Muslim Kayasth community in northern India.

Bengali Kayasthas had been the dominant landholding caste prior to the Muslim conquest, and continued this role under Muslim rule. Indeed, Muslim rulers had from a very early time confirmed the Kayasthas in their ancient role as landholders and political intermediaries.[47]

Bengali Kayasthas served as treasury officials and wazirs (government ministers) under Mughal rule. Political scientist U. A. B. Razia Akter Banu writes that, partly because of Muslim sultans' satisfaction with them as technocrats, many Bengali Kayasthas in the administration became zamindars and jagirdars. According to Abu al-Fazl, most of the Hindu zamindars in Bengal were Kayasthas.[29]: 24–25 

Maharaja Pratapaditya, the king of Jessore who declared independence from Mughal rule in the early 17th century, was a Bengali Kayastha.[48]

British India


A Kayastha employee of the political agent of the Bagelkhand Agency 1901.

During the British Raj, Kayasthas continued to proliferate in public administration, qualifying for the highest executive and judicial offices open to Indians.[49][page needed]

Bengali Kayasthas took on the role occupied by merchant castes in other parts of India and profited from business contacts with the British. In 1911, for example, Bengali Kayasthas and Bengali Brahmins owned 40% of all the Indian-owned mills, mines and factories in Bengal.[50]

Modern India

The Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas, Bengali Kayasthas and CKPs were among the Indian communities in 1947, at the time of Indian independence, that constituted the middle class and were traditionally "urban and professional" (following professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc.) According to P. K. Varma, "education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite" and almost all the members of these communities could read and write English and were educated beyond school.[51]

The Kayasthas today mostly inhabit central, eastern, northern India, and particularly Bengal.[52] They are considered a Forward Caste, as they do not qualify for any of the reservation benefits allotted to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes that are administered by the Government of India.[53] This classification has increasingly led to feelings of unease and resentment among the Kayasthas, who believe that the communities that benefit from reservation are gaining political power and employment opportunities at their expense. Thus, particularly since the 1990 report of the Mandal Commission on reservation, Kayastha organisations have been active in areas such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal and Orissa. These groups are aligning themselves with various political parties to gain political and economic advantages; by 2009 they were demanding 33 percent reservation in government jobs.[54]

Sub-groups

Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas

Main article: Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha

The Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of Northern India are named thus because they have a myth of origin that says they descend from the 12 sons of the Hindu god Chitragupta, the product of his marriages to Devi Shobhavati and Devi Nandini.[19] The suffix -vanshi is Sanskrit and translates as belonging to a particular family dynasty.[55]

At least some Chitraguptavanshi subcastes seem to have formed by the 11th or 12th century, evidenced by various names being used to describe them in inscriptions.[56] Although at that time, prior to the Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent, they were generally outnumbered by Brahmins in the Hindu royal courts of northern India, some among these Kayasthas wrote eulogies for the kings. Of the various regional Kayastha communities it was those of north India who remained most aligned to their role of scribes, whereas in other areas there became more emphasis on commerce.[57][58]

The group of Bhatnagar, Srivastava, Ambashtha and Saxena of Doab were classified by various Indian, British and missionary observers to be the most learned and dominant of the "service castes".[59]

Bengali Kayasthas

Main article: Bengali Kayastha

In eastern India, Bengali Kayasthas are believed to have evolved from a class of officials into a caste between the 5th-6th centuries and 11th-12th centuries, its component elements being putative Kshatriyas and mostly Brahmins. They most likely gained the characteristics of a caste under the Sena dynasty.[60] According to Tej Ram Sharma, an Indian historian, the Kayasthas of Bengal had not yet developed into a distinct caste during the reign of the Gupta Empire, although the office of the Kayastha (scribe) had been instituted before the beginning of the period, as evidenced from the contemporary Smritis. Sharma further states:

Noticing brahmanic names with a large number of modern Bengali Kayastha cognomens in several early epigraphs discovered in Bengal, some scholars have suggested that there is a considerable brahmana element in the present day Kayastha community of Bengal. Originally the professions of Kayastha (scribe) and Vaidya (physician) were not restricted and could be followed by people of different varnas including the brahmanas. So there is every probability that a number of brahmana families were mixed up with members of other varnas in forming the present Kayastha and Vaidya communities of Bengal.[61]

Chandraseniya Prabhu Kayasthas

Main article: Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu

In Maharashtra, Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus (CKP) claim descent from the warrior Chandrasen.[62] Historically they produced prominent warriors and also held positions such as Deshpandes and Gadkaris (fort holder, an office similar to that of a castellan.[63] Traditionally, the CKPs have the upanayana (thread ceremony) and have been granted the rights to study the vedas and perform vedic rituals along with the Brahmins.[64]

Karanas

Main article: Karan (caste)

Karana is a caste found predominantly in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. They are a regional subcaste of Kayastha and traditionally they were the official record-keepers in the royal courts during Medieval times. They represent around 5% of Odia people. The Karanas are a forward caste of Odisha.[65]

Varna status

As the Kayasthas are a non-cohesive group with regional differences rather than a single caste, their position in the Hindu varna system of ritual classification has not been uniform.

This was reflected in Raj era court rulings. Hayden Bellenoit gives details of various Raj era law cases and concludes the varna Kayastha was resolved in those cases by taking into account regional differences and customs followed by the specific community under consideration. Bellenoit disagrees with Rowe, showing that Risley's theories were in fact used ultimately to classify them as Kshatriyas by the British courts. The first case began in 1860 in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh with a property dispute where the plaintiff was considered an "illegitimate child" by the defendants, a north-Indian Kayastha family. The British court denied inheritance to the child, citing that Kayasthas are Dvija, "twice-born" or "upper-caste" and that the illegitimate children of Dwijas have no rights to inheritance. In the next case in 1875 in the Allahabad High Court, a north Indian Kayastha widow was denied adoption rights as she was an upper-caste i.e. Dwija woman. However, the aforementioned 1884 adoption case and the 1916 property dispute saw the Calcutta High Court rule that the Bengali Kayasthas were shudras. The Allahabad High Court ruled in 1890 that Kayasthas were Kshatriyas.[66][67] Hayden Bellenoit concludes from an analysis of those that

in the suits originating in the Bihari and Doabi heartlands rulings that Kayasthas were of twice-born status were more likely. Closer to Bengal country, though, the legal rulings tended to assign a shudra status.

Even where the shudra designation was adjudged, the Raj courts appear to have sometimes recognised that the Bengali Kayasthas were degraded from an earlier kshatriya status due to intermarrying with both shudras and slaves ('dasa') which resulted in the common Bengali Kayastha surname of 'Das'.[66] The last completed census of the British Raj (1931) classified them as an "upper caste", i.e. Dwija,[67] and the final British Raj law case involving their varna in 1926 determined them to be Kshatriya.[66]

Earlier, in Bihar, in 1811–1812, botanist and zoologist Francis Buchanan had recorded the Kayastha of that region as "pure shudra" and accordingly kept them at the par with other producer caste groups like goldsmiths, Ahirs, Kurmis and the Koeris. William Pinch, in his study of Ramanandi Sampradaya in the north describes the emergence of the concept of "pure Shudra" in growing need of physical contact with some of the low caste groups who were producer and seller of essential commodities or were the provider of services without which the self sufficiency of rural society couldn't persist. However, many of these adopted Vaishnavism in the aim to become Kshatriya. In 1901 Bihar census, Kayasthas of the area were classified along with Brahmins and Rajputs in Bihar as "other castes of twice-born rank"[68] According to Arun Sinha, there was a strong current since the end of the 19th century among Shudras of Bihar to change their status in caste hierarchy and break the monopoly of bipolar elite of Brahmins and Rajputs of having "dvija" status. The education and economic advancement made by some of the former Shudra castes enabled them to seek the higher prestige and varna status. The Kayastha along with the Bhumihars were first among the shudras to attain the recognition as "upper caste" leaving the other aspirational castes to aspire for the same.[69]

The Raj era rulings were based largely upon the theories of Herbert Hope Risley, who had conducted extensive studies on castes and tribes of the Bengal Presidency. According to William Rowe, the Kayasthas of Bengal, Bombay and the United Provinces repeatedly challenged this classification by producing a flood of books, pamphlets, family histories and journals to pressurise the government to recognise them as kshatriya and to reform the caste practices in the directions of sanskritisation and westernisation.[70][clarification needed] Rowe's opinion has been challenged, with arguments that it is based on "factual and interpretative errors", and criticised for making "unquestioned assumptions" about the Kayastha Sanskritisation and westernisation movement.[71][72]

In post-Raj assessments, the Bengali Kayasthas, alongside Bengali Brahmins, have been described as the "highest Hindu castes".[73] After the Muslim conquest of India, they absorbed remnants of Bengal's old Hindu ruling dynasties—including the Sena, Pala, Chandra, and Varman—and, in this way, became the region's surrogate kshatriya or "warrior" class. During British rule, the Bengali Kayasthas, the Bengali Brahmins and the Baidyas considered themselves to be Bhadralok, a term coined in Bengal for the gentry or respectable people. This was based on their perceived refined culture, prestige and education.[47][74]

According to Christian Novetzke, in medieval India, Kayastha in certain parts were considered either as Brahmins or equal to Brahmins.[75] Several religious councils and institutions have subsequently stated the varna status of CKPs as Kshatriya.[76][77][78]

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Part 2 of 2

Notable people

This is a list of notable people from all the subgroups of Kayasthas.

President of India

• Rajendra Prasad

Prime Minister of India

• Lal Bahadur Shastri

Chief Ministers

• Krishna Ballabh Sahay
• Mahamaya Prasad Sinha
• Uddhav Thackeray
• Shiv Charan Mathur
• Nabakrushna Choudhuri
• Biju Patnaik
• Biren Mitra
• Janaki Ballabh Patnaik
• Naveen Patnaik
• Sampurnanand
• Jyoti Basu

Others

• Sri Aurobindo, Indian philosopher, yogi and nationalist[79]
• Nagendranath Basu, historian and editor[80]
• Shankar Abaji Bhise (1867–1935), scientist and inventor with 200 inventions and 40 patents. The American scientific community referred to him as the "Indian Edison".[81]
• Jagadish Chandra Bose, Indian scientist[82][full citation needed]
• Satyendra Nath Bose[83]Known for his work on quantum mechanics, for developing the foundation of Bose statistics and the theory of the Bose condensate. The class of particles that obey Bose statistics, bosons, was named after Bose by Paul Dirac.[84][85]
• Subhas Chandra Bose[86]
• Mahadev Bhaskar Chaubal (1857–1933), Indian origin British era Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. Member of Executive Council of Governor of Bombay in 1912 and Member of Royal Commission on Public Services in India.[87]
• Har Dayal, Indian revolutionary and intellectual of the Ghadar party in the USA[88]
• C. D. Deshmukh (1896–1982), first recipient of the Jagannath Shankarseth Sanskrit Scholarship, topper of ICS Examination, first Indian Governor of RBI, first finance Minister of independent India and tenth vice chancellor of the University of Delhi[89]
• Baji Prabhu Deshpande (1615–1660), commander of Shivaji Maharaj's forces who along with his brother died defending Vishalgad in 1660[90]
• Murarbaji Deshpande (?–1665), commander of Shivaji Maharaj's forces who died defending the fort of Purandar against the Mughals in 1665[90]
• Jayaprakash Narayan (1902 -1979) - freedom fighter, social reformer and anti-corruption campaigner[91]
• Bipin Chandra Pal, Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement activist of Lal Bal Pal triumvirate[92]
• Vithal Sakharam Parasnis (17xx-18xx)- Sanskrit, Vedic and Persian scholar; consultant to British Historian James Grant Duff; author of the Sanskrit "karma kalpadrum"(manual for Hindu rituals); first head of the school opened by Pratapsimha to teach Sanskrit to the boys of the Maratha caste[93]
• Devdutt Pattanaik[94]
• Premchand (1880–1936) – author in Hindi language[95]
• Sachchidananda Sinha, lawyer prominent in the movement for establishing the state of Bihar[96]
• Mahadevi Varma[97]
• Bhagwati Charan Verma[98]
• Swami Vivekananda[99]
• Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi[100]

See also

• Karan Kayastha

References

1. Jahanara (2005). Muslim kayasthas of India. Allahabad, India: K.K. Publications. OCLC 255708448. Monographic study of an anthropological investigation of the Muslim Kayasthas with special reference to Uttar Pradesh.
2. Das, Biswarup (1980). "KAYASTHAS AND KARANAS IN ORISSA—A STUDY ON INSCRIPTIONS—". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 41: 940–944. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44141924.
3. Raut, L.N. (2004). "Jati Formation in Early Medieval Orissa: Reflection on Karana (Kayastha Caste)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 65: 304–308. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44144743.
4. Imam, Faitma (2011). India today : An encyclopedia of life in the republic. Vol. 1, A–K. Arnold P. Kaminsky, Roger D. Long. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 403–405. ISBN 978-0-313-37463-0. OCLC 755414244.
5. Leonard, Karen (2006). Wolpert, Stanley (ed.). Encyclopedia of India. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 22. ISBN 0-684-31349-9. OCLC 60856154. All three were "writing castes", traditionally serving the ruling powers as administrators and record keepers.
6. Visvanathan, Meera (2014). "From the 'lekhaka' to the Kāyastha: Scribes in Early Historic Court and Society (200 BCE–200 CE)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 75: 34–40. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44158358.
7. Gupta, Chitrarekha (1983). "The writers' class of ancient India—a case study in social mobility". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 20 (2): 194. doi:10.1177/001946468302000203. S2CID 144941948. The short inscriptions mentioned earlier indicate that from about the first century B.C. the scribes or writers played an important role in society and their profession was regarded as a respectable one ... the first mention of the term Kayastha, which later became the generic name of the writers, was during this phase of Indian history
8. Stout, Lucy Carol (1976). The Hindustani Kayasthas: The Kayastha Pathshala, and the Kayastha Conference, 1873–1914. University of California, Berkeley. pp. 18–19. Such an argument is supported by the manner in which the term "Kayastha" is used in Sanskrit literature and inscriptions—i.e., as a term for the various state officials ... It seems appropriate to suppose that they were originally from one or more than one existing endogamous units and that the term "Kayastha" originally meant an office or the holder of a particular office in the state service.
9. Stout, Lucy Carol (1976). The Hindustani Kayasthas: The Kayastha Pathshala, and the Kayastha Conference, 1873–1914. University of California, Berkeley. p. 20. In this context, a possible derivation o the word "Kayastha" is "from ... kaya (principal, capital, treasury) and stha, to stay" and perhaps originally stood for an officer of royal treasury, or the revenue department.
10. Davidson, Ronald M. (2005). Tibetan renaissance : Tantric Buddhism in the rebirth of Tibetan culture. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-231-50889-6. OCLC 808346313.
11. Carroll, Lucy (February 1978). "Colonial Perceptions of Indian Society and the Emergence of Caste(s) Associations". The Journal of Asian Studies. 37 (2): 233–250. doi:10.2307/2054164. JSTOR 2054164. S2CID 146635639.
12. Chandra, Satish (2007). History of medieval India : 800–1700. Hyderabad, India: Orient Longman. p. 50. ISBN 978-81-250-3226-7. OCLC 191849214. There was no idea of mass education at that time. People learnt what they felt was needed for their livelihood. Reading and writing was confined to a small section, mostly Brahmans and some sections of the upper classes, especially Kayasthas ... The Kayasthas had their own system of teaching the system of administration, including accountancy.
13. Pavan K. Varma (2007). The Great Indian Middle class. Penguin Books. p. 28. ISBN 9780143103257. its main adherents came from those in government service, qualified professionals such as doctors, engineers and lawyers, business entrepreneurs, teachers in schools in the bigger cities and in the institutes of higher education, journalists [etc] ... The upper castes dominated the Indian middle class. Prominent among its members were Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits and South Indian brahmins. Then there were the 'traditional urban-oriented professional castes such as the Nagars of Gujarat, the Chitpawans and the Ckps (Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus)s of Maharashtra and the Kayasthas of North India. Also included were the old elite groups that emerged during the colonial rule: the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis, the Parsis and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. Education was a common thread that bound together this pan-Indian elite ... But almost all its members spoke and wrote English and had had some education beyond school
14. Paul Wallace; Richard Leonard Park (1985). Region and nation in India. Oxford & IBH Pub. Co. During much of the 19th century, Maratha Brahman Desasthas had held a position of such strength throughout South India that their position can only be compared with that of the Kayasthas and Khatris of North India.
15. "D. L. Sheth".
16. "Kayastha". Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
17. Vanina, Eugenia (2012). Medieval Indian mindscapes : space, time, society, man. New Delhi: Primus Books. p. 178. ISBN 978-93-80607-19-1. OCLC 794922930. This group as demonstrated by epigraphical and literary texts, emerged in the period between the late ancient and early medieval times. Modern scholars explained this by the growth of state-machinery, complication of taxation system and fast spreading land-grant practice that required professional documenting fixation...Initially, these term referred only to the appointment of men from various castes, mainly Brahmans, into the Kayastha post. Gradually, the Kayasthas emerged as a caste-like community...
18. Shah, K. K. (1993). "Self Legitimation and Social Primacy: A Case Study of Some Kayastha Inscriptions From Central India". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 54: 858. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44143088.
19. Bellenoit, Hayden J. (2017). The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860. Routledge. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9781134494361.
20. Ray, Sunil Chandra (1950). "A Note on the Kāyasthas of Early-Mediaeval Kāśmīra". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 13: 124–126. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44140901.
21. Gupta, Chitrarekha (1983). "The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 20 (2): 191–204. doi:10.1177/001946468302000203. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 144941948. According to Romila Thapar, the offices which required formal education were usually occupied by the Brahmins, revenue collectors, treasurers and those concerned with legal matters belonged to this category. She says that the same was probably true of the important but less exalted rank of scribes, recorders and accountants.
22. Gupta, Chitrarekha (1983). "The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 20 (2): 193–194. doi:10.1177/001946468302000203. S2CID 144941948 – via SAGE.
23. Gupta, Chitrarekha (1983). "The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 20 (2): 195. doi:10.1177/001946468302000203. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 144941948. They seem to have had guilds of their own and the head of the guild, the prathama-kayastha, represented his class in the administration of the city. The profession of the kàyasthas, like those of the bankers, merchants and the artisans, was an independent one and was not necessarily associated with the king and his court....Thus it may be assumed that while the Brahmanas were engaged in studying religious literature, secular knowledge of document writing, etc., was the monopoly of a professional group, who came to be called Kayasthas.
24. Sahu, Bhairabi Prasad (2021), "Commerce and the Agrarian Empires: Northern India", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.596, ISBN 978-0-19-027772-7, The Gupta period witnessed the rise of the writers' class (Kayastha/Karana) with other symmetrical developments such as the spread of local state formation. Besides maintaining records, they also helped the administration of justice and commercial activities.
25. Shah, K. K. (1993). "Self Legitimation and Social Primacy: A Case Study of Some Kayastha Inscriptions From Central India". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 54: 858. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44143088.
26. Majumdar, R. C. (Ramesh Chandra), 1888-1980. Pusalker, A. D. Majumdar, A. K. Munshi, Kanaiyalal Maneklal (1990). The History and Culture of the Indian People. Vol. 4. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 395. OCLC 643663693.
27. Mazumdar, Bhakat Prasad (1960). Socio-economic history of northern India (1030-1194 A.D.). Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay. pp. 99, 104. OCLC 614029099. As we have got reference to the Gauda Kayasthas in the Apshad inscription, dated 672 AD...
28. Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra, 1888-1980. Pusalker, A. D. Majumdar, A. K. Munshi, Kanaiyalal Maneklal (1990). The history and culture of the Indian people. Vol. 4. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 374. OCLC 643663693.
29. Banu, U. A. B. Razia Akter (1992). Islam in Bangladesh. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-09497-0.
30. Luca, Pagani; Bose, Sarmila; Ayub, Qasim (2017). "Kayasthas of Bengal". Economic and Political Weekly. 52 (47): 44. ...which claimed that the Bengali King Adisur had invited five Brahmins from Kannauj, an ancient city in the northern Gangetic plains located in the present Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to migrate to Bengal, in eastern India. According to legend, these five Brahmins from Kannauj were accompanied by five Kayasthas, who became an "elite" subgroup described as "kulin" among the Kayasthas of Bengal...
31. Majumdar, R.C. (2001). Ramakrishnan, S. (ed.). History and Culture of the Indian People. Vol. 5. Public Resource. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 477. We have seen that the Kayasthas as a caste (as distinguished from the profession called by that name) can be traced back with the help of literary and epigraphic records to the latter half of the ninth century.
32. Ghosh, Jogendra Chandra; Ghosh, Jogesh Chandra (1931). "GLEANINGS FROM THE UDAYASUNDARĪ-KATHĀ". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 13 (3/4): 197–205. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 41688244 – via JSTOR. The earliest mention of Kayastha as a caste-name that we have hitherto been able to find, is in the Saojan copper-plate grant of the Rastrakuta king Amoghavarsa I, dated 871 A.D. It was written by Dharmadhikarana-senabhogika Gunadhavala of the Valabha-Kayastha-vamsa, i.e. the very Kayastha family to which our poet belonged.
33. Ghosh, Jogendra Chandra; Ghosh, Jogesh Chandra (1931). "GLEANINGS FROM THE UDAYASUNDARĪ-KATHĀ". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 13 (3/4): 197–205. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 41688244.
34. Kane, P.V. (1939). "A Note on the Kāyasthas". New Indian Antiquary (2): 740–43.
35. Gupta, Chitrarekha (1983). "The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 20 (2): 196. doi:10.1177/001946468302000203. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 144941948.
36. Deshpande, R. R. (1948). Visakhadattaʼs Mudraraksasa. Popular book Store, Surat. pp. ii.
37. Ray, Sunil Chandra (1950). "A NOTE ON THE KĀYASTHAS OF EARLY-MEDIAEVAL KĀŚMĪRA". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 13: 124–126. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44140901.
38. Kalhana (1989). Stein, Sir Marc Aurel (ed.). Kalhana's Rajatarangini: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. pp. 8, 39, 45. ISBN 978-81-20-80370-1.
39. Ray, Sunil Chandra (1957). "ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM IN EARLY KĀŚMĪRA". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 38 (3/4): 176. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 44082819. He also mentions the names of a few of the minor offices which had come into existence in the meantime. One of these was the office of the avaghasa-kayąstha, (fodderer for the horses) a position held for sometime by Durlabhavardhana.
40. Thapar, Romila (2013). The past before us : historical traditions of early north India. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 498. ISBN 978-0-674-72651-2. OCLC 859536567. He states that he comes from a family of scribes, his caste being karana (kāyastha).
41. O’Hanlon, Rosalind (2010). "The social worth of scribes". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 47 (4): 583. doi:10.1177/001946461004700406. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 145071541. ..Kayastha Camunda, a kayastha of the Naigama community, son of Kumbha and protégé of king Rajamalla of Mewad..
42. H T Colebrooke (1898). A Digest Of Hindu Law On Contracts And Successions Vol-I. pp. xvii. Lachmidhara composed a treatise on administrative justice by command of Govindachandra a king of Casi, sprung from the Vastava race of Cayasthas...
43. Imam, Fatima A. (2011). Kaminsky, Arnold P.; Long, Roger D. (eds.). India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic : L-Z, Volume 2. ABC-CLIO. pp. 404–405. ISBN 9780313374623.
44. "India - The Rajputs". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 January 2021. A number of new castes, such as the Kayasthas...According to the Brahmanic sources, they originated from intercaste marriages, but this is clearly an attempt at rationalizing their rank in the hierarchy.
45. Thapar, Romila (1998). A History of India. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Penguin Books. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-14-194976-5. OCLC 753563817. Some described them as kshatriyas , others ascribed their origin to a brahman-shudra combination. The mixed-caste origin ascribed to them may well have been a later invention of those who had to fit them into a caste hierarchy.
46. Ballbanlilar, Lisa (2012). Imperial Identity in Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern Central Asia. I.B. Taurus & Co., Ltd. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-84885-726-1.
47. Eaton, Richard Maxwell (1996). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760. University of California Press. pp. 102–103. ISBN 978-0-52020-507-9.
48. Chakrabarty, Dipesh (2015). The Calling of History: Sir Jadunath Sarkar and His Empire of Truth. University of Chicago Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-226-10045-6.
49. Srivastava, Kamal Shankar (1998). Origin and development of class and caste in India.
50. Owens, Raymond Lee; Nandy, Ashis (1978). The New Vaisyas. Carolina Academic Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-89089-057-8.
51. Varma, Pavan K. (2007). The Great Indian Middle class. Penguin Books. p. 28. ISBN 9780143103257.
52. Bhardwaj, Surinder Mohan (1983). Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography. University of California Press. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-520-04951-2.
53. Srinivasan, K.; Kumar, Sanjay (16–23 October 1999). "Economic and Caste Criteria in Definition of Backwardness". Economic and Political Weekly. 34 (42/43): 3052. JSTOR 4408536.
54. Imam, Fatima A. (2011). Kaminsky, Arnold P.; Long, Roger D. (eds.). India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic : L-Z, Volume 2. ABC-CLIO. pp. 404–405. ISBN 9780313374623.
55. "vaMza". Spokensanskrit.org. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
56. Shah, K. K. (1993). "Self Legitimation and Social Primacy: A Case Study of Some Kayastha Inscriptions From Central India". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 54: 859. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44143088.
57. Bellenoit, Hayden J. (2017). The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860. Taylor & Francis. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-134-49429-3.
58. Kumar, Saurabh (2015). "Rural Society and Rural Economy in the Ganga Valley during the Gahadavalas". Social Scientist. 43 (5/6): 29–45. ISSN 0970-0293. JSTOR 24642345. One thing is clear that by this time, Kayasthas had come to acquire prominent places in the court and officialdom and some were financially well-off to commission the construction of temples, while others were well-versed in the requisite fields of Vedic lore to earn the title of pandita for themselves. In our study, the epigraphic sources do not indicate the oppressive nature of Kayastha officials.
59. Bellenoit, Hayden J. (2017). "Kayasthas, 'caste' and administration under the Raj, c. 1860–1900". The formation of the colonial state in India: Scribes, paper and taxes, 1760–1860. Milton Park, Abingdon, UK. p. 155. ISBN 978-1-134-49429-3. OCLC 973222959. And while these Bhatnagar, Ambastha, Srivastava and Saxena families were important for the colonial state by the 1860s, they were also beneficiaries of British success and power in India. They shaped the materiality of administration and populated the ranks of the Raj's intermediary enforcement.....by 1900 they were broadly considered by various Indian , British and missionary observers to the most educated and influential of the service castes.
60. Andre Wink (1991). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Volume 1. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 269. ISBN 978-90-04-09509-0. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
61. Sharma, Tej Ram (1978). Personal and Geographical Names in the Gupta Empire. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. p. 115.
62. Sharad Hebalkar (2001). Ancient Indian Ports: With Special Reference to Maharashtra. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 978-81-215-0858-2.
63. Sunthankar, B. R. (1988). Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra: 1818–1857. p. 121. The [Chandraseniya] Kayastha Prabhus, though small in number, were another caste of importance in Maharashtra. They formed one of the elite castes of Maharashtra. They also held the position of Deshpandes and Gadkaris and produced some of the best warriors in the Maratha history
64. Milton Israel and N. K. Wagle, ed. (1987). Religion and Society in Maharashtra. Center for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada. pp. 147–170.
65. Aila-Leena Matthies; Kati Närhi (4 October 2016). The Ecosocial Transition of Societies: The contribution of social work and social policy. Taylor & Francis. pp. 110–. ISBN 978-1-317-03460-5.
66. Bellenoit, Hayden J. (2017). The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860. Taylor & Francis. pp. 173–176. ISBN 978-1-134-49429-3.
67. Kumar, Ashwani (2008). Community Warriors: State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar. Anthem Press. p. 195.
68. Pinch, William R. (1996). Peasants and monks in British India. University of California Press. pp. 73–75, 82–83. ISBN 978-0-520-20061-6. (index)108. Buchanan, Bihar and Patna, 1811–1812, 1:329–39; (pg)Bhagvan Prasad's ministrations reflected his own personal interpretation of the social mandate implicit in the religious message of Ramanand. However, Ramanandi ambivalence toward caste emerged in discussions about the prescribed stages of a sadhu's entry into the sampraday. In his biography of Bhagvan Prasad, Sahay expressed the view that originally anyone (including untouchables) could have become Ramanandi sadhus, but that by his time (the early 1900s), "Ramanandis bring disciples from only those jatis from whom water can be taken."[107] For those designated shudra by the elite, this phrase, "from whom water can be taken," was a common enough euphemism for a person of "pure shudra" status, with whom restricted physical contact could be made. From the elite perspective, such physical contact would have occurred in the course of consuming goods and services common in everyday life; the designation "pure shudra" implied a substantial body of "impure"—hence untouchable—people with whom physical contact was both unnecessary and improper. Buchanan, in the early nineteenth century, had included in the term "pure shudra" the well-known designations of Kayasth, Koiri, Kurmi, Kahar, Goala, Dhanuk (archers, cultivators, palanquin bearers), Halwai (sweet vendors), Mali (flower gardener), Barai (cultivator and vendor of betel leaves), Sonar (goldsmith), Kandu (grain parchers), and Gareri (blanket weavers and shepherds). As a result of their very public campaign for kshatriya status in the last quarter of the century, not to mention their substantial economic and political clout, Kayasths were classified along with "Babhans" and Rajputs as "other castes of twice-born rank" in the 1901 census hierarchy for Bihar.
69. Sinha, A. (2011). Nitish Kumar and the Rise of Bihar. Viking. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-670-08459-3. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
70. Rowe, William L. (2007) [1968]. "Mobility in the Nineteenth-century Caste System". In Singer, Milton; Cohn, Bernard S. (eds.). Structure and Change in India Society (Reprinted ed.). Transaction Publishers. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-202-36138-3.
71. Roberts, Michael (1982). "Casteism in South Asian politics during British times: Emergent cultural typifications or elite fictions?". Caste conflict and elite formation: The rise of a Karāva elite in Sri Lanka, 1500-1931. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0521052856. [Chapter 7: pp. 180-224]. Lucy Carroll has revealed how one cannot identify a temporal evolution from Sanskritist sacred goals to Westernised secular aims because the strategies of caste associations were mixed [...] She indicates that several of the apparently Sanskritist ascetic reforms advocated by caste associations derived from the influence of Victorian puritanism and other Western values [...] In three articles: 1975, 1977 and 1978. In these essays she also pinpoints factual and interpretative errors in William L. Rowe's presentation of the Kayastha movement.
72. Stout, Lucy Carol (1976). The Hindustani Kayasthas: The Kayastha Pathshala, and the Kayastha Conference, 1873–1914. University of California, Berkeley.
73. Inden, Ronald B. (1976). Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of Caste and Clan in Middle Period Bengal. University of California Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-520-02569-1.
74. Fuller, C. J.; Narasimhan, Haripriya (2014). Tamil Brahmans: The making of a middle caste. University of Chicago Press. p. 212. ISBN 9780226152882. In Bengal, the new middle class emergent under the British rule styled itself 'bhadralok', the gentry or "respectable people", and its principal constituents were the three Bengali high castes, Brahmans, Baidyas, and Kayasthas. Moreover, for the Bhadralok, a prestigious, refined culture based on education literacy and artistic skills, and the mastery of the Bengali language, counted for more than caste status itself for their social dominance in Bengal.
75. Novetzke, Christian Lee (2016). The Quotidian Revolution: Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India. Columbia University Press. p. 159. ISBN 9780231175807.
76. K. P. Bahadur, Sukhdev Singh Chib (1981). The Castes, Tribes and Culture of India. ESS Publications. p. 161. The [Chandraseniya] Kayastha Prabhus ... They performed three of the vedic duties or karmas, studying the Vedas adhyayan, sacrificing yajna and giving alms or dana ... The creed mostly accepted by them is that of the advaita school of Shankaracharya, though they also worship Vishnu, Ganapati and other gods.
77. Harold Robert Isaacs (1970). Harry M. Lindquist (ed.). Education: readings in the processes of cultural transmission. Houghton Mifflin. p. 88.
78. André Béteille (1992). Society and Politics in India: Essays in a Comparative Perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 48. ISBN 0195630661.
79. Aall, Ingrid (1971). Robert Paul Beech; Mary Jane Beech (eds.). Bengal: change and continuity, Issues 16–20. East Lansing: Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University. p. 32. OCLC 258335. Aurobindo's father, Dr Krishnadhan Ghose, came from a Kayastha family associated with the village of Konnagar in Hooghly District near Calcutta, Dr. Ghose had his medical training in Edinburgh...
80. Chakravarty, Ishita (1 October 2019). "Owners, creditors and traders: Women in late colonial Calcutta". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 56 (4): 427–456. doi:10.1177/0019464619873800. ISSN 0019-4646. S2CID 210540783.
81. Dhimatkar, Abhidha (16 October 2010). "The Indian Edison". Economic and Political Weekly. 45 (42): 67–74. JSTOR 20787477.
82. Gosling (2007). Science and the Indian Tradition: When Einstein Met Tagore.
83. Santimay Chatterjee; Enakshi Chatterjee (1976). Satyendra Nath Bose. National Book Trust, India. p. 12. Satyendra Nath was born in Calcutta on the first of January, 1894, in a high caste Kayastha family with two generations of English education behind him.
84. Farmelo, Graham, "The Strangest Man", Notes on Dirac's lecture Developments in Atomic Theory at Le Palais de la Découverte, 6 December 1945, UKNATARCHI Dirac Papers, p. 331, note 64, BW83/2/257889.
85. Miller, Sean (18 March 2013). Strung Together: The Cultural Currency of String Theory as a Scientific Imaginary. University of Michigan Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-472-11866-3.
86. Pelinka, A.; Schell, R. (2003). Democracy Indian Style: Subhas Chandra Bose and the Creation of India's Political Culture. Transaction Publishers. p. 32. ISBN 978-07-6580-186-9.
87. Sen, Surendra Nath (1949). Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri: Being the Third Part of the Travels of M. de Thevenot into the Levant and the Third Part of a Voyage Round the World by Dr. John Francis Gemelli Careri.
88. Sareen, Tilakraj (1994). Select Documents on the Ghadr Party. Mounto Publishing House. p. 20.
89. Malik, Yogendra K. (1981). South Asian intellectuals and social change: a study of the role of vernacular-speaking intelligentsia. Heritage. p. 63.
90. Kantak, M. R. (1978). "The Political Role of Different Hindu Castes and Communities in Maharashtra in the Foundation of the Shivaji Maharaj's Swarajya". Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute. 38 (1): 40–56. JSTOR 42931051.
91. Das, Sandip (2005). Jayaprakash Narayan: A Centenary Volume. Mittal Publications. p. 109. ISBN 978-81-8324-001-7.
92. Singh, M. K. (2009). Encyclopedia of Indian War of Independence (1857–1947). Anmol Publications. p. 130. Bipin Chandra Pal (1858–1932) a patriot, nationalist politician, renowned orator, journalist, and writer. Bipin Chandra Pal was born on 7 November 1858 in Sylhet in a wealthy Hindu Kayastha family
93. Israel, Milton; Wagle, N. K., eds. (1987). Religion and Society in Maharashtra. Center for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada. p. 166.
94. "Devdutt Pattanaik: Descendants of Chitragupta". mid-day. 18 February 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
95. Gupta, Prakash Chandra (1998). Makers of Indian Literature: Prem Chand. Sahitya Akademi. p. 7. ISBN 978-81-260-0428-7.
96. Kumar, Ashwani (2008). Community Warriors: State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar. Anthem Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-84331-709-8.
97. Schomer, Karine (1998). Mahadevi Varma and the Chhayavad Age of Modern Hindi Poetry. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-564450-6.
98. Bachchan, Harivansh Rai (1998). In the Afternoon of Time: An Autobiography. India: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780670881581.
99. Banhatti, G. S. (1995). Life and Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. p. 1. ISBN 978-81-7156-291-6.
100. Sananda Lal Ghosh,(1980), Mejda, Self-Realization Fellowship, p. 3

Further reading

• Mitra (Indian Civil Service, Superintendent of Census Operations), Asok (1953). The tribes and castes of West Bengal. Superintendent, Govt. Print. West Bengal Govt. Press.
• Leonard, Karen Isaksen (1994). Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad. Orient BlackSwan. ISBN 978-81-250-0032-7.

External links

• Media related to Kayastha at Wikimedia Commons

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Amrita [Soma]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/21/23

-- Chandra [Chandran] [Soma], by Wikipedia

-- Soma, food of the immortals according to the Bower Manuscript (Kashmir, 6th century A.D.), by Marco Leonti and Laura Casu, 2014

Mohini, the female form of Vishnu, holding the pot of amrita, which she distributes amongst all the devas, leaving the asuras without it. Darasuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Amrita (Sanskrit: अमृत, IAST: amṛta), Amrit or Amata in Pali, (also called Sudha, Amiy, Ami) is a Sanskrit word that means "immortality". It is a central concept within Indian religions and is often referred to in ancient Indian texts as an elixir.[1] Its first occurrence is in the Rigveda, where it is considered one of several synonyms for soma, the drink of the devas.[2] Amrita plays a significant role in the Samudra Manthana, and is the cause of the conflict between devas and asuras competing for amrita to obtain immortality.[3]

-- Myrobalan: The Elixir of Life - A life-prolonging fruit of the Himalayas, by Udo Stanglmeier (2002)

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-- Sidha Soma Supreme Triphala Ghee (7.5 OZ). Ingredients; Ghee, Amla fruit (Emblica officials), Billerica Myrobalan fruit (Terminalia belerica), Chebulic Myrobalan fruit (Terminalia Chebula), by The Ayurvedic Institute

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-- Soma, food of the immortals according to the Bower Manuscript (Kashmir, 6th century A.D.), by Marco Leonti and Laura Casu, 2014

Amrita has varying significance in different Indian religions. The word Amrit is also a common first name for Sikhs and Hindus, while its feminine form is Amritā.[4] Amrita is cognate to and shares many similarities with ambrosia; both originated from a common Proto-Indo-European source.[5][6]

Etymology

Amrita is composed of the negative prefix, अ a from Sanskrit meaning 'not', and mṛtyu meaning 'death' in Sanskrit, thus meaning 'not death' or 'immortal/deathless'.

The concept of an immortality drink is attested in at least two ancient Indo-European languages: Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. The Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosia) is semantically linked to the Sanskrit अमृत (amṛta) as both words denote a drink or food that gods use to achieve immortality. The two words appear to be derived from the same Indo-European form *ṇ-mṛ-tós, "un-dying"[7] (n-: negative prefix from which the prefix a- in both Greek and Sanskrit are derived; mṛ: zero grade of *mer-, "to die"; and -to-: adjectival suffix). A semantically similar etymology exists for Greek nectar, the beverage of the gods (Greek: νέκταρ néktar) presumed to be a compound of the PIE roots *nek-, "death", and -*tar, "overcoming".

Amrita is repeatedly referred to as the drink of the devas, which grants them immortality. Despite this, the nectar does not actually offer true immortality. Instead, by partaking it, the devas were able to attain a higher level of knowledge and power, which they had lost due to the curse of the sage Durvasa, as described in the Samudra Manthana legend. It tells how the devas, after the curse, begin to lose their immortality. Assisted by their rivals, the asuras, the devas begin to churn the ocean, releasing, among other extraordinary objects and beings, a pitcher of amrita, held by the deity Dhanvantari.[8]

Brahma enlightens the devas regarding the existence of this substance:[9]

O Devas, in the northern division and on the northern bank of the ocean of milk there is a most excellent place called Amrita (nectar): so the wise say. Go there and being self-controlled practise hard austerities. There you will hear most sacred, purified words relating to Brahman grave like the muttering of clouds surcharged with water in the rainy season. That celestial speech is destructive of all sins and was spoken by the god of gods of pure soul. So long as your vow will not terminate you will hear that great universal speech. O gods, you have come to me and I am ready to grant you boons. Tell me what boon you do want.

— Harivamsa Purana, Chapter 43

When the asuras claim the nectar for themselves, Vishnu assumes the form of the enchantress Mohini, and her beauty persuades the asuras to crudely offer her the task of its distribution:[10]

Seeing that beautiful form, they were fascinated and were overwhelmed with the passion of love. Giving up their mutual struggle, they approached and spoke:

“O blessed lady! Take this pitcher of Nectar and distribute it amongst us. We are the sons of Kaśyapa; O lady with beautiful buttocks, make us all drink it (Nectar).”

Requesting her thus, they handed it over to the lady who was reluctant. She spoke, “No faith should be entertained in me, as I am a self-willed (i.e. wanton) woman. You have done an improper act. I shall, however, distribute it as per my will.” Though she told them so, those stupid ones said, “Do as you please”.

— Skanda Purana, Chapter 13

Vishnu took the form of the beauty Mohini and distributed the amrita to devas. When Svarabhānu tried to steal the amrita, his head was cut off.

When the danava Rahu disguised himself as a deva and sat in the clan's row to partake in consuming the nectar, Surya and Chandra alerted Mohini of his presence. Mohini sliced his head off with her Sudarshana Chakra, and continued to distribute the nectar to every single one of the devas, after which she assumed her true form of Narayana and defeated the asuras in a battle.[11]

Sikhism

In Sikhism, amrit (Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ) is the name of the holy water used in Amrit Sanchar, a ceremony which resembles baptism. This ceremony is observed to initiate the Sikhs into the Khalsa and requires drinking amrit.[12] This is created by mixing a number of soluble ingredients, including sugar, and is then rolled with a khanda with the accompaniment of scriptural recitation of five sacred verses.

Metaphorically, God's name is also referred to as a nectar:

ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਸਬਦੁ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਹਰਿ ਬਾਣੀ ॥
Amrit sabad amrit hari bāṇī.
The Shabda is Amrit; the Lord's bani is Amrit.

ਸਤਿਗੁਰਿ ਸੇਵਿਐ ਰਿਦੈ ਸਮਾਣੀ ॥
Satiguri sēviai ridai samāṇī.
Serving the True Guru, it permeates the heart.

ਨਾਨਕ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਨਾਮੁ ਸਦਾ ਸੁਖਦਾਤਾ ਪੀ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤੁ ਸਭ ਭੁਖ ਲਹਿ ਜਾਵਣਿਆ ॥
Nānak amrit nāmu sadā sukhdātā pī amritu sabha bhukh lahi jāvaṇiā.
O Nanak, the Ambrosial Naam is forever the Giver of peace; drinking in this Amrit, all hunger is satisfied.[13]


Old Sikh fresco art from the Akal Takht, Amritsar of Guru Gobind Singh preparing Amrit

Buddhism

Buddha is called as "Amata Santam" in Pali Literature.

Theravada Buddhism

According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "the deathless" refers to the deathless dimension of the mind which is dwelled in permanently after nibbana.[14]

In the Amata Sutta, the Buddha advises monks to stay with the four Satipatthana: "Monks, remain with your minds well-established in these four establishings of mindfulness. Don't let the deathless be lost to you."[15]

In the questions for Nagasena, King Milinda asks for evidence that the Buddha once lived, wherein Nagasena describes evidence of the Dhamma in a simile:

"Revered Nagasena, what is the nectar shop of the Buddha, the Blessed One?"

"Nectar, sire, has been pointed out by the Blessed One. With this nectar the Blessed One sprinkles the world with the devas; when the devas and the humans have been sprinkled with this nectar, they are set free from birth, aging, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. What is this nectar? It is mindfulness occupied with the body. And this too, sire, was said by the Blessed One: 'Monks, they partake of nectar (the deathless) who partake of mindfulness that is occupied with the body.' This, sire, is called the Blessed One's nectar shop."

— Miln 335[16]

Chinese Buddhism

Chinese Buddhism describes Amrita (Chinese: 甘露; pinyin: gānlù) as blessed water, food, or other consumable objects often produced through merits of chanting mantras.

Vajrayana Buddhism

See also: Pre-sectarian Buddhism § Ideas and practices

Amrita (Tibetan: བདུད་རྩི་, Wylie: bdud rtsi, THL: dütsi) also plays a significant role in Vajrayana Buddhism as a sacramental drink which is consumed at the beginning of all important rituals such as the abhisheka, ganachakra, and homa. In the Tibetan tradition, dütsi is made during drubchens – lengthy ceremonies involving many high lamas. It usually takes the form of small, dark-brown grains that are taken with water, or dissolved in very weak solutions of alcohol and is said to improve physical and spiritual well-being.[17]

The foundational text of traditional Tibetan medicine, the Four Tantras, is also known by the name The Heart of Amrita (Wylie: snying po bsdus pa).

The Immaculate Crystal Garland (Wylie: dri med zhal phreng) describes the origin of amrita in a version of the samudra manthana legend retold in Buddhist terms. In this Vajrayana version, the monster Rahu steals the amrita and is blasted by Vajrapani's thunderbolt. As Rahu has already drunk the amrita he cannot die, but his blood, dripping onto the surface of this earth, causes all kinds of medicinal plants to grow. At the behest of all the Buddhas, Vajrapani reassembles Rahu who eventually becomes a protector of Buddhism according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Inner Offering (Wylie: Nang chod, Chinese: 内供) is the most symbolic amrita offering assembly, and the Inner Offering Nectar Pill (Wylie: Nang chod bdud rtsi rilbu, Chinese: 内供甘露丸) is a precious and secret medicine of Tibetan Buddhism, which are only used internally for higher-ranking monks in Nyingma school. Its ingredients including Five Amrita and Five Meat, which represents five buddhas, and five elements respectively. According to Tantras of Chakravarti, and Tantras of Vajravārāhī, a ceremony needs to be held for melting and blessing the Inner-Offering Nectar. Five Nectar needs to be arranged in four directions: yellow excrement in the east, green bone marrow in the north, white semen in the west and red blood in the south; blue urine is placed in the center. Four Nectar should come from wise monks and the ova should be collected from the first menstruation of a blessed woman. The Five Meats are arranged similarly, meat of black bull in the southeast, the meat of the blue dog in the southwest, the meat of the white elephant in the northwest, the meat of the green horse in the northeast, and the meat of a red human corpse in the center. After the ceremony, these ingredients will transform into a one taste (ekarasa) elixir, which bestows bliss, vitality, immortality and wisdom. Actual modern practitioner will take a 'synthesized essence' of the Nectar Pill and combined it with black tea or alcohol, but mostly the "Nectar Pill" are derived from plants.[18]

See also

Look up amrita in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Ameretat
• Ambrosia
• Elixir of Life
• Panchamrita
• Peaches of Immortality
• Potion
• Soma
• Traditional Tibetan medicine
• All pages with titles beginning with Amrit
• All pages with titles beginning with Amrut

References

1. "amrita | Hindu mythology | Britannica". http://www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
2. "Soma: The Nectar of the Gods". History of Ayurveda. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
3. Pattanaik, Devdutt (February 27, 2016). "Good deva-bad asura divide misleading". The Times of India. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
4. "BBC - Religions - Sikhism: Amrit ceremony". http://www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
5. Walter W. Skeat, Etymological English Dictionary
6. "Ambrosia" in Chambers's Encyclopædia. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 315.
7. Mallory, J. P. (1997). "Sacred drink". In Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 538. Mallory also connects to this root an Avestan word, and notes that the root is "dialectally restricted to the IE southeast".
8. Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 66.
9. http://www.wisdomlib.org (2020-11-14). "Brahma Instructs the Devas to Go to Vishnu [Chapter 43]". http://www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
10. http://www.wisdomlib.org (2020-03-05). "Gods Drink the Nectar [Chapter 13]". http://www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
11. http://www.wisdomlib.org (2020-03-05). "Gods Drink the Nectar [Chapter 13]". http://www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
12. "Taking Amrit: Initiation". pluralism.org. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
13. Guru Granth Sahib, page 119
14. "All About Change", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 5 June 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... hange.html
15. "Amata Sutta: Deathless" (SN 47.41), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 17 February 2012, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
16. "The Blessed One's City of Dhamma: From the Milindapañha", based on the translation by I.B. Horner. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... bl130.html
17. Dutsi, A Brief Description of the Benefits of the Sacred Ambrosial Medicine, The Unsurpassable, Supreme Samaya Substance that Liberates Through Taste.
18. The handbook of Tibetan Buddhist symbols, Robert Beer. ISBN 1590301005, Boston, MA. :Shambhala, 2003.

Sources

• Dallapiccola, Anna L. Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend. ISBN 0-500-51088-1

External links

• Ayurvedic Rasayana – Amrit
• Immortal Boons of Amrit and Five Kakars
• Depictions in stone at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (Cambodia) of how the gods dredged amrit from the bottom of the ocean
• https://web.archive.org/web/20110110035 ... rowley.htm
• https://web.archive.org/web/20110707061 ... brosia.htm

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Offer therefore to Indra this (soma), as fiery as he himself can be; this (soma), ornament of sacrifice, joy of mortals, love of (god) who descends towards us, and gives us happiness....

Indra's breast, thirsty with soma, must always be filled with it: as the sea is always (swollen with water), so the tongue is constantly moistened with saliva....

In this place where, like two djaghanas, appear the two basins intended for the soma, Indra, come and drink the juice prepared in the mortar....

Whatever work you are employed in every house, O mortar! resounds in a brilliant manner, like the drum of the victors.

O pestle! at your extremity the air blows with force. O mortar! prepare Indra's drink.

O mortar! o pestle! instruments of sacrifice, you who prepare the dishes (of the gods), separate yourselves, unite like the jaws which grind the food.

HUNG. In the mortar of the blazing wrathful female,
By the beat of the vajra hammer,
Even gods can be slain.

-- -- The Miraculous Activity Sadhana of Vajrakilaya, the Razor Which Destroys at a Touch, by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje

Noble wooden instruments, with these noble soma makers, you prepare for us today for Indra a drink as sweet as honey.

Thou, (Haristchandra), carry away the soma falls into the basin; pour it on the filter, and let the cowhide receive it ...

O Soma, you who are like the immortal prince (of this feast), hear (these prayers) which celebrate your glory!...

Son of Canwa, the libations, treasure of the resplendent (god), are arranged in their basin. (O Aswins), where is your form?

However the soma is colored, the sun begins to turn golden. I see it in Agni's tongue turning black...

The intoxicating soma is prepared, and the priest adds to it the harmony of his songs....

Our joyous libations, poured out in your honor and carried on the wings of the hawk (poetic), have intoxicated your heart. Strengthened by these offerings, (god) armed with lightning, in the midst of the (celestial) waves, you have vigorously struck Vritra, thus consecrating your kingship....

1. O Soma, your services are appreciated by our spirit. You lead us in the best way. Under your direction, o god called Hindu, our fathers, pious and wise, obtained the favor of the gods.

2. O Soma, holy in holy things, strong in strong things, generous in bountiful things, abundant in abundant things, you are opulent, you are great, you are the preceptor of men.

3. Your works are those of the royal Varouna; your influence, o Soma, is wide and deep. Pure like lovable Mitra, like Aryaman, o Soma, you give increase (to beings).

4. The influence that you possess in heaven, on earth, on images, plants and waters, O Soma, gentle and clement king, deign to exercise it in our favor, and accept our holocausts!

5. O Soma, you are the master of the saints, you are king and conqueror of Vritra, you are the agent of our happiness.

6. Death shall not overtake us, (if) thy desire is that we live, o Soma, thou who lovest our praises, and art Vanaspati.

7. O Soma, you give to the man who offers the sacrifice, whether young or old, a fitting share in the goods of life.

8. King Soma, defend us against all the wicked; the friend (of a god) such as you cannot perish.

9. O Soma, grant us these protective aids with which you surround your faithful.

10. Accept this sacrifice and this hymn, and come, O Soma, to increase our well-being!

11. By our songs we know how to increase your glory, o Soma! Come visit us kindly.

12. O Soma, increase our wealth, ward off disease from us, enlarge our treasures, double our opulence; be a true friend to us!

13. Soma, be happy in our hearts, like the cow in the pasture, like the father of the family in his house.

14. Divine Soma, a wise and benevolent (god), (like you), attaches himself to the mortal who puts his happiness in your friendship.

15. O Soma, deliver us from imprecation! keep us from evil! be a diligent friend to us!

16. Believe then, o Soma! appear in all the fullness of your strength, and gather in you all good things!

17. Believe, blessed Soma, and adorn yourself in all your splendours! Be a friend who opens to us the source of abundance and glory!

18. Conqueror of your enemies, may the sweetness, abundance and strength of food be united in you! Crescent, o Soma, for the immortal ambrosia, become for us in heaven the treasury of the most precious food!

19. All these goods, which are offered here in holocaust, come from you: that (Agni) envelops (with his flames) our sacrifice! O Soma, you who increase our opulence and who make our salvation, you who are the strength of our heroes and the death of our enemies, come and visit our homes.

20. To him who honors him, Soma gives cows, light steeds, courageous and skilful sons, distinguished in their household, in the sacrifices, in the assemblies, subject to their father.

21. O Soma, let us be happy with a (god like you), who, invincible in war, fulfills our wishes in battle, who gives us prosperity with the waters (of the rain), who protects the sacrifice, and who, growing in the midst of offerings, possessor of a brilliant abode, shows himself glorious and triumphant.

22. O Soma, it is you who have produced all the plants, the waters and the cows, you who have extended the vast sky, you who in your light buried the darkness.

23. Mighty God, o Soma, may your divine prudence grant us the share of riches (which we desire)! Fight for us; no one can fight you. Thou art lord of might, and reigneth over both parties: give us superiority in battle....

4. Agni and Soma, we know your power. It burst, when you took away from Pani the (celestial) cows of which he was the guardian; when you killed the son of Brisaya, and caused the unique light (of the sun) to shine for all.

5. It is you, Agni and Soma, who, uniting your efforts, have placed in heaven these sparkling (stars); you, Agni and Soma, who delivered the chained rivers from the odious imprecation launched against them.

6. Matariswan comes from heaven to animate one of you (with his breath); the other is drawn from the mortar by the (poetic) hawk. It is you, Agni and Soma, who, growing through prayer, have, for the sacrifice, founded a large site.

7. Agni and Soma, come and take your share of our holocaust, and deign to have it as a pleasure. Beneficent (gods) and fortunes, be our protectors, and fill with happiness the one who sacrifices you.

8. Agni and Soma, protect the piety of (man) who honors the gods with a devoted soul and libations of butter; keep him from evil, and grant great prosperity to the faithful people.

9. Agni and Soma, you to whom we address the same offerings and the same invocations, receive our prayers: you are great among the gods.

10. Agni and Soma, give glory and wealth to him who pours this sacred butter in your honor.

11. Agni and Soma, may our burnt offerings be pleasing to you! come together with us.

12. Agni and Soma, take our couriers under your protection; let our cows multiply, and give their milk for our libations. Grant us strength with wealth. Let opulence become the price of our sacrifice!...

Let us pour the soma in honor of the powerful, liberal and generous (god), who possesses the force of justice, who, noble hero, knows, like the robber of the highway, to lay an ambush for the impious, and distribute his remains....

1. O Indra and Agni, on this magnificent chariot from the top of which you see all the worlds, come together, and drink from the soma which has been prepared.

2. The soma that I offer you to drink is as abundant as this universe is wide, deep, extended. O Indra and Agni, suffice your desires!

3. You have associated your names with glory. Together you killed Vritra. Together, o Indra and Agni, come and sit (at our sacrifice); Generous gods, taste the soma poured out to you by the father of the family.

4. So the fires are kindled for you; the butter, the cups and the bed of cousa, are prepared in your honor; libations are lavished; o Indra and Agni, come here for our happiness.

5. O Indra and Agni, these prowess, these vigorous manifestations, these ancient testimonies of a happy friendship, deign to renew them for us, and drink of the soma which has been prepared!

6. I have already said, honoring you with respect, that this soma was intended for those (gods) who are our life. Relying on my word, come, and drink from the soma which has been prepared....

(The victorious god) has just appeared: may he excite our transports of joy. It shines like the sun following the dawn. That offered by us without reserve, and accompanied by our songs, the soma springs from the sacred spoon onto the hearth....

Notes:

These liqueurs were made with grains that were allowed to ferment, or with the juice of asclepias acida, called soma....

Before the day of the sacrifice, the head of the family had to send to the mountains to fetch the soma (asclepias acida or sarcostema viminalis), collect the wood, and make all the arrangements for the offerings and the meal...

The chamu or tchamasa is a vase which contains the soma: it is also the spoon with which it is served. Sometimes this word is used for the skin filter through which the drink is passed to clarify it, and perhaps also for the press....

The expression is gravahasta, lapidem manu tenens; and the word graven no doubt designates the earthen vessels used in the sacrifices. It could well also be the mortars or the stones which were used to clean the barley or to crush the soma: however the mortar seems to have been made of wood....

Soma is not the god Lunus; it is the libation of the personified soma....

Or three times seven different offerings. On the occasion of this verse, the commentator explains that, in the vase of sacrifice, there are three kinds of offerings, which he qualifies as upper offerings, middle offerings, lower offerings. He also distinguishes three classes (varga) of sacrifices: the haviryadjnas, the pacayadjnas, the somasansthanas. He cites sacrifices belonging to each of these three classes, sacrifices in which the Ribhous were probably invoked. Elsewhere he says that there are seven offerings called hotra, and accompanied by the exclamation vachat....

Soma is libation personified. These waters here in question are sometimes taken for the different kinds of libations, and I think that all these invocations are addressed to the Waters considered in the sacrifice. Thus, in verse 17, when the poet speaks of the Waters which precede the birth of the Sun (Oupasourye), and of those which accompany it, it seems to me that he designates the libations of the morning and those of the day. In verse 18, the cows quenched by these Waters are the rays of Agni....

The Soma, pressed by the pestle in the mortar, was thrown into a basin (tchamou); it was poured over a filter, which was a pierced cowhide....

The commentator thinks that it is a question here of Soma, god of the moon, and of one of the constellations considered as his wives. I believe that Soma is the libation, and his beloved is the flame of Agni. These foods with which the chariot of the Aswins is loaded are either the offerings that are made to these gods, or the goods with which they fill men....

Soma, as we have already seen, is the libation personified: it is also given the name Hindu. The same two names still apply to the moon....

A legend tells that, in a sacrifice which is going to be celebrated in honor of the gods, is born first (that is to say is brought) Agni, the fire of the sacrifice, and, secondly, the mortar in which the seeds are crushed; in the third place, another person is born: it is Soma or the libation, which takes the name of Trita. Trita is in the cup of the sacrifice: the Asuras arrive, and place guards to prevent the consummation of the sacrifice. Trita kills these guards....

The text bears the word Syena, which is the name of the hawk, and at the same time the name of a poetic meter. The commentary indicates this meaning by representing the soma as the door on the wings of the Gayatri. Without this indication from the commentator, I would have heard that the soma is carried towards Indra by Agni, who has the swiftness of a hawk....

I don't think this hymn is dedicated to the Moon; it is intended to celebrate the god of the libation, called Soma and Hindu, names which have also been given to the Moon. The power of the Soma is that of the sacrifice itself....

In the midst of the songs of sacrifice, the Soma passes from the mortar into the cups....

The commentator supposes that this hymn is by Coutsa, or rather by a certain Richi called Trita, son of the Waters: the hymn was composed, he says, at a time when the latter, rushing into a well, could see the rays of the moon. We have already seen (see reading IV, note 36) a legend about the birth of the character known as Trita. Here, it is said that three Richis, Ecata, Dwita and Trita, traveled together in a forest; they came to a well. After having refreshed themselves, the companions of Trita threw him into this well, and seized his effects. Another legend considers Ecata, Dwita and Trita as one and the same character who is reborn up to three times. The meaning of this hymn can be allegorical; for Trita is the personified soma; he is in the well, that is to say in the basin which contains the libation; he aspires to get out of it, and addresses his complaints to all the gods. It even seems to me, from its name, that Trita must be especially the third libation, or that of the evening. After having been Ecata on first libation, Dwita or second libation, this character aspires to become Trita. I have heard in this sense the details of this evening hymn. Such is the position of things in the first stanza: the night is coming, and the moon is shining in the sky. We no longer see the rays of the sun. The Richi or rather Trita speaks....

Trita, being the soma personified, dwells in the place of sacrifice, where Agni shines with the seven rays....

The daughter of the Sun or of the Day (see reading VIII, hymn 1, verse 1), is the Night. The commentator relates that the daughter of the Sun, whom he names Sourya, was destined by him for Soma. The other gods also asked for her in marriage. They agreed that it would be the price of a race whose goal would be the sun; the Aswins were the victors, and put Sourya on their chariot. The passage we are explaining seems to indicate that the very daughter of the Sun, like another Hippodamia, ran the luck of the fight, and was victorious with the aid of the horse of the Aswins....

Section Two

O Indra, drink this limpid soma which the pestle has expressed from the treasure (from the seed), like the bull thirsty, yea, like the bull drinks (water) from the well. That to this source of intoxication (divine) which excites you and sustains you, your horses bring you, as well as the Days, yes, as well as the Days (bring) the Sun....

For you this soma has been pressed; for you it has been purified, and in the vase which contains it it takes on wonderful colors; yes, it has brilliant colors. This is what the children of Ayou and the Devas (mortals) offer you. O Vayou, bring your couriers; come join us; yes, pleasure is calling you, come join us.

With your hundred, with your thousand couriers, o Vayou, come and enjoy our sacrifice; yes, come and enjoy our holocausts. To you this solemn and shining soma in the rays of the sun! (Your servants) handed over to the priests (those drinks), which for you, o Vayou, they prepared with eager zeal; yes, with zealous eagerness....

O horse, you are Yama, you are Aditya, you are Trita, by mysterious agreement. At marked moments you find yourself sprinkled with soma: for you are recognized in the sky as three stations....

This sacred enclosure is the beginning of the earth; this sacrifice is the center of the world. This soma is the seed of the fruitful steed. This priest is the first patron of the (holy) word....

But I just saw thick smoke coming out of the lower part of the hearth. The brilliant soma was spread on the fire. These were the first duties to be fulfilled....

See, Indra, this sacrifice prepared for the gods, this meeting, these songs, this soma. O Sacra, come and sit on this lawn that strews the earth, and drink (of our liqueurs). Bring your Azure Horses here....

[At the Aswins] Your horses roam the worlds; your chariot soars through the air. Your wheels are overloaded (with goods); and when you come to drink the soma, you unite with the Auroras....

O Soma, if we have given you the pure substance of our cows, become Vatapi; puff yourself up for us.

O plant (which must serve for our libations), take the form of our (sacred) cakes; broad, salutary, airy, become Vatapi; puff yourself up for us....

1. (The being) who walks is as if stopped within dark vapours. The Darkness enveloped the two luminous torches.

2. But behold, (the Dawn) comes, and destroys this Darkness; it comes from the extremity of the sky, it strikes them down and reduces them to dust.

3. The Saras, the Cousaras, the Darbhas, the Seryas, the Mondjas, the Verinas, everything was invisible, and enveloped in this Darkness.

4. The cows were retired to their stables, the hosts of the forests to their lairs; the men were numb, all enveloped by this Darkness.

5. But these Darknesses have been betrayed by the morning, like thieves. O Darkness, you saw the light, and you arose from your sleep.

6. You have Heaven for father, Earth for mother, Soma for your brother, Aditi for sister. O Darkness, you have seen the light; get up, and return happily (to your stay).

7. Mutilated, cut to pieces, tapered like needles, go, o Darkness, and deliver us from your presence!

8. In the east the Sun rises in plain sight; he kills the Darkness, he devours all these black vapors, issued from malevolent geniuses.

9. Yes, the Sun rises to destroy many (evils); it is Aditya coming with the Winds to show himself to all, and kill the Darkness.

"The 'pure substance' or the 'elixir' ... obtained from the entrails of Mother Nature, is in alchemy nothing other than the gynergy so sought after in Tantrism. Just like the Tantric, the alchemist thus draws a distinction between the 'coarse' and the 'sublime' feminine. After the destruction of the 'dark mother', the so-called nigredo, the second phase follows, which goes by the name of albedo ('whitening'). The adept understands this to mean the 'liberation' of the subtle feminine ('pure substance') from the clutches of the coarse 'dragon' (prima materia)....

The master has thus transformed the black matter, which for him symbolizes the dark mother, following its burning or cutting up in his laboratory into an ethereal 'girl' and then distilled from this the 'pure Sophia', the incarnation of wisdom, the 'chaste moon goddess', the 'white queen of heaven'. One text talks 'of the transformation of the Babylonian whore into a virgin' (Evola, 1993, p. 207)....

Why are you so nasty to me?



It's not nice to throw ink on my face.

Now this transmutation is not, as a contemporary observer would perhaps imagine the process to be, a purely spiritual/mental procedure. In the alchemist’s laboratory, some form of black starting substance is in fact burned up, and a chemical, usually liquid substance really is extracted from this material, which the adept captures in a pear-shaped flask at the end of the experiment. The Indians refer to this liquid as rasa, their European colleagues as the 'elixir'. Hence the name for Indian alchemy — Rasayana.

Even though all the interpreters in the discussion of the alchemic 'virgin image' (the subtle feminine) are of the unanimous opinion that this is a matter of the spiritual and psychological source of inspiration for the man, this nevertheless has a physical existence as a magical fluid. The 'white woman', the 'holy Sophia' is both an image of desire of the masculine psyche and the visible elixir in a glass. (In connection with the seed gnosis we shall show that this is also the case in Tantrism.)

This elixir has many names and is called among other things 'moon dew”' or aqua sapientiae (water of wisdom) or 'white virgin milk'. The final (chemical) extraction of the wonder milk is known as ablactatio (milking). Even in such a concrete point there are parallels to Tantrism: In the still to be described 'Vase initiation' of the Kalachakra Tantra, the ritual vessels which are offered up to the vajra master in sacrifice, represent the wisdom consorts (mudras). They are called 'the vase that holds the white [the milk]' (Dhargyey, 1985, p.. Whatever ingredients this 'moon dew' may consist of, in both cultural circles, it is considered to be the elixir of wisdom (prajna) and a liquid form of gynergy. It is as strongly desired by every European adept as by every Tibetan tantric master....

We can thus state that, in Tantrism, the relation between the real woman (karma mudra) and the imaginary spirit woman (inana mudra) is the same as that between the dark mother (prima materia) and the 'chaste moon goddess' (the feminine life-elixir or gynergy) in European alchemy. Therefore, the sacrifice of karma mudra (prima materia), drawn usually from the lower classes, and her transformation into a Buddhist 'goddess' (inana mudra) is an alchemic drama. Another variation upon the identical hermetic play emerges in the victory of the vajra master over the dark horror dakini (prima materia) and her slaughter, after which she (post mortem) enters the tantric stage as a gentle, floating figure — as a nectar-giving 'sky walker' ('the chaste moon goddess'). The witch-like cemetery whore has transformed herself into a sweet granter of wisdom.

-- "The Shadow of the Dalai Lama," by Victor and Victoria Trimondi

-- Temptations of Dr. Antonio (Le Tentazioni Del Dottor Antonio), directed by Federico Fellini, Starring Anita Ekberg and Peppino De Felippo

10. (Couchoumbhaca speaks). "Let these vapors to my voice extend over the Sun, like those tents with which the dwelling of the man who distributes sweet liquors is covered. Like the Sun, let us be immortal! The (god) whom carry azure steeds, of these waves united to the Sun in the celestial abode, formed you, sweet liquor of immortality!

11. "Like a magnificent bird, (he rises) and absorbs your vapours. Like the Sun, let us be immortal! The (god) carried by azure steeds, of those waves united to the Sun in the celestial abode, formed you, sweet liquor of immortality!...

He who deserves the prayer of the rich and the poor, of the priest and the poet who begs him; who, distinguished by his beautiful face, is the guardian of the soma presented to him by the (sacred) cup: peoples, this is Indra....

[To Indra] 1. The (rainy) season is the mother of the plant (of the soma); (the plant) is born and grows rapidly in the midst of the waters with which it is surrounded. It grows branches that fill with juice. But what gives the soma this increase is what must first be sung.

2. Streams of juice flow from all sides, and go to the same vase which contains them. They all follow the same path. O you who have done this, it is you who must first be sung.

3. A man accompanies the offerings with his voice; another comes who undertakes the works, and who consumes the articles of the sacrifice; by the orders of a third everything is executed. O you who have done this, it is you who must first be sung.

4. The assistants share with the various beings the happy fruits of the sacrifice. They go after wealth, which becomes for them like too heavy a burden. (Agni), skilled in breaking the bonds of things, crushes under his teeth the offerings of the father of the family. O you who have done this, it is you who must first be sung.

5. You who discovered the earth in the face of heaven; you who, by the death of Ahi, gave rise to the (celestial) rivers; you, divine being, whom the Devas have formed with their praises, as with the waters one forms the food (of men), it is you who must be sung.

6. You who give food; who, from the moistened (stem) which you have swollen, draws grain as sweet as honey; who are a treasure to your servant, it is you who must be sung.

7. You who, to manifest your supreme generosity, have produced salutary flowers and plants; who have formed the various lights of heaven; who has spread wide spaces like you, it is you who should be sung....

Priests, offer Indra the happy (soma); purified by the fire of the venerable (Agni), let him be presented to (a god) no less venerable. Indra loves what comes from your hands: give him the intoxicating soma....

During the tricadrous, may the great, the resplendent (Indra) come, at his pleasure, with Vishnu, take our barley offerings and drink the soma! Let him get drunk on our beverages to be able to accomplish his great work, (this god) vast and great! May this holy and divine liquor unite with the holy and divine Indra!...

From Soma and Pouchan are born Wealth, and Heaven, and Earth. Hardly had these two guardians of the world seen the light of day, than the Devas surrounded them with their pious ambrosia.

That (the Devas) honor these gods at their birth; may these gods dispel the abhorred darkness. That with Soma and Pouchan, Indra produce within the young cows (celestes) an abundant milk....

Get abundant soma, as sweet as honey, offered to you by the children of Sounahotra. Drink this intoxicating and happy (liquor)....

-- Rig-Veda Or Book Of Hymns, Translated from Sanskrit by M. Langlois, Member of the Institut, 1848

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

Soma, food of the immortals according to the Bower Manuscript (Kashmir, 6th century A.D.)
by Marco Leonti, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari (CA), Italy
Laura Casu, Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari (CA), Italy
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Available online 5 June 2014
© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 0706758712; fax: þ39 0706758553.
E-mail addresses: marcoleonti@netscape.net, mleonti@unica.it (M. Leonti).

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“By this time the soma had begun to work. Eyes shone, cheeks were flushed, the inner light of universal benevolence broke out on every face in happy, friendly smiles”

-- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932

Abstract

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Food is medicine and vice versa. In Hindu and Ayurvedic medicine, and among human cultures of the Indian subcontinent in general, the perception of the food-medicine continuum is especially well established. The preparation of the exhilarating, gold-coloured Soma, Amrita or Ambrosia, the elixir and food of the ‘immortals’ -- the Hindu pantheon -- by the ancient Indo-Aryans, is described in the Rigveda in poetic hymns. Different theories regarding the botanical identity of Soma circulate, but no pharmacologically and historically convincing theory exists to date. We intend to contribute to the botanical, chemical and pharmacological characterisation of Soma through an analysis of two historical Amrita recipes recorded in the Bower Manuscript. The recipes are referred therein as panaceas (clarified butter) and also as a medicine to treat nervous diseases (oil), while no exhilarating properties are mentioned. Notwithstanding this, we hypothesise, that these recipes are related to the ca. 1800 years older Rigvedic Soma. We suppose that the psychoactive Soma ingredient(s) are among the components, possibly in smaller proportions, of the Amrita recipes preserved in the Bower Manuscript.

Materials and methods: The Bower Manuscript is amedical treatise recorded in the 6th century A.D. in Sanskrit on birch bark leaves, probably by Buddhist monks, and unearthed towards the end of the 19th century in Chinese Turkestan. We analysed two Amrita recipes from the Bower Manuscript, which was translated by Rudolf Hoernle into English during the early 20th century. A database search with the updated Latin binomials of the herbal ingredients was used to gather quantitative phytochemical and pharmacological information. Results: Together, both Amrita recipes contain around 100 herbal ingredients. Psychoactive alkaloid containing species still important in Ayurvedic, Chinese and Thai medicine and mentioned in the recipe for ‘Amrita-Prâsa clarified butter’ and ‘Amrita Oil’ are: Tinospora cordifolia (Amrita, Guduchi), three Sida spp., Mucuna pruriens, Nelumbo nucifera, Desmodium gangeticum, and Tabernaemontana divaricata. These species contain several notorious and potential psychoactive and psychedelic alkaloids, namely: tryptamines, 2-phenylethylamine, ephedrine, aporphines, ibogaine, and L-DOPA. Furthermore, protoberberine alkaloids, tetrahydro- - carbolines, and tetrahydroisoquinolines with monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAO-I) activity but also neurotoxic properties are reported.

Conclusions: We propose that Soma was a combination of a protoberberine alkaloids containing Tinospora cordifolia juice with MAO-I properties mixed together with a tryptamine rich Desmodium gangeticum extract or a blending of Tinospora cordifolia with an ephedrine and phenylethylamine-rich Sida spp. extract. Tinospora cordifolia combined with Desmodium gangeticum might provide a psychedelic experience with visual effects, while a combination of Tinospora cordifolia with Sida spp. might lead to more euphoric and amphetaminelike experiences.

1. Introduction

The attempt of botanically identifying Soma, or the ingredients of soma-rasa, the ritual and intoxicating drink of the ancient Indo-Aryans, produced a wealth of theories and literature (e.g. Wasson, 1968; Falk, 1989; Flattery and Schwartz, 1989; McKenna, 1992; McDonald, 2004). Praised in the Rigveda as ‘Soma’ and in the Avesta as ‘Haoma’, both terms have their origin in the Indo-Iranian ‘sau’ meaning to “crush or grind by pressing with a pestle in a mortar” (Flattery and Schwartz, 1989, p.: 117). The Rigveda is the oldest text transmitted from the Vedic period, which lasted from approximately 1900 B.C. to around 1200 B.C. (Witzel, 1997). In the Vedas, Soma was simultaneously conceived of as a god, a plant, and as the earthly equivalent to Amrita (‘non-death’–‘a-mrta’), the celestial food of the immortals (see McDonald (2004)). The central geographic area of the Rigveda is the Punjab (Eastern Pakistan and North-western India), which coincides with what is generally regarded as the homeland of the Indo-Aryans (Witzel, 1987; McDonald, 2004).

Most commentators who approached the botanical identification of ‘the’ soma plant were tempted by the scarce hints at plant morphology occurring in the 9th book (‘Mandala’, Sanskrit: ) of the Rigveda (see for example: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/ The_Rig_Veda/Mandala_9). The contradictory and multi-interpretable metaphors and botanical allusions throughout the 114 hymns dedicated to Soma in the 9th Mandala, however, render an unambiguous botanical identification very difficult. In fact, the different commentators do not even agree whether Soma was an herb, a creeper, a tree or even a fungus. Hymn 96, verse 2 alludes to a climber or vine: “Men decked with gold adorn his golden tendril…”. Hence, different commentators agreed that Soma was a vine or a climber. Srivastava (1954, p.: 26) writes that in the Rigveda soma “is described as a milky climbing plant, the juice of which was immensely liked by the celestial gods…” and that soma-rasa (the Soma juice) was prepared by pounding the entire creepers collected in the morning (p.: 28). Although Shrivastava gives no references he states that several authors suggested different botanical identification including Sarcostemma acidum (Roxb.) Voigt (Apocynaceae). Also Lewin (1973, p.: 216) mentions, amongst other species, two latex-bearing Apocynaceae as possible ingredients for Soma: Periploca aphylla Decne. (unresolved, Apocynaceae) and Sarcostemma brevistigma Wight & Arn. (= Sarcostemma acidum (Roxb.) Voigt, Apocynaceae). Milk plays indeed an important role in the preparation of Soma but there are no clues that the soma plant itself had a milky juice or latex. Rather it appears that a golden or yellow (also red-brownish) watery plant juice produced with the help of pressing stones, was either first blended with milk and then cleansed by means of a fleece or sheep's wool or that the juice was first cleansed and then blended with milk and subsequently mixed with a sort of oil:

Rigveda, Mandala 9, hymn 101, verse 11: “Effused by means of pressing-stones…” h. 101, v. 12: “These Soma juices, skilled in song, purified, blent with milk and curd, when moving and when firmly laid in oil, resemble lovely suns”. H. 69, v. 9: “…effused, they pass the cleansing fleece, while, gold-hued, they cast their covering off to pour the rain down.” H. 72, v. 1: “They cleanse the gold-hued: like a red steed is he yoked, and Soma in the jar is mingled with the milk.” H. 103, v. 2: “Blended with milk and curds he flows on through the long wool of the sheep.” H. 107, v. 26: “Urged onward by the pressers, clad in watery robes, Indu is speeding to the vat.” H. 8, v. 6: “When purified within the jars, Soma, bright red and golden-hued, hath clothed him with a robe of milk.” H. 109, v. 21: “…they cleanse thee for the gods, gold-coloured, wearing water as thy robe.” H. 107, v. 10: “Effused by stones, o Soma, and urged through the long wool of the sheep, thou, entering the saucers as a man the fort, gold-hued hast settled in the wood.” H. 31, v. 5: “For thee, brown-hued! the kine have poured imperishable oil and milk.” H. 98, v. 7: “Him with the fleece they purify, brown, golden-hued, beloved of all, who with exhilarating juice goes forth to all the deities”. H. 78, v. 4: “He whom the gods have made a gladdening draught to drink, the drop most sweet to taste, weal-bringing, red of hue.” H. 107, v. 4: Cleansing thee, Soma, in thy stream, thou flowest in a watery robe: Giver of wealth, thou sittest in the place of law, o god, a fountain made of gold.” (See: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rig_Veda/Mandala_9).

Flattery and Schwartz report that Sarcostemma acidum is one of the plants used today by Brahmans as a substitute for the ancient Soma and also Padhy and Dash (2004) have gathered anecdotal evidence that in some parts of India a sort of soma ritual is still being practiced employing Sarcostemma acidum, which, however, does not have the capacity to alter one's state of mind. This results in the paradoxical situation that, while in present day soma rituals the recited liturgies allude to the intoxicating effects of the potion, the plants used in contemporary settings lack any intoxicating properties (Flattery and Schwartz, 1989, p.: 4). In fact, the hymns in the 9th Mandala of the Rigveda speak of “granter of bliss” (h. 1, v. 3), “runs forth to the luminous realm of heaven” (h. 37, v. 3), “rapturous joy” (h. 45, v. 3), “bring us all felicities” (h. 62, v. 1), “bringing wisdom and delight” (h. 63, v. 24), “light that flashes brilliantly” (h. 64, v. 28) “gladdening draught to drink” (h. 78, v. 4), or “exhilarating juice” (h. 98, v. 7). Flattery and Schwartz (1989) defend the opinion that the botanical identity of ‘Haoma’ in the Iranian traditions as well as that of ‘Soma’ of the Hindu traditions is the Syrian rue (Peganum harmala L., Nitrariaceae) containing harmala alkaloids with monoamine oxidase inhibitory (MAO-I) activity. Falk (1989) on the other hand argues that “there is no need to look for a plant other than Ephedra for the original Soma” since ephedrine (30) containing Ephedra spp. are referred to as ‘hum’, ‘hom’, ‘som’ or ‘soma’ in different languages and because the Parsi in Iran still use Ephedra sp. in their Haoma ritual. Hints from the artistic and mythic wealth of India and southeast Asia led McDonald (2004) to hypothesise that the botanical identity of Soma is to be found in the ‘eastern’ or ‘sacred’ lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., Nelumbonaceae). The sacred lotus is not only a highly symbolic plant associated with Hindu and Buddhist gods (McDonald, 2004) but also an important food and medicinal plant (Mukherjee et al., 2009).

We argue that focusing on the identification of a single “soma species” or single soma recipe contributed much to the inconsistencies present in the different identification attempts and the apparent contradictions between the proposed theories and botanical species. In this contribution we attempt to circumscribe the plant species that come into consideration for the preparation of Soma and try to identify Soma's botanical identity. Systematic and multidisciplinary botanical and medico-therapeutic analyses of ancient medical scripts and herbal books can help to provide more verified insights into the history and evolution of plant use (Leonti, 2011). We assume that over the course of time the Soma recipe evolved and that more than only one soma recipe existed and that Soma was a more or less complex herbal drug formulation including different species, some more symbolic, some less indispensable for the mind-altering effect, than others. Our attempt of botanically identifying soma is based on the analysis of two herbal formulations reported in the so-called “Bower Manuscript” referred therein as (I) “Amrita-Prâsa clarified butter” (Hoernle, 2011, p.: 90–91) and (II) “Amrita Oil” (Hoernle, 2011, p.: 106–107).

2. The Bower Manuscript


Fig. 1. Pôthi of the Bower Manuscript, taken from Hoernle (2011, Plate VII).

The Bower Manuscript (BM) was dug out from a man-made, mound-like construction called ‘stûpa’ close to the underground city of Ming-oï-Qumturâ, 16 miles west from Kuchar (Hoernle, 2011, p.: iv). Kuchar is an oasis settlement with a Buddhist history situated on the Silk Road in Eastern Turkestan (China) north of Takla Makan. The manuscript is named after Lieutenant Hamilton Bower, who acquired the script in Kuchar in 1890 (Hoernle, 2011). The BM is written in, as Rudolf Hoernle [1841–1918] calls it, ungrammatical Sanskrit, a mixture of literary and popular Sanskrit. The script used throughout the manuscript is known as the ‘Gupta’ script coinciding with the era of the Gupta Empire [300–550 A.D.] of northern India (p.: xxvi). Remarkably, the BM is the hitherto oldest known original medical treatise from the Indian subcontinent (Hoernle, 2011, foreword and p.: lxviii). Written by four different authors (p.: xxxvii) on birch bark leaves (cut from periderm of Betula utilis D. Don (Betulaceae)), the BM is actually a collection of seven separate manuscripts originally presented in the form of a ‘pôthi’ (Fig. 1; p.: xvii) a collection of loose leaves in-between two wooden boards held together “by a string which passes through a hole drilled through the whole pile” (p.: xvii). Pôthis seem to be South Indian in origin, since the palm-leaf of Corypha umbraculifera L. (Arecaceae) was the original writing support of pôthis and thereby also determined their overall shape (p.: xviii). Himalayan birch, (Betula utilis) is native only to Kashmir and Udyâna in the North of India (p.: xx). The writing style and the fact that the authors used birch bark for their records led Hoernle to conclude that the scribes of parts I–III and parts V–VII, most probably Buddhist monks, migrated from an unknown location in India via Kashmir or Urdyâna to Kuchar, where they finally manufactured the manuscripts.

Through a comparative analysis of particularities in the script-style of the BM, Sander (1987) argues that especially parts I–III contain elements typical for ancient Kashmiri scripts and that the BM is in reality a product of Kashmir itself. Sander (1987) provides also evidence suggesting that the BM was written between the beginning and the middle of the sixth century A.D. shifting the date of origin proposed by Hoernle around 150 years towards the present and towards the end of the Gupta Empire. According to Hoernle (p.: xxxvi), the author of part II, which contains the two recipes that are the object of this analysis, probably came from the northern fringe of the northern part of the Indian ‘Gupta script’ area (Hoernle, p.: xxxvi).

3. Methods

The plant species contained in both formulations, the “Amrita-Prâsa clarified butter” (I) and the “Amrita oil” (II), botanically identified by Hoernle (2011) through an analysis of their Sanskrit names and provided with Latin binomials were cross-checked with theplantlist.org (http://www.theplantlist.org/) for synonyms and their accepted contemporary Latin binomials. The updated Latin binomials appear framed in square brackets in recipes I (4.1.) and II (4.2.).

A literature search focusing on psychoactive secondary metabolites and associated pharmacologic effects was performed with the updated Latin binomials and the help of search engines such as Scopus and Pubmed. Special attention was given to quantitative phytochemical analyses.

4. Recipes

4.1. (I) The Amrita-Prâsa clarified butter (Hoernle, 2011, pp.: 90–91).

The numbers in brackets refer to the ślôka [sûtras], see also Srivastava (1954, p.: 153), while the superscript numbers are identical to Hoernle's text and refer to notes therein.

“The Amrita-Prâsa Clarified Butter,55 in 11 ślôka and 1 pâda. (Verses 108-119a.). I will now describe the ambrosia-like elixir, which increases the strength of men, the so-called Amrita-prâśa (or Food of the Immortals), a most noble kind of clarified butter. (109) Take one prastha each of the juice of emblic myrobalan [Phyllanthus emblica L., (Phyllanthaceae)], Kshîravidârî (Ipomoea digitata) [Ipomoea cheirophylla O'Donell, (Convolvulaceae)] and sugar cane [Saccharum officinarum L., (Poaceae)], and similarly of the milk of a heifer (110) one prastha, and add one well-measured prastha of fresh clarified butter. Throw in, also, pastes33made of one half pala each of the following drugs: (111) Rishabhaka56 [unknown and substituted], Riddhi56 [unknown and substituted], liquorice [Glycyrrhiza glabra L., (Fabaceae)], Vidârigandhâ (Desmodium gangeticum) [Desmodium gangeticum (L.) DC., (Fabaceae)], nPayasyâ (Gynandropsis pentaphylla) [Cleome gynandra L., (Cleomaceae)], Sahadêvâ (Sida rhomboidea) [Sida rhombifolia L., (Malvaceae)], Anantâ (Hemidesmus indicus) [Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R. Br. ex Schult., (Apocynaceae)], Madhûlikâ (Bassia latifolia) [Madhuca longifolia (J. König ex L.) J.F. Macbr., (Sapotaceae)] and Viśvadêvâ (Sida spinosa) [Sida spinosa L., (Malvaceae)], (112) both Mêdâ56 [unknown and substituted], Rishyaprôktâ (Sida cordifolia) [Sida cordifolia L., (Malvaceae)], Śatâvarî (Asparagus racemosus) [Asparagus racemosus Willd., (Asparagaceae)], Mudgaparnî (Phaseolus trilobus) [Vigna trilobata (L.) Verdc., (Fabaceae)] and Mâshaparnî (Teramnus labialis) [Teramnus labialis (L. f.) Spreng., (Fabaceae)], Śrâvanî (Sphaeranthus indicus) [Sphaeranthus indicus L., (Asteraceae)], cowhage [Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC., (Fabaceae)] and Vîrâ (Uraria lagopodioides) [Uraria lagopodoides (L.) DC., (Fabaceae)]. (113) Further add one kudava each of raisins [Vitis sp., (Vitaceae)], dates [Phoenix dactylifera L., (Arecaceae)], jujubes [Ziziphus jujuba Mill., (Rhamnaceae)], and half as much each of walnuts [Juglans regia L., (Juglandaceae)], Tinduka (Diospyors Embryopteris) [Diospyros atrata (Thwaites) Alston or Diospyros albiflora Alston, (Ebenaceae)] and Nikôchka (Alangium decapetalum) [Alangium salviifolium (L.f.) Wangerin, (Cornaceae)].

(114) Having boiled and strained the whole, let it stand in a clean vessel, and when it has cooled, add one prastha of well-clarified honey, (115) and sixteen pala of choice white sugar. Then take one half pala of black pepper [Piper nigrum L., (Piperaceae)] and one pala of small cardamoms [Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton, (Zingiberaceae)] (116) powder them finely, and, having sprinkled them over the whole, stir it with a ladle. Of this preparation a dose suited to the patient's power of digestion may be administered, (117) and when it is digested, rice-milk, together with the broth of the flesh of land-animals, may be given. This Amrita-prâśa is an excellent preparation for increasing the strength and colour of men; (118) it may be given in cases of weakness induced by consumption or ulcers, also to the old, the feeble and the young, also to those who are suffering from fainting, asthma, and hiccough. (119a) This preparation of clarified butter, being a composition of Âtrêya's, is famed under the name Amrita (or ‘ambrosia’).”

HASCHICH FUDGE
(which anyone could whip up on a rainy day)

This is the food of Paradise -- of Baudelaire's Artificial Paradises: it might provide an entertaining refreshment for a Ladies' Bridge Club or a chapter meeting of the DAR. In Morocco it is thought to be good for warding off the common cold in damp winter weather and is, indeed, more effective if taken with large quantities of hot mint tea. Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected. Almost anything Saint Theresa did, you can do better if you can bear to be ravished by 'un evanouissement reveilli.' [Google translate: a wakened fainting.]

Take 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 whole nutmeg, 4 average sticks of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon coriander. These should all be pulverised in a mortar. About a handful each of stoned dates, dried figs, shelled almonds and peanuts: chop these and mix them together. A bunch of canibus sativa can be pulverised. This along with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts, kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two pieces are quite sufficient.

Obtaining the canibus may present certain difficulties, but the variety known as canibus sativa grows as a common weed, often unrecognised, everywhere in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa; besides being cultivated as a crop for the manufacture of rope. In the Americas, while often discouraged, its cousin, called canibus indica, has been observed even in city window boxes. It should be picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green.

-- Haschich Fudge, from "The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book," by Alice B. Toklas

I love you Alice B. Toklas
And so does Gertrude Stein
I love you Alice B. Toklas
I'm going to change your name to mine
Red velvet trees and lions grinning lions
Candy witches eating lychee leaves spinning rainbowing light
Green lily golden gardens Marvin gardens
coriander baby elephants singing silent night
Sweet cinnamon and nutmeg shake the powder tell your teeth what [inaudible]
Clean cannabis sativa, sweet sativa chocolate melting so
I love you Alice B. Toklas
And so does Gertrude Stein
I love you Alice B. Toklas
I'm going to change your name to mine
I love you Alice B. Toklas
And so does Gertrude Stein
I love you Alice B. Toklas



[Nancy] I decided to split -- Made you some groovy brownies. Love, Nancy.

[Joyce] Look. Look, I found some brownies.

[Father] They look fresh baked.

[Mother] Do you have saccharine, Harold?

[Joyce] Oh, I have some in my purse.

[Mother] Oh, you're a darling. Thank you.
Well, looks like a nice brownie, Harold.
From Rubins?

[Harold] I don't remember.
A small bakery on Fairfax.

[Mother] Better than Rubins.

[Father] Better than Rubins? That's a brownie.



[Joyce] This is delicious.

[Harold] They're very good.
They're ...
They're groovy.

[Father] I wish Herbie was here with us now. He loves sweets.

[Joyce] Herbie is a very sweet boy. Do you know what I think?
I think that this is just a stage that he's going through, that's all.

[Mother] To a funeral he wears his Indian suit.

[Harold] Oh, these are really good.



[Joyce] Thank you.

[Father] One more.



[Mother] Ben.

[Father] My last one.

[Mother] All right.











[Mother] Ben.
Benjie.
What was his name?
What was his name, your cousin from Milwaukee?



You know what he did?

[Harold] What did he do?

[Mother] He came out of the bathroom.

[Joyce] What did he do when he came out of the bathroom?

[Mother] Don't say bathroom and I won't laugh.
I said it!

[Joyce] Take me.
Take me.



[Mother] Remember? Remember?

[Joyce] Oh, Harold, take me.
Harold.



[Father] I wanna play miniature golf.

***

[Joyce] Where's Harold?

***

[Anita] You know, I just can't. I've tried. I can't take the pills.
I blow up like a house.
It's really such a drag. These pills are so groovy.
But a diaphragm, forget it. It's just the worse.
Listen, thanks for coming in.

[Nancy] Harold!

[Harold] Hey. Hi.

[Nancy] Harold, this is Anita.

[Anita] Oh, my God, you look just like a guy I used to go with.

[Harold] Yeah?

[Anita] You're a little better-looking.

[Harold] Oh, thanks.

[Anita] Nice.

[Harold] Um.

[Nancy] What?

[Harold] I came to thank you for the brownies.

[Nancy] You're welcome.

[Harold] I came to see you.

[Nancy] Groovy.

[Harold] Yeah. Groovy.
You're very pretty.

[Nancy] And so are you.

[Harold] Yeah?
You should've told me what was in those brownies.

[Nancy] Thank Alice B. Toklas. It's her recipe.

[Harold] Yeah?

[Nancy] She wrote a freaky cookbook.

[Harold] And she turned my parents into junkies.

[Nancy] She did?

[Harold] Oh, yeah.
They were --

[Nancy] Excuse me. I'll be right back.
Can I help you, sir?

[Man in Dress Shop] Yes.
I'd like to see something in a minidress. Something lightweight.

[Nancy] These just came in. What size does she wear?

[Man in Dress Shop] It's for me.

[Nancy] Well, I don't know if we happen to have your size.

[Man in Dress Shop] I'm a perfect 12.

[Nancy] These are 12's.

[Man in Dress Shop] Thank you.

[Harold] Don't look at me.

[Nancy] I think he wants it to go to a Halloween party.

[Harold] I hope so.

[Man in Dress Shop] Miss.

[Nancy] Did you find something you like?

[Man in Dress Shop] Yes.
Yes, I like this one. Is there any place I can try it on?

[Nancy] Right over there.

[Man in Dress Shop] Oh, thank you.

[Harold] I can't help it. I can't.

[Nancy] Have a cookie.

[Harold] Alice Toklas?

[Nancy] Chocolate chip.

[Man in Dress Shop] Miss?

[Nancy] Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

[Man in Dress Shop] Do you do alterations here in the shop?

[Nancy] Yes, we do. Anita!

[Man in Dress Shop] What I'd like to get would be to get this just about two inches shorter.
About like that.

[Nancy] Well, Anita does the alterations.
Anita, can we shorten this about --?

[Man in Dress Shop] No, that's it. Right there.

[Nancy] Two inches?

[Anita] No, no, no.
That's not your color.

***

[Nancy] I have a butterfly.

[Harold] I know.
It's a monarch, isn't it?

[Nancy] Yeah.
Yeah.



[Harold] I never got that close to a butterfly.
Wait a second.

[Mother] Hello, Harold?

[Harold] Yes, Ma.

[Mother] You sound like your asthma is worse.

[Harold] No, Mama, the earth just moved.

[Mother] So where did you disappear to?



Stop it.
Oh, listen, I changed my mind.
I'm not putting Aunt Tanya next to Uncle Murray.
She's got that bladder trouble, poor thing ...
... so I'm gonna put her closer to the door.
Listen, Harold, I picked up some of those --
Go to sleep.
I picked up some of those brownies. You know, it must be a different bakery.
Oh, they're terrible. Rubins is better than those.
So anyway, I ordered the Jello-O-mold.
It's gonna be a green Jell-o with cherries.









-- I Love You, Alice B. Toklas -- Illustrated Screenplay, directed by Hy Averback, written by Paul Mazursky & Larry Tucker

Hoernle states(55) that this formula, although with more ingredients and different proportions, occurs also in the Charaka VI and Âshtânga Hridaya IV. Hoernle(56) mentions that the eight drugs known to the ancients and now substituted are: 1. Jîvaka, 2. Rishabha, 3. Mêdâ, 4. Mahâmêdâ, 5. Kâkôlî, 6. Kshîra-kâkôlî, 7. Riddhi, 8. Vriddhi; 1 and 2: Root of Vidârî (Batatas paniculata [Ipomoea mauritania Jacq, (Convolvulaceae)]) 3 and 4: Roots of Śatâvarî (Asparagus racemosus [Asparagus racemosus Willd., (Asparagaceae)]) 5 and 6: Aśhvagandhâ (Withania somnifera [Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal, (Solanaceae)]), 7 and 8: Tubers of the Varâhî or Bhadramustra (Cyperus pertenuis [Cyperus articulatus L. or C. tenuiflorus Rottb., (Cyperaceae)]).

4.2. (II) The Amrita Oil (Hoernle, 2011, pp.: 106–107):

“(IV) The Amrita Oil,116 in 25 ślôka and 1 pâda. (287–312a.) The two truth-speaking Aśvins, the divine physicians, honoured by the Dêvas, have declared the following excellent health-promoting oil, (288) which relieves all diseases, is fit for a king, and is as good as ambrosia. It is known by the name of Amrita (or ‘ambrosia’), and is an oil able to make men strong. (289) At the time of Pushya117, after having said prayers118, performed purification rites, and asked the Brâhmans' blessing in a few words, take out liquorice-roots grown in a favourable place. (290) Of the fresh juice of these roots take four pâtra9, and add four pala each of the following drugs: Papaundarîka119 [a fragrant wood], Amritâ (Tinospora cordifolia) [Tinospora cordifolia (Thunb.) Miers, (Menispermaceae)], knots of lotus-stalks [Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., (Nelumbonaceae)], Śatâvarî (Asparagus racemosus) [Asparagus racemosus Willd., (Asparagaceae)], (291) Śringâtaka (Trapa bispinosa) [Trapa natans var. bispinosa (Roxb.) Makino, (Lythraceae)], emblic myrobalan [Phyllanthus emblica L., (Phyllanthaceae)], Undumbara (Ficus glomerata) [Ficus racemosa L., (Moraceae)], Kaśêruka (Scripus Kysoor) [Actinoscirpus grossus var. kysoor (Roxb.) Noltie, (Cyperaceae)], the bark of each of the (five) trees with a milky sap120 [Nyagrôdha (Ficus indica) [Ficus sp., (Moraceae)], Udumbara (Ficus glomerata) [Ficus racemosa L., (Moraceae)], Asvattha (Ficus religiosa) [Ficus religiosa L., (Moraceae)], Plaksha (Ficus infectoria) [Ficus sp., (Moraceae)], Pârîsha (Thespesia populnea) [Thespesia populnea (L.) Sol. ex Corrêa, (Malvaceae)], (292) roots of Kuśa (Poa cynosuroides) [Desmostachya bipinnata (L.) Stapf, (Poaceae)], Kâsa (Saccharum spontaneum) [Saccharum spontaneum L., (Poaceae)] and Ikshu (Saccharum officinarum) [S. officinarum L., (Poaceae)], also of Śara (Saccharum Sara) [Saccharum bengalense Retz., (Poaceae)] and Vîrana (Andropogon muricatus)121 [Chrysopogon zizanioides (L.) Roberty, (Poaceae)], also roots of Gundrâ (Panicum uliginosum) [Sacciolepis interrupta (Willd.) Stapf, (Poaceae)], of Nadikâ122 [not identified] and of the lotus [N. nucifera], (293) Vadarî (Ziziphus Jujuba) [Z. jujuba], Vidârî (Ipomoea digitata) [I. cheirophylla], Vêtasa (Calamus Rotang) [Calamus rotang L., (Arecaeea)], Adurûshaka (Adhatoda vasica) [Adhatoda vasica Nees, unresolved (Acanthaceae)], Nîm [Azadirachta indica A. Juss., (Meliaceae)], Sâlmalî (Bombax malabaricum) [Bombax ceiba L., (Malvaceae)], dates [P. dactylifera], cocoanut [Cocos nucifera L., (Arecaceae)], Priyangu (Aglaia Roxburghiana) [Aglaia elaeagnoidea (A. Juss.) Benth., (Meliaceae)], (294) Patôla (Trichosanthes dioica) [unresolved ev. Mukia maderaspatana (L.) M.Roem, (Cucurbitaceae)], Kutaja (Holarrhena antidysenterica) [Wrightia antidysenterica (L.) R.Br. or Holarrhena pubescens Wall. ex G. Don, (Apocynaceae)], raisins [Vitis sp.], leaf-stalk of the lotus [N. nucifera], sandal [Santalum sp., (Santalaceae)], Kakubha (Terminalia Arjuna) [Terminalia arjuna (Roxb. ex DC.) Wight & Arn., (Combretaceae)], Aśvakarna (Shorea robusta) [Shorea robusta Gaertn., (Dipterocarpaceae)], Lâmajjaka (Adropogon laniger) [Cymbopogon jwarancusa subsp. olivieri (Boiss.) Soenarko, (Poaceae)], and plumbago-root [Plumbago zeylanica L., (Plumbaginaceae)], (295) also other astringent, sweet or cooling drugs, as many as may be obtainable. Boil all these in two drôna of water, (296) and when the whole is reduced to one-eight of the original quantity, boil in it pastes made of fine powder of one pala each of the following drugs: Balâ (Sida cordifolia) [Sida cordifolia L., (Malvaceae)], Nâgabalâ (Sida spinosa) [Sida spinosa L., (Malvaceae)], Jîvâ (Dendrobium multicaule) [Conchidium muscicola (Lindl.) Rauschert, (Orchidaceae)], cowhage [M. pruriens], Kasêruka (Scirpus Kysoor) [A. grossus var. kysoor], (297) Nata (Tabernaemontana coronaria) [Tabernaemontana divaricata (L.) R.Br. ex Roem. & Schult., (Apocynaceae)], juice of sugar-cane123, Sprikkà (Trigonella corniculata) [Trigonella balansae Boiss. & Reut., (Fabaceae)], small cardamoms [E. cardamomum] and cinnamon-bark [Cinnamomum sp., (Lauraceae)], Jîvaka56 [unknown and substituted] Rishabhaka56 [unknown and substituted] Mêdâ56 [unknown and substituted], Madhuka (Bassia latifolia) [M. longifolia var. latifolia, (Sapotaceae)], and blue lotus [Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea (Savigny) Verdc., (Nymphaeaceae)] (298), the colour producing saffron [Crocus sativus L., (Iridaceae)], aloe-wood [Aquilaria sp., (Thymelaeaceae)], and cinnamon-leaves [Cinnamomum sp.], Vidârî (Ipomoea digitata) [I. cheirophylla], Kshîrakakôlî63 [said to be unknown], Vîrâ (Uraria lagopoides) [Uraria lagopodoides (L.) DC., (Fabaceae)], and Śârivâ (Ichnocarpus frutescens) [Ichnocarpus frutescens (L.) W.T. Aiton, (Apocynaceae)], (299) Śatâvarî (Asparagus racemosus) [A. racemosus], Priyangu (Aglaia Roxburghiana) [A. elaeagnoidea], Gudûchî (Tinospora cordifolia) [Tinospora cordifolia], filaments of the lotus [N. nucifera], Lâmajjaka (Andropogon laniger) [C. jwarancusa subsp. olivieri], red and white sandal [Santalum spp.], and fruits of Râjâdana (Mimusops hexandra) [Manilkara hexandra (Roxb.) Dubard or Mimusops coriacea (A.DC.) Miq., (Sapotaceae)], (300) pearl, coral, conch-shell, moon-stone, sapphire, crystal, silver, gold, and other gems and pearls, (301) liquorice [G. glabra], madder [Rubia tinctorum L., (Rubiaceae)], and Amśumatî (Desmodium gangeticum) [Desmodium gangeticum]. Boil the whole slowly over a gentle fire (302) with four pâtra of (sweet) oil and eight times as much of milk, adding also tamarind juice [Tamarindus indica L., (Fabaceae)] and vinegar of rice124 one half as much as the milk. (303) This boiling should be repeated a hundred or even a thousand times; and when it is thoroughly done, it may be known by this sign, (304) that on the approach of the proper time the oil stiffens by exposure to the rays of the sun.125 After asking the Brâhmans’ blessing, performing purificatory rites and saying prayers, (305) this Amrita (or ‘ambrosial’) oil, highly esteemed by the Dêvas, may be administered to the patient, in the form of an injection per anum or per urethram,110 or as a draught, or an errhine, or a liniment.

(306) It serves the purpose of relieving disease and imparting strength to the organs of sense. For those who suffer from morbid heat and thirst it makes an excellent and beneficial liniment. (307) It promotes the growth of the hair in the old and that of the body in the young; it produces loveliness and grace in women; and also ensures numerous offspring, (308) for, by the use of this ambrosial oil, women are predisposed to conception. It cures the eighty nervous diseases109, also those due to derangement of the blood or the bile (309) or the phlegm or all the humours concurrently.126 By its use as an errhine or a liniment the eyes become as sharp as those of an eagle. (310) It keeps of calamities, averts all fortune, and promotes prosperity. By the use of this oil the Maharshi Chyavana92 regained (311) his youth, and was delivered from decrepitude and disease; and the blessed Maharshi Mârkandêya127, who was desirous of a long life, (312a) obtained his desire by the regular use of this oil.”

Hoernle(116) was not able to find this formula elsewhere and notes that it is a “phenomenally long one” containing 83 ingredients. Hoernle(9) gives some explanations on the measures and states that pâtra is also called âdhaka. Paramhans (1984) explains the medieval Indian weight measurement system as follows: 2 pala = 1 prasrti, 2 prasrtis = 1 añjali or kudava, 2 añjalis = 1 śaravâ, 2 śaravâs = 1 prastha, 4 prasthas = 1 âdhaka, 4 âdhakas = 1 drôna. Since over the course of time the overall mass changed but the proportions within the Indian weight measurement system remained the same, a translation into Western weight equivalents makes no sense.

5. Theoretical frame of the research question

What at first sight caught our attention were the names of the two recipes along with the description of “good as ambrosia” or “ambrosia-like elixir”. ‘Amrita’ means ‘immortality’ and is a synonym of Soma, ‘Amrita-prâsa’ means ‘food of the immortals’ and ‘ambrosia’ can be translated as ‘food of the gods’ or ‘nectar’. While we use here Amrita as a synonym of Soma, nothing about the description of the recipes, not even the therapeutic indications, suggest or allude to any exhilarating, intoxicating or psychoactive property of ‘Amrita clarified butter’ or ‘Amrita oil’. However, the ‘Amrita oil’ is also said to cure “the eighty nervous diseases” (p.: 107). As further reading on the ethnomedical concept of nervous diseases Hoernle(119) indicates the commentary on the Hindu system of medicine by Wise (1845) as well as the Bhâva Prakâśa and the Charaka Samhitâ, both edited by Pandit Jibananda V. at Calcutta in 1875 and 1877, respectively. Due to external forces (e.g. dryness, cold, light types of food, wet cloths), physical overstraining (e.g. excessive sexual practice, improper exercise) or psychological reasons (too much thinking, sorrow, grief, fear, anger) air is deranged, which causes different kind of symptoms, such as: “persons speak nonsense”, “affected parts shake”, “pain in the chest, head and temples”, body is “bent like a bow”, “spasmodic convulsions”, “difficulties in breathing”, “person cannot speak”, “dyspepsia and drowsiness”, “trembling and shivering”, “head is always shaking” (Wise, 1845, pp.: 250–258). Moreover, ‘Amrita-prâsa’ as well as ‘Amrita oil’ are said to relieve all diseases and to “increase the strength of men” or “make men strong”. The term ‘men’ in the text evidently refers to men and women since the Amrita oil is reported to produce “loveliness and grace in women” and to predispose women to conception.

The original Soma rite, central to which was the taking of a psychoactive Soma potion conferring the participants a god-like perspective, came into disuse but neither is it clear when exactly the Soma rite was abandoned nor what was its cause or reason. Besides the cultural transition taking place towards the end of the Rigvedic period, neurotoxic side effects of the Soma potion might have conditioned the loss of the Soma rite. A Soma (Amrita) recipe written down in the 6th century A.D., around 1800 years after the demise of the Rigvedic period can be expected to have received modifications in its formulation as well as in its medico-therapeutic application. The evolution of the Amrita recipes possibly affected the number of ingredients, proportions, overall indications and therapeutic use as well as the medico-philosophical frame. Although the evolution of these aspects evades a closer scientific analysis we argue that if these two recipes are derivatives of an ancient Soma formulation (or formulations), the core species required for the induction of a psychoactive effect should, eventually in smaller proportions, be present among the ingredients. In more general terms we argue that the Soma plant(s), so central to the Indo-Aryan culture, did not vanish from the Indian herbal scenery but linger on in herbal medicine as genuine medicinal plants.

6. Research questions

(i) Are there plant species among the ingredients of the two recipes able, either in combination or alone, to induce mind-altering effects upon ingestion?

(ii) If so, is the concentration of central nervous system (CNS) active compounds in the species under examination sufficient in order to induce perceivable pharmacologic effects? i.e. is the processing and practical application of the quantity of (crude) drugs needed to induce perceivable pharmacologic effects feasible? This includes that the potentially psychoactive constituents should not only be present at physiologically relevant amounts in the plant material but also be bio-available and extractable with water or an emulsion such as milk in reasonable quantities. Moreover, should a suggestion that makes practical sense also consider bio-geography and the theoretical availability of the species in the region of the Punjab.

(iii) A more specific question relates to the pharmacology of the formulations and if they contain monoamine oxidase (MAO) substrates and/or MAO inhibitors (MAO-I):

Are there neurotransmitter mimicking MAO substrates (possibly easy extractable alkaloids) as well as secondary metabolites able to interrupt the catabolic MAO pathways present in the species listed among the ingredients of recipe I and II?

The pharmacologic potentiation resulting from a combination of tryptamines with MAO inhibiting -carbolines has been described for South American snuffs (Holmstedt and Lindgren 1967, p.: 365) and Ayahuasca (Callaway et al., 1999). Such a potentiation of pharmacologic effects can theoretically also be achieved with the -carboline containing Peganum harmala seeds (see theory put forward by Flattery and Schwartz for Haoma).

7. Results

7.1. Analysis of the two recipes

A comparison of the ingredients of the two recipes shows that only few species make part of both formulations namely: Asparagus racemosus, Phyllanthus emblica, Ipomoea cheirophylla, Mucuna pruriens, Sida spinosa, Sida cordifolia, Madhuca longifolia, Uraria lagopodoides and Desmodium gangeticum. Species with potentially psychoactive metabolites detected in recipe (I) are: Sida spinosa, Sida cordifolia, Sida rhombifolia, Mucuna pruriens and Desmodium gangeticum. An analysis of recipe (II) revealed the following species with potentially psychoactive metabolites: Sida spinosa and Sida cordifolia, Mucuna pruriens, Desmodium gangeticum, Nelumbo nucifera, Tinospora cordifolia, Tabernaemontana divaricata. Neither Ephedra spp. nor Peganum harmala have been identified by Hoernle (2011) among the different recipes reported in the BM. Notably, the recipes do not contain any clear indication regarding the dose at which the mixtures should be applied for the treatment of the various health conditions and purposes for which they are recommended.

7.2. Species with potentially psychoactive metabolites detected in recipes I and II and their main constituents

7.2.1. Desmodium gangeticum (Fabaceae)

Desmodium gangeticum is a prostrate to sub-erect perennial weed growing throughout the Indian subcontinent in hilly areas up to 1500 m a.s.l. Under favourable conditions the plant can reach several metres in height (Ramakrishnan, 1964). The herb is called ‘salpan’ or ‘salpani’ in Hindi and ‘shalaparni’, ‘amśumatî’ or ‘vidârigandhâ’ in Sanskrit and is an important medicinal species within the Ayurvedic system of medicine (Hoernle, 2011; Rastogi et al., 2011). Chemical evaluations of above and below-ground tissues of Desmodium gangeticum by Banerjee and Ghosal (1969), as well as by Ghosal and Bhattacharya (1972) revealed the presence of different -phenethylamines (2-phenylethylamine (PEA, 1), hordenine (2), N-methyltyramine (3), candicine (4), N,N-dimethyl-2-oxo-2-phenylethylamine (5)), indolylalkylamines (N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT, 6) and its Nb-oxide, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeODMT, 7) and its Nb-oxide and hypaphorine (8)) and -carbolines (6-methoxy-2-methyl- -carbolinium cation (9) and 1,2-dimethyl-2,3,4, 9-tetrahydro-1H- -carboline (1,2-Me-THBC, 10)).

From 1 kg fresh above ground plant material Banerjee and Ghosal (1969) obtained the following quantities of alkaloids: From the aqueous acidic extract (derived from the extracted chloroform layer) basified with ammonia and extracted with chloroform: 5-MeO-DMT (570 mg), DMT (not quantified), DMT-Nb-oxide (210 mg) and 5-MeO-DMT-Nb-oxide (180 mg). The chloroform soluble acetates were identified as Nb-methyltetrahydroharman (1,2-Me-THBC, 30 mg), DMT (410 mg) and DMT-Nb-oxide (120 mg), while from the aqueous mother liquor 210 mg of 6-methoxy-2-methyl- -carbolinium cation was obtained. Altogether more than 1730 mg of alkaloids were extracted from 1 kg of fresh plant material and Banerjee and Ghosal (1969) note that dried plant material contains higher proportions of 5-MeO-DMT with respect to fresh material.



7.2.2. Mucuna pruriens (Fabaceae)

Mucuna pruriens is an annual herb growing throughout the Indian plains and cultivated as a vegetable and fodder called ‘kavach’ in Hindi and ‘atmagupta’ or ‘vanari’ in Sanskrit (Williamson, 2002; Misra and Wagner, 2004). The seeds of Mucuna pruriens contain high amounts of L-DOPA (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, 11). Mahajani et al. (1996) quantified the L-DOPA content of 10 g dried Mucuna pruriens seeds at around 330 mg, while Raina and Khatri (2011) found L-DOPA concentration in dried seeds of different accessions to vary considerably from 2.2 to 5.3% of dry weight. From the pods, seeds, leaves and roots several indole-3-alkylamines including DMT (6), DMTNb- oxide, bufotenine (5-OH-DMT, 12), 5-MeO-DMT (7), two not closer characterised 5-oxyindole-3-alkylamines and one -carboline were isolated (Ghosal et al., 1971). Misra and Wagner (2004) furthermore report on the isolation of four 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids (13-16, 94 mg altogether) from 500 g dried seeds.

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Part 2 of 2

7.2.3. Nelumbo nucifera (Nelumbonaceae)

The natural distribution of Nelumbo nucifera ranges from the Caspian Sea to eastern Asia (McDonald, 2004), while Holm et al. (1979, p.: 246) list N. nucifera as a weed for India. The species is known in India as ‘lotus’, ‘kamala’ or ‘padma’ (Mukherjee et al., 2009). From the seeds, flower buds and the leaves a range of benzyltetrahydroisoquinolines, bisbenzylisoquinolines and aporphine type alkaloids have been isolated (Kunitomo et al., 1973; Shoji et al., 1987; Sugimoto et al., 2010; Nakamura et al., 2013). For a comprehensive review on the phytochemical constituents of the different lotus tissues see Mukherjee et al. (2009). From 3 kg of dried Nelumbo nucifera leaves Kashiwada et al. (2005) obtained 275 mg (þ)-(R)-coclaurine (17), 28 mg (-)-1(R)-N-methylcoclaurine (18) and 507 mg of (-)-1(S)-norcoclaurine (19). From the EtOAc fraction of 1 kg flower buds Nakamura et al. (2013) extracted nuciferine (20, 148mg), N-nornuciferine (21, 11.2mg), lysicamine (22, 36.5 mg) and from the butanol fraction N-methylasimilobine (23, 6.6 mg), lysicamine (102 mg) and pronuciferine (24, 56.0 mg). From the EtOAc fraction of 900 g powdered leaves N-methylasimilobine-N-oxide (3.3 mg), nuciferine (67.3 mg) nuciferine-N-oxide (40.7 mg), N-nornuciferine (2.3 mg), dehydronuciferine (25, 3.9 mg), lysicamine (41.8 mg) and from the butanol fraction nuciferine (83.0 mg), nuciferine N-oxide (22.1 mg), N-methylasimilobine (282 mg), asimilobine (26, 149 mg), (-)-lirinidine (27, 7.2 mg), 2-hydroxy-1-methoxy- 6a,7-dehydroaporphine (28, 2.9 mg), lysicamine (3.0 mg), D,L-armepavine (29, 27.4 mg), and pronuciferine (8.3 mg) were obtained (Nakamura et al., 2013).



7.2.4. Sida rhombifolia, Sida spinosa and Sida cordifolia (Malvaceae)

All three Sida species are worldwide weeds (including India; Holm et al., 1979, p.: 335-356). In Hindi Sida species are called ‘bariara’, ‘kareta’, ‘bhundli’, ‘lal berela’ and in Sanskrit ‘sahadêvâ’, ‘viśvadêvâ’, ‘rishyaprôktâ’, ‘nâgabalâ’, ‘balâ’ (Rajan and Sethuraman, 2008; Hoernle, 2011). The roots of Sida cordifolia contain the -phenylethylamine type alkaloids PEA (1) ephedrine (30), pseudoephedrine, the carboxylated tryptamines hypaphorine (8) and S-(þ)-Nb-methyltryptophan methyl ester (31) and the quinazoline alkaloids vasicine (peganin, 32), vasicinol (33) and vasicinone (34, Ghosal et al., 1975). The same substances are reported from the roots and aerial parts of Sida spinosa and Sida rhombifolia, with the exception of methyltryptophan methyl ester and the additional presence of hypaphorine methyl ester in Sida spinosa and that, while the aerial parts of Sida rhombifolia seem to lack carboxylated tryptamines, they additionally contain N-methyl- -phenethylamine (35, Prakash et al., 1981). Chaves et al. (2013) furthermore report the presence of the indoquinoline alkaloids cryptolepine (36) and cryptolepinone (37) in the aerial parts of Sida rhombifolia.

From 3.5 kg dried roots of Sida cordifolia Ghosal et al. (1975) obtained PEA (42 mg), ephedrine (22 mg), þ-ephedrine (13 mg), plus a 22 mg mixture of ephedrine and þ-ephedrine, vasicinone (126 mg), vasicine (37 mg), vasicinol (31 mg), choline (76 mg), hypaphorine (14 mg), and betaine (84 mg). Quantitative extraction of the alkaloid content of 5 kg dried aerial parts of S. rhombifolia by Prakash et al. (1981) afforded PEA (470 mg), N-methyl- -phenylethylamine (190 mg), ephedrine (136 mg), þ- ephedrine (98 mg), vasicinol (12 mg), vasicinone (36 mg), vasicine (32 mg) choline (85 mg) and betaine (93 mg).



7.2.5. Tabernaemontana divaricata (Apocynaceae)

Tabernaemontana divaricata is a widespread latex bearing garden plant, rich in indole alkaloids from the vincosan, aspidospermatan, plumeran, bis-indole and ibogan group (Pratchayasakul et al., 2008). In Hindi the species is referred to as ‘cadni’ and in Sanskrit ‘nata’ or ‘nandivrksah’ (Sala, 2010, p.: 232; Hoernle, 2011). Kam et al. (2003) isolated 23 alkaloids with an overall yield of 1068 mg kg 1 from the leaves of the double flower variety of Tabernaemontana divaricata. Alkaloids affording the highest yields were voaphylline (38, 260 mg), apparicine (39, 220 mg), N(1)-methylvoaphylline (40, 120 mg), conophylline (41, 116 mg) and conofoline (42, 105 mg), while only 2 mg ibogaine (43) was obtained (Kam et al., 2003). From the stem-bark of the same Tabernaemontana divaricata variety Kam et al., (2004) characterised 42 alkaloids with an overall yield of 647.7 mg kg 1. The highest yields were obtained for vobasine (44, 97 mg) voacangine (45, 91 mg), voacristine (46, 58 mg), (3R/3S)-3-ethoxyvoacangine (47, 56 mg) but only 2.4 mg ibogaine was obtained. Kam et al. (2004) for the first time isolated conolidine (48, 1.3 mg/kg) a C5-nor stemmadenine, which was found to exert promising analgesic activity in mice (Tarselli et al., 2011). Chaiyana et al. (2013) estimated the content of the bis-indole alkaloid 3’-R/S-hydroxyvoacamine (49) obtained from 3.36 kg Tabernaemontana divaricata stem at 3390 mg. Bao et al. (2013) obtained 42 grams of alkaloidal fraction and isolated the psychoactive ibogaine (50 mg), several voacangine derivatives and a number of other ibogaine type alkaloids from 5 kg dried T. divaricata stem.



7.2.6. Tinospora cordifolia (Menispermaceae)


Fig. 2. Tinospora cordifolia–foto taken in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 2009 and courtesy of Todd Caldecott.


Fig. 3. Tinospora cordifolia stem powder extracted with baking soda (NaHCO3) and water.

Tinospora cordifolia is a deciduous twiner with heart shaped leaves occurring from Kumaon (Uttarakhand), Jammu and Kashmir state in the north to the extreme south of India (Williamson, 2002, p.: 302; Kumari et al., 2013). The colour of the succulent stems varies from a creamy greenish brown to yellowish brown (Fig. 2). It is reported that freshly cut stems immediately assume a yellow colour when exposed to air (Neeraja and Margaret, 2013). Holm et al. (1979, p.: 363) list the species as a weed for India. The species is called ‘gudûchî’, ‘guluchi’ or ‘amritâ’ in Sanskrit and ‘gulancha’, ‘guruchi’, ‘giloy’ or ‘amrita’ in Hindi (Bisset and Nwaiwu, 1983; Williamson, 2002; Sala, 2010, p.: 283; Hoernle, 2011). From Tinospora cordifolia, which is called ‘Amrita’, both in the BM and Ayurvedic herbal medicine, Phan et al. (2010) report the isolation and identification of two aporphine glycosides, N-formylasimilobine-2-O- -D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)- - D-glucopyranoside (50, 28 mg) and N-acetylasimilobine-2-O- -D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)- -D-glucopyranoside (51, 2.5 mg) from 2 kg aerial parts. From 920 g powdered Tinospora cordifolia stem Patel and Mishra (2011) obtained 28 g extract and from a 15 g aliquot thereof isolated the two protoberberine bases palmatine (52, 2467 mg) and jatrorrhizine (53, 748 mg) as well as 140 mg of the aporphine alkaloid magnoflorine (54). Srinivasan et al. (2008) furthermore estimate the berberine (55) concentration based on a HPLC method at around 0.3% of dried plant material. Extrapolated on the hypothetical extraction of 1 kg Tinospora cordifolia stem, around 1500 mg jatrorrhizine, 4900 mg palmatine and 3000 mg berberine could potentially be obtained. Palmatine has a yellow colour, jatrorrhizine is reddish-brown and berberine has an intense yellow colour and is therefore also used to dye textiles (Römpp-Lexikon, Regitz, 1997, p.: 520). We have extracted Tinospora. cordifolia stem powder obtained from online sources with water and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3) receiving an amber or honey coloured golden shining extract (Fig. 3).



8. Discussion

Flattery and Schwartz suggested that the Syrian rue (Peganum harmala) corresponds to Haoma as well as Soma. P. harmala, is a drought tolerant species today distributed around the Mediterranean basin extending east to the northern part of India and listed as a weed for Turkey and Afghanistan (Holm et al., 1979). Flattery and Schwartz (1989), however, also acknowledge that Peganum harmala seems to have become established in India only more recently being introduced by Muslim societies, since the local names used in India derive directly from either the Arabic (harmel) or Persian (isfan; p.: 42). The fact that Peganum harmala has not been identified throughout the BM by Hoernle (2011) does lend additional support to the concerns raised by Flattery and Schwartz. With respect to the theory that Soma was nothing else but an Ephedra sp., Falk (1989) does not ignore that on the Indian subcontinent Ephedra spp. grow only in the northern and mountainous regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India at altitudes between 1200 and 4000 m a.s.l. Ephedra species would thus have had to be traded (“Soma-buyer”) if they played a role in the Vedic Soma ritual (Falk, 1989). McDonald (2004) on the other hand acknowledges, that the hypothesis, that lotus as a single species would be the equivalent of soma, lacks a chemical and pharmacological analysis and verification.

No such biogeographic doubts and far less phytochemical uncertainties exist with the species presented in the results section and contained in the Amrita recipes of the BM. All eight species are common throughout India. Altogether, the chemistry of these eight species (D. gangeticum, M. pruriens, N. nucifera, Sida cordifolia, Sida rhombifolia, Sida. spinosa, T. cordifolia and T. divaricata) includes several notorious and potential psychoactive and psychedelic substances, and alkaloid classes, namely tryptamines, phenylethylamine, ephedrine, aporphine alkaloids, ibogaine, and L-DOPA. Moreover, MAO and AChE interfering protoberberine alkaloids as well as potentially neurotoxic tetrahydroisoquinolines and -carbolines are present. The presence of aporphine alkaloids and the asimilobine moiety in both ingredients of the Amrita oil, N. nucifera as well as Tinospora cordifolia, is intriguing. The phytochemical profile and associated pharmacology of Nelumbo nucifera renders McDonald's (2004) hypothesis, that Nelumbo nucifera corresponds directly to Soma, not very plausible, however. By adding small amounts of the amphoteric sodium bicarbonate to the watery maceration of Tinospora cordifolia stem powder we obtained a stronger gold-brown colouring than extracting with pure water, but the relevance to the present discussion is not yet clear.We are aware that for many other species mentioned in these Amrita recipes no or only scarce phytochemical and pharmacological data exist and that ongoing research efforts may help to identify more species with potential psychoactive properties.

8.1. Serotoninergic, dopaminergic and adrenergic interactions

Upon oral ingestion the hallucinogenic tryptamines (5-MeO-DMT, 5-OH-DMT, DMT and tryptamine) as well as the psychoactive PEA are readily catabolized by MAO. Tryptamines are mainly deaminated by MAO-A (Shen et al., 2010) and in occasions when MAO-A is deactivated they may also be catabolized by the B isoform (Nagatsu, 2004). PEA is predominantly catabolized by the B subtype (Buckholtz and Boggan, 1977). The potent psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT is either deaminated by MAO-A or O-demethylated by cytochrome P450 2D6 resulting in the even more active 5-OH-DMT (bufotenine), which is finally deaminated by MAO (Shen et al., 2010). 5-OH-DMT is about three-times more potent towards the serotonin (5-HT) receptor (affinity: 5-HT2A 4 5-HT1A) than 5-MeO-DMT (affinity: 5-HT1A45-HT2A), which is up to 10 times more potent than DMT in humans (Shen et al., 2010).

1-Me-tetrahydrobetacarboline (1-Me-THBC), was shown to inhibit 3H-5-HT (tritiated serotonin) and 3H-DA (tritiated dopamine) uptake by human platelets with IC50 values of 6.4 and 1.0 mM respectively (Airaksinen et al., 1980). Moreover, Komulainen et al. (1980) have shown that 1-Me-THBC inhibits 5-HT uptake by rat synaptosomes (IC50 ¼ 12 μM), the DA uptake into striatal synaptosomes (IC50¼70 μM) as well as noradrenaline (NA) uptake by cortical rat synaptosomes (IC50¼92 μM). Similar to these in vitro data assessed for 1-Me-THBC, 1,2-Me- THBC (10) present in D. gangeticum might lead to elevated inter-synaptical 5-HT, DA and NA concentration in human brain tissues.

Nornuciferine obtained from Nelumbo nucifera and asimilobine, present in Nelumbo nucifera and in its glucosylated N-formyl and N-acetyl form also in Tinospora cordifolia, have been shown to interact agonistically with the 5-HT1A receptor in vitro with Ki values of 10 and 20 μM, respectively (Hasrat et al., 1997). Also the bisbenzylisoquinoline neferine isolated from the seeds and leaves of Nelumbo nucifera (Kashiwada et al., 2005; Sugimoto et al., 2010) was shown to exert antidepressant-like effects in mice mediated via the 5-HT1A receptor (Sugimoto et al., 2010). Shoji et al. (1987), however, report 5-HT antagonistic properties for asimilobine as well as lirinidine. Apomorphine (56), used as an agent in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and closely related to magnoflorine found in Tinospora cordifolia as well as nuciferine, asimilobine and lysicamine obtained from Nelumbo nucifera, shows considerable affinities towards different subtypes of dopamine, serotonine and adrenergic receptors (Millan et al., 2002).

Berberine and palmatine, both present in Tinospora cordifolia were found to interact with the 5-HT2 receptor, displacing the radioligand with an IC50 of 1.9 and 2.9 μM, respectively (Schmeller et al., 1997). It remains, however, unclear what kind of effect berberine and palmatine mediate through 5-HT2 receptor interaction. Berberine and palmatine also bind to alpha1- and alpha2-adrenergic receptors displacing bound radioligands with an IC50 of 3.2 and 0.476 μM (berberine) and 5.8 and 0.956 μM (palmatine) probably transmitting antagonistic effects (Schmeller et al., 1997).

Ephedrine, present in Sida spp., apart from releasing noradrenaline, leads to increased extracellular dopamine concentrations in brain tissues including the striatum and the substantia nigra (Bowyer et al., 2000; Munhall and Johnson, 2006).

The pharmacologic interactions of ibogaine and ibogaine type alkaloids present in Tabernaemontana divaricata within the CNS are multiple and therefore particularly complex. Low micro molar affinities of ibogaine with the serotonergic, nicotinic, N-methyl-D-aspartate, m and κ opioid system, sigma receptors as well as sodium channels have been detected (Alper, 2001).

Excessive intake of L-DOPA through Mucuna pruriens seeds has been associated with toxic psychosis and peripheral side effects such as palpitations and headache (Infante et al., 1990; Mahajani et al., 1996) and can therefore not be considered to contribute to an acceptable psychedelic effect. Such as the Amrita-oil was indicated against the 80 nervous diseases, Mucuna pruriens seeds are still used in Ayurvedic medicine for the treatment of PD and murine data indicates that L-DOPA containing Mucuna pruriens seed extract is more effective than an equivalent dose of L-DOPA, suggesting synergistic effects (Kasture et al., 2009).



8.2. Monoamine oxidase inhibition

Jatrorrhizine was shown to inhibit both, MAO-A and B obtained from rat brain using 5-HT and PEA as a substrate in a non-competitive manner with IC50 values of 4 and 62 mM, respectively, while berberine inhibited MAO-A with an IC50 of 126 mM (Kong et al., 2001). Castillo et al. (2005) assessed with two independent in vitro assays that berberine also inhibits MAO-B obtained from mouse liver mitochondria with IC50 values of 89 mM (benzylamine as substrate) and 90 mM (fluorescence method). Lee et al. (1999) measured the IC50 of plamatine with mouse brain MAO and kynuramine as substrate at 90.6 mM, but Kong et al. (2001) found no inhibitory activity of plamatine up to a concentration of 200 mM. Due to the slightly conflicting results and divers assay conditions a standardized assessment of the MAO-I properties of these protoberberine isoquinolines could provide clarifications. No pharmacologic data are available for 2-methyltetrahydroharman (1,2-dimethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro- -carboline, 10) but the closely related tetrahydroharman (1-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro- -carboline) has been found to moderately inhibit (EC50 ¼ 120 mM) mouse brain MAO with tryptamine as a substrate (Buckholtz and Boggan, 1977).

Bembenek et al. (1990) as well as Thull et al. (1995) report on the inhibitory activity of a range of isoquinoline derivatives including 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines (TIQ) and N-methyl-TIQ on MAO-A and B. Bembenek et al. (1990) identified the N-methylated TIQ as an inhibitor of human MAO-A with a Ki value of 27 mM. Inhibitory values (IC50) found by Thull et al. (1995) range from 1 to 130 mM for the A subtype and from 10 to 270 mM for the B subtype. The most potent MAO-B inhibitors were 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline and 2-methyl- 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline with Ki’s of 15 and 1 mM, respectively (Thull et al., 1995).

8.3. Acetylcholine and butyrylcholine metabolism interactions

Berberine binds, probably mediating agonistic effects, to the muscarinic (mAChR) and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) displacing bound radioligands with an IC50 of 1 and 35.5 μM, while palmatine interacts only with the mAChR with an IC50 of 4.1 μM. At the same time both alkaloids inhibit acetyl- and butyrylcholine esterase with an IC50 of 167.4 and 55.8 μM (berberine) and 124.5 and 425.6 μM (palmatine; Schmeller et al., 1997).

The benzyltetrahydroisoquinolines coclaurine, N-methylcoclaurine, and armepavine present in N. nucifera were shown to inhibit different cloned human nACh receptor subtypes with IC50 values in the range of 132 –4 500 μM (coclaurine), 23 –4 500 μM (Nmethylcoclaurine) and 14–18 μM (armepavine), and IC50 values for the functional affinity of 18 –4 200 μM (coclaurine), 4.8–25 μM (armepavine; Exley et al., 2005).

Moreover, 30-R/S-hydroxyvoacamine from Tabernaemontana divaricata was found to non-competitively inhibit acetylcholine esterase with an IC50 value of 7.00 μM (Chaiyana et al., 2013).

8.4. The MAO-I ‘Ayahuasca-hypothesis’

Ott (1997) reports his subjective threshold-level for the perception of a psychedelic effect with harmine (57) and DMT (6) to be 1.5 mg/kg harmine (120 mg/80 kg body weight) combined with 30 mg DMT (0.375 mg/kg; see also Callaway, 1999). Callaway (1993) states that a 0.5–1 mg/kg oral dose of harmine combined with 0.5 mg/kg DMT or 0.1 mg/kg 5-MeO-DMT (7) is also effective. Hence, there seems to be some range of tolerance in the dosage of the two components since it appears that more MAO substrate can compensate for lower MAO-I concentration. The MAO-I activity of harmine has been assessed in vitro with mouse brain MAO and tryptamine as a substrate at an EC50 of 0.08 μM (Buckholtz and Boggan, 1977). Compared to the in vitro MAO-A inhibition of jatrorrhizine (53, IC50¼4 μM) assessed with rat brain MAO and serotonin as a substrate (Kong et al., 2001), harmine shows 50 times higher potency. However, harmine selectively inhibits MAO-A (Gerardy, 1994), while jatrorrhizine, berberine (55) and eventually also palmatine (52) concomitantly inhibit MAO-B (Lee et al., 1999; Kong et al., 2001; Castillo et al., 2005). Therefore, synergistic MAO-I effects can be expected by a protoberberine-rich Tinospora cordifolia extract.

Taking into account, both the qualitative as well as the quantitative phytochemical profile of the discussed species we argue that a psychoactive potion could most probably be obtained by mixing a concentrated MAO-I juice of Tinospora cordifolia with either a Desmodium gangeticum and/or a Sida sp. extract, eventually as described in the 9th Mandala and the BM, previously brought into an oily form. We propose that Tinospora cordifolia in high doses blended with Desmodium gangeticum potentially leads to colourful psychedelic visions, while Tinospora cordifolia blended with Sida spp. would induce exhilarating amphetamine-like sensations. Also Nelumbo nucifera and Tabernaemontana divaricata have the potential to add to the overall psychoactivity of a multi-extract combination.

8.5. Toxicity

Tetrahydro-carbolines (TH C) and tetrahydroisoquinolines (TIQ) are considered potential endogenous and exogenous neurotoxins relevant in the aetiology of PD (Nagatsu, 1997). Especially the N-methylated TIQ of Nelumbo nucifera (18 and 29) as well as the 1,2- dimethylated TH C (10) and the N-methylated -carbolinium cation (9) of Desmodium. gangeticum are of toxicological concern. N-Methylated TH C and N-methylated TIQ are structural analogues of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP, 58), a precursor, which upon catalyzation by MAO-B within non-dopaminergic cells converts to MPPþ (59), a PD inducing neurotoxin (Przedborski et al., 2000). The high affinity of MPPþ towards the plasma membrane dopamine transporter permits a selective accumulation of MPPþ in dopaminergic cells (Przedborski et al., 2000). Once inside dopaminergic cells, MPPþ inhibits mitochondrial activity, which leads to a degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (Fields et al., 1992; Neafsey et al., 1995; Nagatsu, 1997). Endogenously or environmentally derived -carbolines and TIQ oxidised by haem peroxidases or MAO (Naoi et al., 1989a; Herraiz et al., 2007) and bio-activated by N-methyltransferases (Naoi et al., 1989b; Gearhart et al., 2000) are therefore being discussed as possible pro-toxins in the aetiology of PD (Nagatsu, 1997). In the cerebro-spinal fluid of deceased Parkinson patients elevated levels of N-methyl- -carbolinium cations have been found (Matsubara et al., 1993; 1995). Moreover, subcutaneous administration of 22 mg/kg 1-benzyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline daily over 66 days to a subject of Macaca fasciularis led to the appearance of symptoms typical for PD (Kotake et al., 1996). Remarkably, the N-methylated- -carbolinium (9) present in Desmodium. gangeticum does not need to be activated by MAO-B or methyltransferase because it presents the structural features of a neurotoxin already. Also, upon oxidation by MAO the N-methylated TIQ may readily become MPPþ analogues.

Amphetamine-like compounds are potentiated by MAO-I, which can trigger hypertensive crisis including symptoms such as headache, sweating, pallor, nausea, vomiting and fright (DeKorne et al., 2002, p.: 18). When experimenting with MAO-I one should take dietary precautions and avoid ingesting food with high amine content such as “cheese, especially aged cheese, beer, wine pickled herrings, snails, chicken livers, yeast products, figs, raisins, pickles, sauerkraut, coffee, chocolate, soy sauce, cream or yogurt” (DeKorne et al., 2002, p.: 18).

9. Conclusions

The multidisciplinary analysis of two Amrita recipes recorded during the 6th century A.D. in the Bower Manuscript and advertised amongst others as panaceas and as a remedy to cure nervous diseases revealed several plant species containing CNS interacting and psychoactive alkaloids. We argue that these recipes are related to the Rigvedic Soma since they are called ‘Amrita’ (non-death), a synonym for ‘Soma’, and referred to as ‘Ambrosia’ (food of the gods). All identified and discussed alkaloid-rich species (Tinospora cordifolia, Sida spp., Mucuna pruriens, Nelumbo nucifera, Desmodium gangeticum, Tabernaemontana divaricata) are widely used medicinal herbs with an important role in Ayurvedic, Chinese and Thai Medicine. We suggest that the Rigvedic Soma was a mixture of a watery, protoberberine alkaloid-rich Tinospora cordifolia extract with MAO-I properties and a tryptamine-rich Desmodium gangeticum and/or an ephedrine and PEA containing Sida spp. extract. Tinospora cordifolia mixed with Desmodium gangeticum might provide a psychedelic experience with visual effects, while a combination of Tinospora cordifolia with a Sida spp. extract might lead to more euphoric and amphetamine-like experiences. Although the reviewed phytochemical analyses were not strictly quantitative, the alkaloid yields, especially for Tinospora cordifolia, which is still called Amrita today, as well as for Desmodium gangeticum, are considerable. Under acidic conditions alkaloids are generally water-soluble and under neutral and basic conditions liposoluble. With curdled milk, water and plant oils as reported in the description of the Soma preparation of the 9th Mandala, the ancient Indo-Aryans[??? 6th C.] were in possession of the means to extract the pharmacologically relevant compounds.We can, however, not exclude that among the herbal ingredients mentioned in the Amrita recipes other species with psychoactive secondary metabolites are present than the ones we have identified. Only an experimental in vivo study can clarify what kind of pharmacologic effects on the human psyche a mixture of extracts made from Tinospora cordifolia, Desmodium gangeticum and Sida spp. has. The same accounts for the overall Amrita recipes described in the Bower Manuscript. Although synergistic effects of such a mixture can be anticipated, for the induction of a psychoactive effect elevated doses of the different ingredients would be required. Considering the structural features of the chemical compounds present in these species, concerns regarding the neurotoxicity of a highly concentrated potion are appropriate.

“And if anything should go wrong, there's soma. Which you go and chuck out of the window in the name of liberty, Mr. Savage. Liberty! He laughed.”

-- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Micaela Morelli for comments on a draft version of this paper and Caroline Weckerle for helping me out with literature.

_______________

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