Vijaya,

Bhangά,

Ganjά,

Indrάsana.

Vern. Siddhi, Bhάng, Beng. Bhang. Hind.

The Cannabis sativa has been used from a very remote period both in medicine and as an intoxicating agent. A mythological origin has been invented for it. It is said to have been produced in the shape of nectar while the gods were churning the ocean with the mountain called Mandara. It is the favourite drink of Indra the king of gods, and is called vijayά, because it gives success to its votaries. The gods through compassion on the human race sent it to this earth so that mankind by using it habitually may attain delight, loose all fear, and have their sexual desires excited.1 On the last day of the Durga pooja, after the idols are thrown into water, it is customary for the Hindus to see their friends and relatives and embrace them. After this ceremony is over it is incumbent on the owner of the house to offer to his visitors a cup of bhang and sweet-meats for tiffin.

An intoxicating agent with such recommendations cannot but be popular and so we find it in general use amongst all classes especially in the North-West provinces and Behar. In Bengal it has latterly become the fashion to substitute brandy, but I well remember having seen in the days of my boyhood the free use of bhang among the better classes of people who would have shunned as a pariah any one of their society addicted to the use of the forbidden spirituous liquor. At the doors of many rich baboos, Hindustani durwans could be seen rubbing the bhάng in a stone mortar with a long wooden pestle, and the paste so prepared was not solely intended for the use of the servants. 1 do not mean to say that all classes of Hindoos without exception are or were addicted to the use of bhang. Some castes among the up-country men and some classes of people amongst Bengalis are as a rule very temperate in their habits and do not use any narcotic at all; but the ordinary run of orthodox Hindus, accustomed to have their little excitements, use bhang for the purpose without incurring any opprobium such as would result from the use of spirituous liquors.

The three principal forms in which Indian hemp is met with in India are, - 1, Gάnja, the dried flowering tops of the female plant, from which the resin has not been removed. 2, Charas, the resinous exudation from the leaves, stems and flowers. 3, Bhάng, the larger leaves and seed vessels without the stalks.

Sir William O'Shaughnessy has so well described the preparations of Indian hemp in use amongst the natives, and his name is so intimately associated with the history of this drug, that I cannot do better than quote his account of them.

"Sidhee, Subjee and Bhάng (synonymous) are used with water as a drink which is thus prepared:- About three tolάs' weight (540 troy grains) are well washed with cold water, then rubbed to powder, mixed with black pepper, cucumber and melon seeds, sugar, half a pint of milk and an equal quantity of water. This is considered sufficient to intoxicate an habituated person. Half the quantity is enough for a novice. This composition is chiefly used by the Mahomedans of the better classes.

"Another recipe is as follows: -

The same quantity of Siddhi is washed and ground, mixed with black pepper, and a quart of cold water added. This is drank at one sitting. This is the favourite beverage of the Hindus who practice this vice, especially the Birjobassies and many of the Rajpootana soldiery.

"From either of these beverages intoxication will ensue in half an hour. Almost invariably the inebriation is of the most cheerful kind, causing the person to sing and dance, to eat food with great relish, and to seek aphrodisiac enjoyments. In persons of a quarrelsome disposition it occasions, as might be expected, an exasperation of their natural tendency. The intoxication lasts about three hours, when sleep supervenes. No nausea or sickness of stomach succeeds, nor are the bowels at all affected; next day there is slight giddiness and vascularity of the eyes, but no other symptom worth recording.

"Gάnja is used for smoking alone: one rupee weight, (180 grains) and a little dried tobacco are rubbed together in the palm of the hand, with a few drops of water. This suffices for three persons. A little tobacco is placed in the pipe first, then a layer of the prepared gάnga, then more tobacco and the fire above all. Four or five persons usually join in this debauch. The hookάh is passed round, and each person takes a single draught. Intoxication ensues almost instantly and from one draught to the unaccustomed; within half an hour, and after four or five inspirations to those more practised in the vice. The effects differ from those occasioned by the siddhi. Heaviness, laziness, and agreeable reveries ensue, but the person can be readily roused and is able to discharge routine occupations, such as pulling the pankah, waiting at table, etc.

"The Mάjoon or hemp confection, is a compound of sugar, butter, flour, milk, and siddhi or bhάng. The process has been repeatedly performed before us by Ameer, the proprietor of a celebrated place of resort for hemp devotees in Calcutta and who is considered the best artist in his profession. Four ounces of siddhi and an equal quantity of ghee are placed in an earthen or well-tinned vessel, a pint of water added, and the whole warmed over a charcoal fire. The mixture is constantly stirred until the water all boils away, which is known by the crackling noise of the melted butter on the sides of the vessel; The mixture is then removed from the fire, squeezed through cloth while hot, by which an oleaginous solution of the active principles and colouring matter of the hemp is obtained; and the leaves, fibres, etc., remaining on the cloth are thrown away. The green oily solution soon concretes into a buttery mass and is then well washed by the hand with soft water, so long as the water becomes coloured. The colouring matter and an extractive substance are thus removed and a very pale green mass, of the consistence of simple ointment, remains. The washings are thrown away; Ameer says that these are intoxicating, and produce constriction of the throat, great pain and very disagreeable and dangerous symptoms. "The operator then takes two pounds of sugar, and adding a little water, places it in a pipkin over the fire. When the sugar dissolves and froths, two ounces of milk are added; a thick scum rises and is removed; more milk and a little water are added from time to time, and the boiling continued about an hour, the solution being carefully stirred until it becomes an adhesive clear syrup, ready to solidify on a cold surface; four ounces of tyre (new milk dried before the sun) in fine powder are now stirred in, and lastly the prepared butter of hemp is introduced, brisk stirring being continued for a few minutes. A few drops of attar of roses are then quickly sprinkled in, and the mixture poured from the pipkin on a flat cold dish or slab. The mass concretes immediately into a thick cake, which is divided into small lozenge" shaped pieces. A seer thus prepared sells for four rupees. One drachm by weight will intoxicate a beginner; three drachms, one experienced in its use. The taste is sweet and the odour very agreeable. Ameer states that sometimes by special order of customers he introduces stramonium seeds, but never nux vomica; that all classes of persons including the lower Portugese or Kala Feringhees and especially their females, consume the drug; that it is most fascinating in its effects, producing extatic happiness, a persuasion of high rank, a sensation of flying, voracious appetite and intense aphrodisiac desire."*