z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 04.indd MK SJ YS 23 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 114
114 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Long-pepper liquor (saira);
Soap-berry liquor (arishta);
Honey-liquor (madhuka);
A kind of rum or liquor prepared from molasses, etc. (called Gaudi, or sometimes Maireya);
Arrack, or liquor prepared from rice and other grain (sura or Varuni, or paishti).
Besides the above twelve kinds of spirituous drink others are frequently mentioned, for example, Tanka, made from wood-apple, Koli, made from the jujbe; and Kadambari; the last being the favourite beverage of Bala-Rama.
The meat may be that of birds, beasts, or fish. The parched grain is eaten, like dry biscuit, as a relish with the wine and spirituous liquors. The drinking of each kind of drink is supposed to be attended with its own peculiar merit and advantage. Thus one liquor gives salvation, another learning, another power, another wealth, another destroys enemies, another cures diseases, another removes sin, another purifies the soul.”
The Tantrik worship had gone deep into Bengal. Referring to his own experience Rajendra Lal Mitra says [1] :
“I knew a highly respectable widow lady, connected with one of the most distinguished families in Calcutta, who belonged to the Kaula sect, and had survived the 75th birthday, who never said her prayers (and she did so regularly every morning and evening) without touching the point of her tongue with a tooth-pick dipped in a phial of arrack, and sprinkling a few drops of the liquor on the flowers which she offered to her god. I doubt very much if she had ever drunk a wine-glassful of arrack at once in all her life, and certain it is that she never had any idea of the pleasures of drinking; but, as a faithful Kaula, she felt herself in duty-bound to observe the mandates of her religion with the greatest scrupulousness. That thousands of others do so, I have every reason to believe. In some parts of Bengal, where arrack is not easily accessible, such female votaries prepare a substitute by dropping the milk of a coconut in a bell-metal pot, or milk in a copper vessel, and drink a few drops of the same. Men are, however, not so abstemious, and the Tantras ordain a daily allowance of five cupsful, the cup being so made as to contain five tolas, or two ounces, i.e. they are permitted to take ten ounces or about a pint of arrack daily”.
This Tantrik worship was not confined to the small corner of Bengal. As is pointed out by Mahamahopadhyaya Jadaveshwara Tarkaratna [2] :
1 Rajendralal Mitra — Indo-Aryans Vol. pp. 405-6.
2 Quoted by Avalon in his principles of Tantra Part-I. Introduction p. XXXVIII.