Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality

«So far as we know now, Soma is the only plant that man has ever deified.» — Wasson parte de lo que a su juicio hace único al Soma en el panteón védico: no un dios con planta asociada sino la planta misma deificada, y sostiene que no hay otra en la historia humana

«A book of 1028 hymns is our sole contemporary source of information about the period it deals with.» — Wasson fija el límite de su base documental: un solo libro de mil veintiocho himnos es toda la información contemporánea que existe sobre el periodo, y de ahí sale la dificultad del problema

«Some of the hymns are of so exalted, even delirious, a tenor that the modern reader is led to exclaim: ‘This surely was composed under the influence of a divine inebriant’.» — Wasson señala el tono de los himnos como primer indicio, con la reacción del lector moderno en boca de ese mismo lector y no como tesis propia

«In the hierarchy of Vedic gods certain others took precedence over Soma, but since Soma was a tangible, visible thing, its inebriating juice to be ingested by the human organism in the course of the ritual, a god come down and manifesting himself to the Aryans, Soma played a singular réle in the Vedic pantheon.» — Wasson explica por qué Soma pesa distinto que los demás dioses védicos aunque otros lo precedan en jerarquía: es un dios tangible y visible que se ingiere durante el rito

«The priests, after imbibing the juice, seem to have known, for the nonce, the ecstasy of existence in the World of the Immortals.» — Wasson describe el efecto del jugo sobre los sacerdotes con la reserva puesta dentro de la frase, en el verbo y en el por esta vez del original

«When a Brahman schooled in the ancient tradition sings us a hymn from the RgVeda, with intonation precisely right, there is reason to think that it is as though we were listening to a tape recording 3,000 years old.» — Wasson sostiene la fidelidad de la transmisión oral védica y la compara con una grabación de tres mil años, con la razón puesta antes: la memoria humana sin paralelo en otras culturas

«As the eminent French Vedist Louis Renou has said, the whole of this immense collection, known as the RgVeda, is present in nuce in the themes that Soma presents to us.’» — Wasson trae la formulación del vedista francés Louis Renou, según la cual el RgVeda entero está in nuce en los temas que presenta el Soma; la tesis es de Renou y quien la reporta es Wasson

«But the identity of Soma is as obscure today as two centuries ago, and what is more, this mystery is compounded by what I will call the mystery of the mystery of Soma.» — Wasson enuncia el doble misterio que da forma al libro: la identidad perdida y el hecho mismo de que se haya perdido, lo que llama el misterio del misterio del Soma

«The poetpriests of the RgVeda were composing for contemporaries, certainly not for posterity 3,000 years away, and their imagery and terms often elude our understanding, just as our hymns would make hard going for our collateral descendants 3,000 years hence.» — Wasson acota qué se le puede pedir a los himnos como evidencia botánica, y arranca del hecho de que sus autores componían para contemporáneos; el troceo parte poet-priests a fin de renglón y span() lo devuelve fundido como poetpriests, que no es la forma impresa

«N the second millennium before our Christian era a people who called themselves ‘Aryans’ swept down from the Northwest into what is now Afghanistan and the Valley of the Indus.» — Wasson sitúa el marco histórico del que sale el RgVeda; la inicial capitular del capítulo se imprime suelta y el troceo la devuelve sin la I, de modo que la palabra inicial es In

«In the course of the Soma sacrifice the juice was pounded out with stones on resounding planks and was drunk by the officiating priests.» — Wasson describe la mecánica del rito: el jugo se machacaba con piedras sobre tablas sonoras y lo bebían los sacerdotes oficiantes

«The Mexican Indians seem to regard the hallucinogenic plants, whether mushrooms, peyotl, or morning glories, as mediators with god, not as a god. The Nahua - Aztecs and other groups speaking the same tongue — called the mushrooms teo-nandcatl, ‘god’s flesh’, but the mushrooms do not figure in their pantheon.» — Wasson contrasta el caso mexicano para sostener la singularidad del Soma: allí los hongos, el peyotl y las enredaderas de la mañana hacen de mediadores con el dios y no son dioses, y el nombre teo-nanácatl designa la carne del dios sin que el hongo entre al panteón

«The dried plants were first freshened with water. They were then macerated with stone pestles, and the tawny yellow juice as it came coursing through the conduits of the press was compared, in the hyperbole of the day, with thunder.» — Wasson describe la preparación del Soma como se lee en los himnos, con el detalle que su tesis necesitará después: las plantas están secas y se refrescan con agua antes de machacarlas

«The Divine Element was not just a symbol of a spiritual truth as in the Christian communion: Soma was a miraculous drink that spoke for itself.» — Wasson traza la diferencia que a su juicio separa al Soma de la comunión cristiana: allí el elemento divino simboliza una verdad espiritual, aquí es una bebida que obra por sí misma

«When I first embarked on the problem in 1963, I could hardly believe what I found to be the situation. Here is a clear-cut botanical question — a psychotropic plant that calls for identification. The clues should be in the Vedic hymns.» — Wasson fecha su entrada al problema en 1963 y lo plantea como cuestión botánica acotada: una planta psicotrópica que pide identificación y cuyos indicios deberían estar en los himnos

«But the hymns are all shot through with Soma, and 120 of them are entirely devoted to the plant-god.» — Wasson mide el peso del Soma dentro del RgVeda: ciento veinte himnos enteros dedicados al dios-planta, además de la presencia difusa en el resto

«All that has happened is that no ethno-botanist with an interest in psychotropic plants has applied himself to the examination of the hymns.» — Wasson nombra el hueco disciplinar que a su juicio explica el estancamiento: ningún etnobotánico interesado en plantas psicotrópicas se había puesto a examinar los himnos

«The Vedic culture has been primarily a subject for Vedic scholars and secondarily for those scholars who interest themselves in comparative mythology and religion.» — Wasson describe quiénes se han ocupado del material védico y señala que la etnobotánica nunca estuvo entre ellos

«The specialists in Vedic learning have included a handful of brilliant men, of extraordinary perception, who are assured of a lasting reputation by the works they have left behind.» — Wasson reconoce el mérito de los vedistas antes de objetarles el punto ciego, y la glosa conserva el elogio porque va dentro del mismo argumento

«They have been tilling a field, a rich field it is true, in a remote frontier province of the humanities, and they must often have felt that they were leading an isolated existence.» — Wasson sitúa los estudios védicos como provincia fronteriza y aislada de las humanidades, razón que ofrece para el aislamiento del problema

«The early translations of the RgVeda were execrable. Only now, in the annotated translations of the late K. F. Geldner and the late Louis Renou, does a student with no Vedic possess a rendering that permits him to sense some of the nuances of the original.» — Wasson data en las traducciones anotadas de Geldner y de Renou el momento en que un lector sin védico puede acceder a los matices del original; declara acto seguido que sin Renou no habría podido hacer nada

«Throughout the dawn and early morning of Vedic studies, in the roth century, many cultivated people in the West, not merely Vedic scholars but educated laymen, knew at least what the Soma problem was.» — Wasson traza la caída del problema del Soma desde el siglo diecinueve, cuando lo conocía el lego culto; el troceo devuelve roth donde el impreso trae 19th

«More recently, whenever the subject has been broached, scholars and editors have sighed and wearily turned away: the Soma question has dropped into oblivion simply because it has seemed to defy solution.» — Wasson describe la reacción del gremio ante el asunto y adjudica el olvido a la apariencia de insolubilidad, no a una decisión razonada

«our contemporary religious thinkers (with notable exceptions) have no sympathy with drugs as a way to religious experience, though accepting a réle for other external aids such as music, architecture, and liturgy» — Wasson objeta a los pensadores religiosos contemporáneos la asimetría de admitir música, arquitectura y liturgia como auxilios externos y no las drogas

«Yet it cannot be gainsaid that Vedic culture with Soma unidentified is the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out.» — Wasson fija con un símil el costo de dejar el Soma sin identificar dentro del estudio de la cultura védica

«That the question continues to be slighted constitutes, as I have said, the mystery of the Soma enigma.» — Wasson nombra el segundo misterio, que es el desdén del gremio por la pregunta, y lo llama el misterio del enigma del Soma

«There is no sure evidence that in Vedic times Soma was drunk by others than the priests.» — Wasson acota lo que la evidencia permite decir sobre quién bebía Soma en época védica: no hay prueba firme de que lo bebiera nadie fuera del sacerdocio

«By a deliberate decision the priests must finally have decided to discontinue the use of the Sacred Plant.» — Wasson atribuye el fin del uso a una decisión deliberada del sacerdocio y no a una pérdida accidental

«That familiarity with the genuine Soma seems to have been confined to the priesthood would make the enforcement of such a decision effective, and the very memory of the plant itself was finally lost.» — Wasson explica por qué esa decisión pudo ejecutarse y borrar el recuerdo: el trato con la planta genuina estaba confinado al sacerdocio

«For more than two millennia the hymns to Soma have been sung and revered in the absence of Soma.» — Wasson señala la paradoja que sostiene el libro: más de dos milenios cantando himnos a una planta ausente

«The priestly compositions that have come down to us show acute concern over the relative merits of various substitutes, but no concern over the plant itself.» — Wasson lee el silencio del aparato sacerdotal como dato: discute afanosamente los méritos de los sustitutos y nunca la planta misma

«Brahmans among my friends in India have assured me that the many substitutes for Soma used over the large expanse of the sub-continent and through the ages were always known by the inner circles of the priestly caste to be substitutes. This cannot be proved but must have been a fact.» — Wasson reporta el testimonio de brahmanes amigos suyos sobre que los círculos internos siempre supieron que los sustitutos eran sustitutos, y marca el límite en la misma frase: no se puede probar

«In the 1830's European scholars finally awoke to the mystery of Soma’s identity, but their efforts to solve the problem from that day to this have been singularly futile.» — Wasson data en los años treinta del siglo diecinueve el despertar europeo al enigma y califica de estériles los intentos posteriores

«They have merely worked over the Brahmanic discussions of the substitutes, apparently under the misapprehension that the original Soma must have closely resembled the substitutes, if it was not in fact one of them.» — Wasson diagnostica el error de método que atribuye a sus predecesores: partir de las discusiones brahmánicas sobre los sustitutos suponiendo que el Soma original se les parecía

«And so in the fullness of time it has fallen on me, a retired banker, to be greatly daring and to submit to the intellectual world a new theory of Soma’s identity.» — Wasson se presenta a sí mismo como banquero retirado y enuncia su posición fuera del gremio, dato que la ficha conserva porque él lo pone como parte del argumento

«As I entered into the extraordinary world of the RgVeda, a suspicion gradually came over me, a suspicion that grew into a conviction: I recognized the plant that had enraptured the poets.» — Wasson cuenta la génesis de su convicción como sospecha que fue creciendo, y dice haber reconocido la planta

«At the same time there hovered constantly in my mind’s eye the admonitory finger of Tristram Shandy as he warned against the occupational hazard of those who advance hypotheses: It is in the nature of a hypothesis when once a man has conceived it, that it assimilates everything to itself, as proper nourishment, and from the first moment of your begetting it, it generally grows stronger by everything you see, hear or understand.» — Wasson se aplica a sí mismo la advertencia de Tristram Shandy sobre la hipótesis que asimila todo lo que encuentra; la voz de la advertencia es la del personaje de Sterne y quien se la aplica es Wasson

«And so, while well aware of the perils that attend my enterprise, I present my case. If I am wrong, how quickly will my proposal be forgotten! If I am right, I claim the privilege of adding a new and exciting chapter to the world’s knowledge of the remote past, the proto-history of our own Indo-European culture.» — Wasson deja escrita su apuesta con las dos ramas, el olvido si se equivoca y un capítulo nuevo de la proto-historia indoeuropea si acierta

«In a word, my belief is that Soma is the Divine Mushroom of Immortality, and that in the early days of our culture, before we made use of reading and writing, when the RgVeda was being composed, the prestige of this miraculous mushroom ran by word of mouth far and wide throughout Eurasia, well beyond the regions where it grew and was worshipped.» — Wasson enuncia su tesis central y la extiende más allá de la identificación botánica: el prestigio del hongo habría corrido de boca en boca por toda Eurasia antes de la escritura

«My candidate for the identity of Soma is Amanita muscaria (Fr. ex L.) Quél., in English the fly-agaric, the Fliegenpily of the Germans, the mukhomor of the Russians, the fausse oronge or tue-mouche or crapaudin of the French, the brilliant red mushroom with white spots familiar in forests and folklore throughout northern Eurasia.» — Wasson nombra su candidato con la autoría botánica y con los nombres vulgares en inglés, alemán, ruso y francés, y lo describe por el rasgo que el libro explotará después, el rojo con puntos blancos

«This is the first time that a mushroom has been proposed in the Soma quest.» — Wasson declara la novedad de su propuesta dentro de la historia de la pregunta

«As far back as our records go, it has been the Sacred Element in the shamanic rites of many tribes of northern Siberia, tribes that are concentrated in the valleys of the Ob and the Yenisei, and then, after an interruption, other tribes in the extreme northeast of Siberia.» — Wasson describe el papel del agárico de mosca entre las tribus del norte de Siberia y localiza los dos focos, los valles del Ob y del Yenisei y el extremo nordeste, con la interrupción geográfica entre ambos

«Apparently some of these tribesmen scarcely knew alcohol until the Russians introduced it in the 16th and 17th centuries, but the fly-agaric had been their precious possession long before then.» — Wasson fecha la llegada del alcohol a esos pueblos en los siglos dieciséis y diecisiete y sostiene la anterioridad del agárico

«Our earliest eye-witness account of its use is by a Pole, Adam Kamienski, in 1658, among the Ostyak of the Irtysh River (tributary of the Ob), an Ugrian people of the Finno-Ugrian family.’» — Wasson data en 1658 el testimonio ocular más antiguo del uso, el del polaco Adam Kamienski entre los ostiacos del Irtish, y lo remite al exhibit [1]

«Today we know its use is common to the Ostyak and their kin the Vogul, the Ket of the Yenisei Valley, the Samoyed peoples (who together with the Finno-Ugrians make up the Uralic group), and three sister tribes, unrelated linguistically to the others, on the north Pacific Coast, the Chukchi, the Koryak, and the Kamchadal.» — Wasson inventaría los pueblos que usan el agárico y separa los urálicos de las tres tribus hermanas del Pacífico norte, que declara no emparentadas lingüísticamente con los demás

«Responsible observers have reported that the Yukagir, who survive in Siberia in tiny communities near the Arctic Ocean, and the Inari Lapps in Finland, preserve oral traditions of having consumed the fly-agaric in times past, though they no longer do so.» — Wasson consigna el caso de los yukaguires y de los lapones de Inari como tradición oral de un uso pasado, no como práctica observada

«The use of the fly-agaric has been in retreat ever since the arrival of the White Man.» — Wasson describe el uso del agárico como práctica en retirada desde la llegada del hombre blanco

«In a conflict of cultures the stronger one always assumes right away, without examination, that all its ways, its vices as well as its virtues, are incomparably superior.» — Wasson generaliza sobre el choque de culturas para explicar la presión rusa sobre las prácticas nativas, y lo pone entre paréntesis como digresión suya

«In the Exhibits we publish in extenso the accounts of travellers, linguists, and anthropologists that deal with the fly-agaric in Siberia. There is linguistic and folkloric evidence to indicate that formerly, in proto-history, it was used by some of the Indo-European peoples, as well as the Hungarians.» — Wasson declara el estatuto de la Parte Tres, que reimprime enteros los relatos de viajeros, lingüistas y antropólogos, y anuncia la extensión indoeuropea del uso por vía lingüística y folclórica

«My primary source, the basis of my identification of Soma, is the RgVeda, as made accessible to me in the recent annotated translations, to wit, those of Renou, Geldner, and Bhawe.» — Wasson declara su fuente primaria y las traducciones por las que la lee, con lo que fija qué mediación hay entre él y el texto védico

«It is certain that the poets of the RgVeda knew the original Soma at first hand, and they never strayed from it for long. I invoke later texts and the Avesta only where they help us to know what the RgVeda means.» — Wasson enuncia la premisa que le permite excluir la literatura posterior: los poetas del RgVeda conocieron el Soma de primera mano, y los textos tardíos y el Avesta entran solo como auxiliares

«Any suggestion for the identity of Soma must meet the following criteria: 1) Is it in conflict with the RgVeda? 2) Does it fit comfortably into such descriptive terms as the RgVeda poets apply to Soma, and into the indications as to the source of supply, methods of handling, etc.? 3) Does the proposal happily resolve some of the many cruces in the RgVeda? On all three counts I am hopeful that my suggestion meets the requirements.» — Wasson fija los tres criterios con que quiere que se juzgue cualquier candidato, y cierra con el grado puesto en el verbo, la esperanza y no la certeza

«It was only after I had finished my examination of the RgVeda text, and after Dr. O'Flaherty had laid before me her paper written at my request on the history of Soma since Vedic times (here published as Part Two), that I realized how unorthodox I had been in my approach.» — Wasson cuenta que solo al leer el ensayo que había encargado a O'Flaherty midió lo heterodoxo de su método, y de paso declara el origen de la Parte Dos: un trabajo pedido por él

«It turns out that I was unique. Everyone else, literally everyone, had relied on later sources, sources composed at a time when the original Soma had been superseded by substitutes, and on plants called in various modern vernaculars by names derived from ‘Soma’. Or they had had recourse to guesses, without supporting evidence; guesses such as rhubarb, or hashish, or wild grape wine, in disregard of their incompatibility with the RgVeda.» — Wasson describe en bloque el método de sus predecesores, fuentes tardías, plantas de nombre derivado y conjeturas sueltas como el ruibarbo, el hachís o el vino de uva silvestre

«The Aryans came from the north but no one knows from where.» — Wasson consigna la ignorancia sobre el origen de los arios como estado de la cuestión, no como laguna propia

«These hymns differ from the others considerably in tone and language, and there is reason to believe that substitutes, which I think had always been occasionally used, had now almost completely replaced Soma in the sacrifice.» — Wasson declara qué excluye del corpus que examina, los himnos más tardíos del Mandala X, y da la razón: allí los sustitutos ya habrían desplazado casi del todo al Soma

«Thomas Burrow made headway on this question when in The Sanskrit Language’ he marshalled the latest linguistic evidence about the pre-history of the Indo-European peoples.» — Wasson trae a Thomas Burrow y su Sanskrit Language como apoyo lingüístico del contacto indoiranio con hablantes de proto-finougrio; la tesis es de Burrow y quien la reporta es Wasson

«If as I believe the Aryans brought down with them from their homeland a cult of the sacred fly-agaric, it must needs follow that their priests had from the start wrestled with the problem of substitutes.» — Wasson deriva de su propia tesis la necesidad del problema de los sustitutos desde el principio, y marca el condicional en la misma frase

«The fly-agaric is not always available. Like most species of mushrooms, it does not lend itself to cultivation. The supply is therefore limited and varies with the season and the year.» — Wasson explica la razón material de los sustitutos: el hongo no se cultiva y su oferta depende de la estación y del año

«It can be dried and thus preserved: the RgVeda speaks on several occasions of water being added to the (presumably dry) Soma, so that it would swell up again.» — Wasson enlaza el secado del hongo con el agua que los himnos echan al Soma antes de machacarlo, y marca el supuesto entre paréntesis

«The fly-agaric is a mycorrhizal mushroom: in Eurasia it grows only in an underground relationship with the pines, the firs, and above all the birches. Where these trees are not, neither does the fly-agaric grow.» — Wasson fija la restricción ecológica que hará de argumento geográfico: la micorriza con pinos, abetos y sobre todo abedules

«Wendy O'Flaherty in her paper on the history of the Soma question has pointed out the consistent association, in early times, of the color red with the substitutes for Soma that were preferred — a significant pointer when the fly-agaric, flaming red, as the original Soma is under consideration.» — Wasson remite al ensayo de O'Flaherty la asociación temprana del color rojo con los sustitutos preferidos y la lee como indicio a favor de su candidato; el hallazgo es de ella y quien lo usa es él

«If these are ancient criteria, it is easy to see how they were suggested by the fly-agaric - small, leafless, with juicy stalk.» — Wasson lee esos tres criterios como derivados del agárico, con la condición puesta delante: si son antiguos

«That the criteria seem arbitrary and permitted the choice of plant substitutes bearing no outward resemblance to the fly-agaric is not incompatible with the sacerdotal habit of mind.» — Wasson se hace cargo de la objeción de que los sustitutos no se parecen al agárico y la responde por el hábito mental sacerdotal

«In the hot arid regions of northwest India, Afghanistan, and Iran the available species of three botanical genera, Ephedra, Sarcostemma, and Periploca, seemed to meet these requirements with fair success and they came to be widely used in the post-Vedic Soma sacrifice.» — Wasson nombra los tres géneros botánicos que se impusieron como sustitutos en el sacrificio post-védico, Ephedra, Sarcostemma y Periploca, y los explica por la disponibilidad en zona árida

«There has been an impression in India and elsewhere that Soma was a creeper, valli in Sanskrit.» — Wasson consigna la creencia extendida de que el Soma era una enredadera, valli en sánscrito

«No RgVedic authority exists for this term, in fact none in the whole corpus of Vedic literature.» — Wasson niega que exista autoridad védica alguna para el término valli, en el RgVeda o fuera de él

«I refrain from contending that valli was not used in RgVedic times.» — Wasson se abstiene de sostener la negativa fuerte y deja abierto que valli se usara en tiempos rgvédicos, porque los tres géneros sustitutos podrían leerse así

«This verse, and the late hymn of which it forms a part, may have been composed at the very moment when the original Soma had already fallen into disuse, when only priests still remembered what it was, and when substitutes were currently accepted as the genuine article.» — Wasson fecha el himno X 85 en el momento mismo del relevo, cuando solo los sacerdotes recordaban qué era el Soma y los sustitutos ya pasaban por el artículo genuino, y mantiene el grado en el verbo

«(For the convenience of scholars we shall always add the Vedic text of the verses that we quote.» — Wasson declara la convención editorial del volumen: cada verso citado va acompañado del texto védico transliterado

«In the West it has been repeatedly suggested that Soma was an alcoholic drink.» — Wasson consigna la hipótesis alcohólica como propuesta repetida en Occidente, que su capítulo cuarto va a rebatir

«The culture of the modern world has long been obsessed with alcohol as the sole inebriant.» — Wasson atribuye la insistencia en el alcohol a una obsesión cultural moderna y no a la evidencia védica

«Even if we allow for the heat of the summer in the Indus Valley, fermentation could not have advanced far in a religious rite repeated thrice in a day.» — Wasson ofrece el argumento ritual contra la fermentación: tres ofrendas en un día no dejan tiempo para que el jugo fermente, ni con el calor del valle del Indo

«Moreover, those who know the fermenting process must find it hard, indeed impossible, to imagine anyone, no matter how far removed from our culture, waxing lyrical, even ecstatic, over a drink in active fermentation.» — Wasson apela a la experiencia de la fermentación para objetar que nadie se pondría lírico ante una bebida en fermentación activa

«They had their surd, mentioned several times in the RgVeda but without reverential pzeans; quite the contrary» — Wasson contrasta el trato que el RgVeda da a la sura, la bebida fermentada que nombra sin himnos reverentes, con el que da al Soma; el troceo imprime surd por sura

«But no one knows whether the ancestors of the Aryans had been drinking mead: many peoples knowing honey do not ferment it.» — Wasson niega que se sepa si los antepasados de los arios bebían hidromiel y añade el argumento de que conocer la miel no implica fermentarla

«Honey, mddhu, is mentioned frequently in the RgVeda but mead never. Honey is cited for its sweetness and also is often applied as a metaphor of enhancement to Soma. There is reason to think it was used on occasions to mix with Soma, but the two were never confused.» — Wasson mide la presencia de la miel en el RgVeda frente a la ausencia del hidromiel y deja la mezcla con Soma como probable sin confundir ambas cosas

«The most astonishing of candidates for Soma was espoused by Sir Aurel Stein, the explorer-scholar, vi» — Wasson presenta la propuesta del ruibarbo de Sir Aurel Stein como la más asombrosa de las candidaturas; el troceo corta la abreviatura latina viz. como vig.

«According to Stein himself, no Indian in recorded history has made a fermented drink of rhubarb, though of course with the addition of sugar or honey the juice lends itself to fermentation.» — Wasson objeta a Stein con el propio Stein: ningún indio de la historia registrada hizo bebida fermentada de ruibarbo

«All the rich Soma adjectives and metaphors of the RgVeda make odd reading when linked to rhubarb: resplendent, Born of Thunder, Mainstay of the Earth, Navel of the Way, Immortal Principle. Stein must have forgotten either his RgVeda or his sense of humour.» — Wasson enumera los epítetos del Soma y los enfrenta al ruibarbo; la última frase es sarcasmo suyo y se conserva como tal

«In 1921 an Indian advanced the notion that Soma, after all, was nothing but bhang, the Indian name for marijuana, Cannabis sativa, hemp, hashish. He conveniently ignored the fact that the RgVeda placed Soma only on the high mountains, whereas hemp grows everywhere; and that the virtue of Soma lay in the stalks, whereas it is the resin of the unripened pistillate buds of hashish that transport one into the beyond; or, much weaker, the leaves, which are never mentioned in the RgVeda. The stalks of hemp are woody.» — Wasson data en 1921 la tesis del bhang y la objeta por tres vías, la montaña que el RgVeda exige, la virtud puesta en el tallo y no en la resina, y la madera del tallo del cáñamo

«The Indo-Iranians did not know the distillation process and therefore Soma could not have been a strong drink, i.e., brandy or the distillate of grains.» — Wasson descarta el aguardiente por anacronismo técnico: los indoiranios no conocían la destilación

«I doubt whether they would have made these suggestions had they been alert to the anachronism.» — Wasson atribuye esas versiones a un descuido del anacronismo y no a un error de lectura, y lo dice en duda

«The Orientalist Berthold Laufer wrote, ‘Certain it is that distillation was a western invention, and was unknown to the ancient Chinese.”» — el orientalista Berthold Laufer, citado por Wasson, sostiene que la destilación fue invención occidental desconocida de los chinos antiguos

«The Dutch scholar R. J. Forbes in his Short History of the Art of Distillation’ concludes that there is no evidence for distilled beverages before the distillation process was discovered and practiced around A.D. 1100 in Italy, probably at Salerno.» — el holandés R. J. Forbes, citado por Wasson en su Short History of the Art of Distillation, sitúa el comienzo de la destilación de alcohol hacia 1100 en Italia, probablemente en Salerno

«The hymns are not make-believe about a fictitious plant: if ever there was genuine poetry about a genuine plant» — Wasson sostiene que los himnos no son ficción poética sobre una planta inventada, premisa de la que depende todo su argumento; la frase se cierra en la plana siguiente y el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«until 1784 that the word itself, spelled Som, made its début on the European scene, in Charles Wilkins’s English translation of the Bhagavad Gitd.» — Wasson data en 1784 la primera aparición europea de la palabra, con la grafía Som, en la traducción del Bhagavad Gita de Charles Wilkins; la frase arranca en la plana anterior y el verbatim empieza donde empieza esta plana, y el troceo imprime Gitd por Gita

«The available records about its religious réle are adequate to reveal its main properties but fall short of what we would have them be in the light of the proposal made in this paper.» — Wasson declara la insuficiencia de sus propias fuentes siberianas para lo que su tesis pide; el troceo imprime réle donde el impreso trae rôle

«we owe our knowledge of the use of the fly-agaric and also the approaching end of that use.» — Wasson consigna la paradoja de su propia fuente, que la conquista rusa de Siberia es a la vez lo que permite conocer el uso del agárico y lo que lo está acabando; la frase arranca al final del chunk anterior y el verbatim empieza en esta plana

«have told me that three criteria governed the choice of substitutes: the plant should be small, it should be leafless, and it should possess fleshy stalks.» — Wasson reporta de sus amigos del Vaidika SarnSodhana Mandala de Poona los tres criterios del sustituto, pequeña, sin hojas y de tallo carnoso; la frase arranca en la plana anterior y el verbatim empieza en esta

«the poet compares Soma with the ‘intoxicating one’; Geldner supplies Branntwein» — Wasson señala que Geldner vierte el epíteto del embriagante con un término de licor destilado, Branntwein, y que Renou lo sigue con alcool en la plana siguiente; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«‘Alcohol’ is of Arabic origin but in Arabic it meant something other than what we mean by it.» — Wasson acota el origen árabe de la palabra alcohol y advierte que allí no designaba lo que hoy designa

«The making of aquavite (as it was called for a long time, and still is, in parts of Europe) remained a secret of the alchemists and some monastic establishments for centuries, until the Reformation, when in the course of a decade, in the second quarter of the 16th century, thanks to the dissolution of the monasteries by the Protestants, the ‘secret’ became common property, and the product, after having changed hands for a king’s ransom, sold suddenly dirt cheap.» — Wasson cuenta el paso del aguardiente de secreto de alquimistas y monasterios a mercancía barata, y lo fecha en el segundo cuarto del siglo dieciséis por la disolución de los monasterios

«In the RgVeda (excluding the latter half of Mandala X, last to be admitted to the canon) there is no reference to the root of the Soma plant, nor to its leaves, nor to its blossoms, nor to its seed.» — Wasson enuncia el argumento negativo que sostiene su tesis botánica: el RgVeda nunca nombra raíz, hojas, flores ni semilla del Soma

«In a lengthy anthology of lyric poetry written over centuries in the far flung Valley of the Indus and its tributaries, how odd it is that no poet ever speaks of these conspicuous parts of almost all chlorophyll-bearing plants, not even casually or incidentally.» — Wasson subraya lo improbable de ese silencio en una antología compuesta a lo largo de siglos y en un territorio amplio

«Alternatively, they were speaking of a plant that had neither seed nor blossom nor leaf nor root; viz., a mushroom.» — Wasson ofrece la explicación alternativa al silencio: que la planta no tuviera semilla, flor, hoja ni raíz, es decir, un hongo

«As for seed, there is positive evidence that Soma was thought to lack seed: Soma was procreated from on high, the Somic germ having been placed by the gods.» — Wasson lee la procreación del germen sómico por los dioses como evidencia positiva de que al Soma se lo pensaba sin semilla

«In a world where farming was already well developed one would expect Soma to be cultivated. A plant with properties so extraordinary would elicit the utmost attention, though owing to its sacred character we would rather expect its growth to be confined to the gardens of the higher priesthood. But the fact is that there is never a mention of its cultivation.» — Wasson señala la ausencia de toda mención al cultivo del Soma en una sociedad agrícola como segundo indicio negativo

«To this day the fly-agaric (like almost all other species of mushrooms) refuses to be cultivated.» — Wasson enlaza esa ausencia con la resistencia del agárico al cultivo, que sostiene vigente hasta hoy y aun en laboratorio

«Note. While our argument in favour of the fly-agaric is founded squarely on the RgVeda, there is one verse in the Avesta that seems to speak of the ‘trunks’ and ‘branches’ of the sacred plant, and discussion of that verse is in order if only to forestall objections.» — Wasson declara que su argumento se funda en el RgVeda y abre la excepción avéstica solo para adelantarse a la objeción del verso que habla de troncos y ramas de la planta sagrada

«The Avesta is the Bible of the religion of Zoroaster (= ‘Zarathustra’), a religion that lingers on to this day in the Parsi community centered in Bombay. Tradition has it that most of the Avesta was lost when Alexander the Great overran Iran, but the surviving fragments are still substantial.» — Wasson presenta el Avesta y su comunidad parsi de Bombay, y consigna la tradición de la pérdida del grueso del texto con la conquista de Alejandro

«There is no consensus among scholars on the dates of Zoroaster.» — Wasson consigna la falta de acuerdo entre especialistas sobre las fechas de Zoroastro

«Some assign him to about the 1oth century B.C., this early date being based on reasonable arguments derived from linguistics and comparative cultural studies.» — Wasson expone la datación alta de Zoroastro y la base que le adjudica, lingüística y estudios culturales comparados; el troceo imprime 1oth donde el libro trae 10th

«Others prefer to accept the tradition according to which he was living around B.C. 600, the proposed dates being 630-553, or 628-551, or 618-541.» — Wasson expone la datación baja, la de la tradición, con las tres horquillas propuestas, y las deja enfrentadas a la alta sin arbitrar

«Religiously and linguistically the Avesta and RgVeda are siblings. The text of the RgVeda is, however, much purer owing to its marvelous preservation through the ages by the disciplined human memory.» — Wasson declara el parentesco del Avesta con el RgVeda y adjudica al segundo un texto más puro por la memoria disciplinada que lo transmitió

«The Avesta like the RgVeda knew an inebriating plant that was the object of worship, and the Avestan ‘Haoma’ and the Vedic Soma were certainly identical, at least at the start.» — Wasson sostiene la identidad inicial del Haoma avéstico con el Soma védico, con la reserva puesta al final de la frase

«Three chapters, Yasna 9, to, and 11, consist of numinous phrases of adoration addressed to Haoma; collectively they are known as the Hom Yast.» — Wasson localiza en el Yasna 9 al 11 las fórmulas de adoración al Haoma que el Avesta reúne bajo el nombre de Hom Yast

«James Darmesteter, who gave us our standard translation of the Avesta, felt sure that the Hém Yast had been interpolated late into the text, between B.C. 140 and A. D. 50.» — James Darmesteter, traductor estándar del Avesta según Wasson, data la interpolación del Hom Yast entre el 140 antes de Cristo y el 50 de nuestra era; la tesis es de Darmesteter y quien la reporta es Wasson

«One might expect its authority to be impugned by reason of this late date, but an interpolated text may incorporate ancient words and traditions, and precisely this is the situation here, the Hom Yast preserving for us in its words and matter some of the truly archaic elements in the Avesta, perhaps antedating Zoroaster himself.» — Wasson se hace cargo de que esa fecha tardía podría invalidar la autoridad del pasaje y responde que un texto interpolado puede conservar palabras y tradiciones arcaicas, quizá anteriores a Zoroastro

«Thus it becomes necessary to examine Yasna 10.5, which I give below in the original Iranian dialect peculiar to the Avesta, in Darmesteter’s French translation, and in my English rendering of Darmesteter.» — Wasson declara el triple aparato con que presenta el Yasna 10.5, el original iranio, la versión francesa de Darmesteter y su propia traducción inglesa de Darmesteter, con lo que deja ver que no traduce del avéstico

«I have underlined in the Avestan text the three words that Darmesteter renders by ‘trunks’, ‘branches’, and ‘stems’.» — Wasson subraya los tres términos avésticos que Darmesteter vierte por troncos, ramas y tallos, y abre la pregunta por la certeza de esas equivalencias

«We reproduce on p. 122 the picture of Haoma that Darmesteter gives us, in what he says is its natural size. It is a leafless plant without ‘trunk’ or ‘branches’.» — Wasson remite a la lámina del Haoma según Darmesteter y objeta que la planta allí dibujada no tiene ni tronco ni ramas

«This word had three meanings or uses: (a) stem, (b) the membrum virile, and (c) antler. The prefix fra- conveys the idea of forward movement, of growth, thrust, erection. This is lacking in our lifeless ‘stem’, but how felicitous for our fast-growing mushroom tribe!» — Wasson desmenuza el término avéstico fravaxsi por sus tres acepciones y lee en el prefijo fra- la idea de empuje y crecimiento, que enlaza con el hongo

«In many of the world’s cultures there is a semantic overlap between ‘mushroom’ and the membrum virile, for obvious reasons; e.g., Greek 0x76, Japanese matsutake.» — Wasson generaliza el solapamiento semántico entre hongo y miembro viril y da ejemplos del griego y del japonés; el troceo devuelve corrompida la palabra griega

«According to the lexicons this word meant ‘shoot’, ‘sprout’, ‘sucker’, and again the prefix fra- conveys the feel of forward thrust.» — Wasson deriva de los léxicos las acepciones de frasparaya, brote, retoño y vástago, y repite la lectura del prefijo

«There seems no warrant for Darmesteter’s ‘branches’, except for the later Pahlavi and Sanskrit translations of the word, which may have been influenced by the current Haoma-substitutes.» — Wasson objeta la versión de Darmesteter por ramas y adjudica su único apoyo a traducciones pahlavi y sánscritas tardías, que a su juicio pudieron estar teñidas por los sustitutos en uso

«Darmesteter was presupposing that Haoma was a tree or shrub and translating the word to conform to his presupposition.» — Wasson atribuye a Darmesteter una presuposición previa, que el Haoma era árbol o arbusto, y adjudica a esa presuposición la forma de su traducción

«It occurs only three times, in Yasna 10.5, Yasna 71.9; and wast 8.42. The contexts are similar and do not help.» — Wasson mide la base textual del término varasaji, tres apariciones en contextos parecidos que no resuelven el sentido

«The suggestion has been made that the word’s meaning was ‘that which gives life to the tree’, whence ‘root’ seems a viable guess.» — Wasson consigna la propuesta de leer varasaji como lo que da vida al árbol, de donde raíz parecería conjetura viable, y la deja como sugerencia

«Bartholome suggested this meaning in his famous Old-Iranian Dictionary, but he was not sure as he added a question-mark to the explanation.» — Bartholome, citado por Wasson, propone ese sentido en su diccionario iranio antiguo y le pone signo de interrogación, reserva que Wasson conserva

«Darmesteter was following Middle-Iranian traditions when he translated the word as ‘trunk’, and this meaning was confirmed by H. W. Bailey who at the same time rejected the rendering ‘root’.» — Wasson adjudica la versión de Darmesteter por tronco a las tradiciones iranias medias, y reporta que H. W. Bailey la respaldó rechazando a la vez la versión por raíz

«Bailey’s conclusion was based on the Pahlavi translation of the word varasaji- by bun = ‘stalk’ or ‘trunk’, and advan = ‘stalk’, the latter originally meaning ‘the upper part of a tree’, which rules out ‘root’.» — Wasson expone la base pahlavi del argumento de Bailey y cierra con el dato que excluye la raíz, que advan designaba originalmente la parte alta del árbol

«The Pahlavi tradition is not a completely reliable guide to the meaning of uncertain terms in the Avesta, but so long as no serious contradiction arises, it may help to make the rendering more probable.» — Wasson acota el valor de la tradición pahlavi como guía: no es del todo fiable, pero mientras no aparezca contradicción seria vuelve más probable la versión

«If Haoma was a mushroom, the translation must accommodate itself to that fact, and we are relying on the RgVeda to establish this.» — Wasson declara la dependencia de su lectura del Avesta respecto del RgVeda: si el Haoma era un hongo, la traducción debe acomodarse, y es el RgVeda el que ha de sostenerlo

«Yasna 10.5 was written in an elevated rhythmic prose by a bard who was addicted to poetic parallelism. We have seen that most of the verse was repeated word for word. We have seen that in the verse that concerns us the second and third substantives virtually duplicate each other. Does it not therefore become a poetic necessity that the first of the triad should be a close synonym?» — Wasson construye su traducción del Yasna 10.5 sobre el paralelismo poético del pasaje y pide como necesidad de estilo que el primer sustantivo del trío sea sinónimo próximo de los otros dos

«On this assumption and on the assumption that Haoma was a mushroom, I suggest the following translation: Swell, (then,) by my word! in all thy stalks, and in all thy shoots, and in all thy sprouts.» — Wasson ofrece su traducción del verso avéstico declarando las dos suposiciones de las que cuelga, y vierte el imperativo por hincharse en lugar de crecer

«For help in dissecting Yasna 10.5 I am indebted and grateful to Dr. Heinrich von Stietencron, of Heidelberg.» — Wasson acredita a Heinrich von Stietencron, de Heidelberg, la ayuda en el análisis del verso avéstico

«Time and again the RgVeda speaks of Soma as hailing from the mountains, from the tops of the mountains, which in the case of the Indo-Aryans meant either the Hindu Kush or the Himalayas» — Wasson enuncia el argumento geográfico y precisa qué montañas significaban para los indoarios, el Hindu Kush o el Himalaya

«The poets say that Soma grows high in the mountains. They make a point of this.» — Wasson resume la serie de versos citados en una afirmación sobre la voz de los poetas y su insistencia en la altura

«They never speak of it as growing elsewhere. They must mean what they say. What a useless business it is for us to go chasing in the valleys after rhubarb, honey, hashish, wild Afghan grapes; in hot arid wastes after species of Ephedra, Sarcostemma, Periploca!» — Wasson deriva de la insistencia de los himnos un argumento contra las candidaturas de valle y de desierto, y lo dice en exclamación

«For the Vedic poet this lofty birthplace was additional testimony to its divine origin, bringing it closer to the celestial sphere, to Indra, to Parjanya.» — Wasson explica por qué la altura importaba al poeta védico, como testimonio adicional del origen divino de la planta

«It is unlikely that the poets of the RgVeda should have conspired together to attribute a fictitious habitat to» — Wasson descarta la conspiración de los poetas para atribuir un hábitat ficticio; la frase se cierra en el chunk siguiente y el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«In Northern Eurasia the birch and conifer grow at sea level. South of the Oxus and in India they are found only at a great height in the mountains, around 8,000 to 16,000 feet.» — Wasson cierra el argumento geográfico con la ecología del abedul y la conífera, que al sur del Oxus solo crecen en altura

«The Indo-Aryans, having conquered only the valleys, did not control the source of their Soma supply.» — Wasson sostiene que los indoarios no controlaban la fuente de su Soma porque solo habían conquistado los valles

«Under the circumstances there could be no ceremony attending the gathering of the sacred Soma, such as had perhaps attended it in the homeland, and such as we know attended the gathering of the hallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexico.» — Wasson deriva de esa falta de control la ausencia de ceremonia en la recolección, y la contrasta con la que sí rodea a los hongos alucinógenos de México

«a ceremony attended the buying of the holy plant from the natives who came down from the heights where the birch and the conifer grow. In the Satapatha Brdhmana (as well as elsewhere) there is an account, absurd by our standards, of the ceremonial purchase, complete to speckled cane to beat the seller with, wherein a cow of a particular hue of skin and eye is exchanged for the Sacred Element.» — Wasson describe la ceremonia de compra del Soma según el Satapatha Brahmana, con la caña moteada para golpear al vendedor y la vaca de pelaje y ojo determinados como precio; el relato es del Brahmana y quien lo reporta es Wasson

«This barter price for Soma reminds us, curiously, of the high price paid for the fly-agaric by the native tribesmen of the Maritime Provinces of Siberia:» — Wasson enlaza ese precio ritual con el que pagan por el agárico los nativos de las provincias marítimas de Siberia, hasta un reno o más por hongo, y remite al exhibit [11]

«I now come to a crucial argument in my case. The fly-agaric is unique among the psychotropic plants in one of its properties: it is an inebriant in Two Forms.» — Wasson anuncia el argumento que considera crucial y enuncia la propiedad que hace único al agárico entre las plantas psicotrópicas, la embriaguez en dos formas

«Taken directly, and by ‘directly’ I mean by eating the raw mushroom, or by drinking its juice squeezed out and taken neat, or mixed with water, or with water and milk or curds, and perhaps barley in some form, and honey; also mixed with herbs such as Epilobium sp.» — Wasson define la Primera Forma del agárico por las vías de ingestión, crudo o en jugo solo o mezclado con agua, leche, cuajada, cebada, miel o hierbas

«Taken in the urine of the person who has ingested the fly-agaric in the First Form.» — Wasson define la Segunda Forma como la ingestión de la orina de quien tomó el hongo en la Primera

«The Second Form, as urine, was first called to the attention of the Western World by a Swedish army officer, Filip Johann von Strahlenberg, after having served 13 years as a captive of the Russians in Siberia.» — Wasson data en el oficial sueco Filip Johann von Strahlenberg, cautivo trece años de los rusos en Siberia, la primera noticia occidental de la Segunda Forma

«His book, first published in German in Stockholm, appeared in 1730;' and an English translation in London in 1736 and again in 1738 under a lengthy title beginning An Historico-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia.» — Wasson da la historia editorial del libro de Strahlenberg, alemán en Estocolmo en 1730 y en inglés en Londres en 1736 y 1738

«Since then many other travellers and anthropologists have set forth the facts, usually going to extremes in characterizing the practice as revolting, disgusting, filthy, and the like.» — Wasson caracteriza el tono de la literatura posterior sobre la práctica, que describe como repugnante y sucia

«So far as our records go, none of them has tried the urine, not even the anthropologists, among whom there are usually some who pride themselves on participating to the full in native ways and who consider it their professional duty to do so.» — Wasson consigna que ninguno de esos testigos probó la orina, ni siquiera los antropólogos que hacen profesión de participar de las costumbres nativas

«In 1798, a Pole, Joseph Kopeé, a literary figure of some standing, tried the mushrooms (but not the urine)» — Wasson data en 1798 la prueba del polaco Joseph Kopec, que tomó los hongos y no la orina; el troceo imprime el apellido como Kopeé

«That he was ill at the time and running a fever detracts from the value of his testimony.» — Wasson descuenta el valor del testimonio de Kopec porque estaba enfermo y con fiebre, reserva que pone él mismo

«In the RgVeda Soma also has Two Forms, expressly so described in IX 66» — Wasson traslada la dualidad del agárico al texto védico y la ancla en el himno IX 66, donde el dual gramatical distingue dos formas

«The Vedic commentators, knowing nothing of the fly-agaric, have reached a consensus that the First Form is the simple juice of the Soma plant» — Wasson describe el consenso de los comentaristas védicos sobre las dos formas y lo atribuye a que desconocían el agárico

«The commentators are agreed on this, the Vedic mythologies are so written, the matter is considered settled.» — Wasson consigna que para los comentaristas el asunto está cerrado, y lo dice como descripción del estado de la cuestión, no como acuerdo propio

«While in default of any other explanation it is easy to see how this was arrived at, it is unsatisfactory because it flies in the face of the RgVeda text.» — Wasson explica por qué se llegó a ese consenso y objeta que choca con el texto del RgVeda

«Indra and Vayu are repeatedly drinking the juice of Soma mixed with milk or curds, and, saving error on my part, they are never in the RgVeda drinking juice expressly described as not mixed with anything.» — Wasson sostiene que Indra y Vayu beben siempre Soma mezclado con leche o cuajada, y pone la salvedad dentro de la frase, salvo error suyo

«I will cite four instances where Indra and Vayu drink Soma mixed with milk or curds.» — Wasson anuncia las cuatro instancias con que apoya esa afirmación

«The first instance, V 51*-7, is crucial because there is no mention of curds» — Wasson explica por qué la primera instancia es crucial, porque parece hablar del jugo sin mezclar hasta el verso séptimo

«The fly-agaric was often, perhaps usually, dried up when it was used in the sacrifice» — Wasson consigna que el agárico solía usarse seco en el sacrificio y había que remojarlo primero, con el grado puesto en el quizá

«The following three quotations say expressly that Indra and Vayu drink Soma mixed with milk or curds:» — Wasson presenta las tres citas siguientes como pruebas expresas de la mezcla con leche o cuajada

«If then the traditional view of the first and second ‘Form’ of Soma is to be replaced, what evidence do I adduce in favor of my interpretation? Only the words of the RgVeda.» — Wasson se plantea a sí mismo la pregunta por la evidencia y responde que solo las palabras del RgVeda

«In the hymns to Soma there comes a time when the religious emotion reaches a climax, an intensity of exaltation, that is overwhelming, and that after 3,000 years, in a world of utterly different orientation, even in translation, cannot but move any perceptive reader.» — Wasson describe el clímax emocional de los himnos al Soma y sostiene que alcanza al lector aun en traducción y a tres mil años de distancia

«These hymns are in Mandala IX, from say 62 through perhaps 97, the mood then tending to ease off.» — Wasson localiza ese clímax entre los himnos 62 y 97 del Mandala IX, con el grado puesto en el digamos y el quizá

«The 74th hymn, in particular, consists of an enumeration of phrases that we have learned by now to recognize when they occur singly, clearly numinous phrases for the contemporary believers, tense phrases piled one on the other, Pelion on Ossa, in portentous sequence, until we suddenly read, at the end of verse 4, a phrase not met with before and not to be met again» — Wasson prepara la lectura del himno IX 74 describiendo su acumulación de fórmulas numinosas hasta la frase final que no vuelve a aparecer

«If the final clause of this verse bears the meaning that I suggest for it, then it alone suffices to prove my case.» — Wasson condiciona todo su caso a la lectura de la última cláusula del verso, y lo dice en la forma condicional que la ficha conserva

«Renou had lived with the RgVeda text for a lifetime and knew everything that had ever been said by scholars about it.» — Wasson acredita a Renou una vida entera con el texto y el conocimiento de toda la bibliografía, elogio que hace antes de objetarle la lectura

«He discerned that the ‘swollen’ men had full bladders and that they were urinating Soma.» — Wasson reconoce que Renou vio lo esencial, que los hombres hinchados tenían la vejiga llena y orinaban Soma

«But to give meaning to the sentence he introduced the gods of rain, the Maruts.» — Wasson objeta a Renou la introducción de los Marut, los dioses de la lluvia, para dar sentido a la frase

«But in this verse and at this point in the hymns the Maruts are out of place.» — Wasson niega que los Marut quepan en ese punto del himno, aunque admite el precedente de las nubes que orinan lluvia

«From IX 68 to 109 there are 24 other citations of nf in the plural (men) and in every instance they are the officiants at the sacrifice.» — Wasson cuenta las veinticuatro apariciones restantes de nr en plural entre IX 68 y 109 y sostiene que en todas designa a los oficiantes del sacrificio

«It is noteworthy that Grassmann translates ny in this verse by ‘men serving . . .’ etc., in conformity with his third definition of ny, ‘men serving the gods, such as singers and sacrificers’.» — Wasson señala que Grassmann vierte nr en este verso por hombres que sirven, conforme a su tercera definición, y no por la sexta, que incluiría dioses

«The priests appointed to impersonate Indra and Vayu, having imbibed the Soma mixed with milk or curds, are now urinating Soma. They in their persons convert Soma into the Second Form.» — Wasson enuncia su lectura del verso: los sacerdotes que encarnan a Indra y a Vayu orinan Soma y en sus personas lo convierten en la Segunda Forma

«When Renou translated this verse, he had never heard of the Siberian use of the fly-agaric.» — Wasson consigna que Renou tradujo el verso sin haber oído hablar del uso siberiano del agárico

«Roger Heim and I apprised him of the facts when we dined with the Renous in the middle of April 1966.» — Wasson fecha en abril de 1966 la cena en que Roger Heim y él pusieron a Renou al corriente de los hechos siberianos

«The blessings of the fertilizing rain are likened to a shower of urine.» — Wasson aísla como figura extraña la lluvia fecundante descrita como lluvia de orina

«Vedic scholars have lived so long with their recalcitrant text, and so close to it, that they remark no longer on an analogy that calls for explanation.» — Wasson atribuye a la costumbre de los vedistas el que hayan dejado de reparar en esa analogía

«Urine is normally something to cast away and turn from, second in this respect only to excrement. In the Vedic poets the values are reversed and urine is an ennobling metaphor to describe the rain.» — Wasson contrapone el valor corriente de la orina con la inversión que lee en los poetas védicos, donde pasa a ser metáfora ennoblecedora de la lluvia

«The values are reversed, I suggest, because the poets in Vedic India were thinking of urine as the carrier of the Divine Inebriant, the bearer of amrta.» — Wasson propone la razón de esa inversión, que los poetas pensaban la orina como portadora del embriagante divino y del amrta, y lo enuncia como sugerencia

«This would explain the réle that urine — human and bovine - has played through the centuries as the medico-religious disinfectant of the Indo-Iranian world, the Holy Water of the East.» — Wasson extiende la explicación al papel de la orina humana y bovina como desinfectante medicorreligioso del mundo indoiranio; el troceo imprime réle por rôle

«Renou renders the final phrase of this verse 4 as follows: Les [Maruts] seigneurs 4 la vessie pleine compissent» — Wasson reproduce la versión francesa de Renou, donde los señores de vejiga llena orinan el Soma; la voz es la de Renou y el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana, donde sigue la frase

«The [Maruts] lords with full bladders piss [soma] quick with movement.» — vuelta al inglés que Wasson hace de la versión francesa de Renou, y que él mismo declara traducción de traducción; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«The words of this hymn IX 74 are redolent with a most holy mystery, the handling of the miraculous Soma planted on the mountain tops by the gods.» — Wasson describe el himno IX 74 como cargado de un misterio sacro y resume su asunto, el manejo del Soma plantado por los dioses en las cumbres

«Those charged with the Office are the Guardians-of-the-Meaning, the Guardians-of-the-Melodies, the Guardians-of-the-Mystery.» — Wasson nombra a los oficiantes con los tres títulos que el himno les da, guardianes del sentido, de las melodías y del misterio

«The Pressing Stones, the woolen Filtre, the mingling of the Soma juice first with water, then with milk or curds in the vessels - all this is set forth clearly.» — Wasson inventaría lo que el texto sí declara del rito, las piedras de prensar, el filtro de lana y la mezcla sucesiva con agua y con leche o cuajada

«Then the details of the Mystery are hidden from us.» — Wasson consigna que los detalles del misterio quedan ocultos al lector

«This is not in my opinion deliberate. Every party to the proceedings knew every detail.» — Wasson niega que ese ocultamiento sea deliberado y lo atribuye a que todos los participantes conocían el detalle

«But when an event takes place that stirs people to their depths, a hush naturally falls, a feeling of awe and terror and adoration mingle. They speak in a whisper, as the rubric directs the clergy to do at the climax of the Mass.» — Wasson explica el silencio del himno por la naturaleza del momento y lo compara con el susurro de la rúbrica en el clímax de la misa

«Thus we do not know what the dose of the juice was, nor how much water was added, nor how much milk or curds, nor what the effect was.» — Wasson enumera lo que no se sabe del rito, la dosis, el agua añadida, la leche o la cuajada y el efecto, y lo deja como ignorancia declarada

«We do not know whether the effect of the First Form and the Second Form was identical. Chemists say it could well be different, the juice being one thing and the metabolite another. Or it might be the same, the juice developing its marvelous properties only after it has been converted into the metabolite.» — Wasson deja abiertas las dos posibilidades sobre el efecto comparado de las dos formas y se apoya en lo que dicen los químicos sin cerrar la cuestión

«If the agent that provokes vomiting is not the same as the one that leads to ecstasy, the former might be eliminated in the digestive track and the urine be thus freed from this inconvenience.» — Wasson propone que el agente emético pudiera eliminarse en el tubo digestivo y la orina quedar libre de él, y lo dice en condicional

«In the RgVeda we are not told who shared in the divine beverage. Afterwards only the priests, or some of them, were privileged to imbibe, but must there not have been a primitive age when others who participated i in the rites shared in the drink?» — Wasson consigna el silencio del RgVeda sobre quiénes bebían y deja abierta la pregunta por una edad primitiva de participación más amplia

«We know that centuries later the Siidras, the outcastes, were not permitted even to hear the words of the RgVeda hymns, so holy were these.» — Wasson contrasta esa hipótesis con el dato posterior de que a los sudras ni siquiera se les permitía oír los himnos; el troceo imprime Siidras con diéresis del OCR

«Bhawe calls attention to three passages in the RgVeda that seem to “him to stress the skill needed in the mixing of the Soma juice.» — Bhawe, citado por Wasson, señala tres pasajes del RgVeda que a su juicio subrayan la destreza que exigía la mezcla del jugo

«Perhaps there was a secret recipe, the fruit of esoteric experience passed on from one generation of priests to the next. This recipe might be able to reduce or eliminate the initial nausea provoked by the Soma juice.» — Wasson conjetura una receta secreta transmitida de generación en generación de sacerdotes que redujera la náusea inicial, y lo enuncia como quizá

«Some 3,250 years ago the Indo-Aryans living in the Indus Valley were worshipping a plant whose juice, pressed out and drunk immediately, seems to have had astonishing psychic effects, effects comparable to those of our Mexican hallucinogenic mushrooms, comparable but far different.» — Wasson resume el punto de partida del problema con una fecha aproximada y compara los efectos con los de los hongos mexicanos, marcando a la vez la semejanza y la diferencia

«Hundreds of poets living over centuries in different centers speak of it in hallowed syllables but without mentioning leaves, roots, blossoms, or seed.» — Wasson recapitula el argumento negativo, cientos de poetas a lo largo de siglos que nunca nombran hojas, raíces, flores ni semilla

«Nowhere in the thousand hymns is a dimension given of the ‘stalk’ that is incompatible with the stipe of a mushroom.» — Wasson sostiene que ninguna medida del tallo dada en los himnos es incompatible con el estípite de un hongo

«The poet says that the priests who have drunk the juice of this mysterious plant urinate the divine drink. In the traditions of Eurasia there is only one plant that supplies a psychotropic metabolite — the fly-agaric. Could any key unlock this combination save the fly-agaric?» — Wasson cierra la recapitulación con el argumento del metabolito psicotrópico, que declara único en las tradiciones de Eurasia, y lo pone en forma de pregunta

«If mine is indeed the interpretation to place on the Second Form of Soma in the RgVeda text, this should not be the only reference to the potable metabolite in Indo-Iranian literature and Parsi traditional practice. In the Avesta there is a verse in a famous Yasna, 48: 10, supposed to preserve the very words of the Teacher himself, which has never been satisfactorily explained» — Wasson deriva de su propia lectura una predicción comprobable, que debe haber otras huellas del metabolito potable en la literatura indoirania, y la lleva al Yasna 48:10

«When wilt thou do away with this urine of drunkenness with which the priests evilly delude [the people] as do the wicked rulers of the provinces in [full] consciousness [of what they do]?» — verso del Yasna 48:10 en la traducción de R. C. Zaehner que el volumen reproduce, donde el hablante reprocha la orina de embriaguez con que los sacerdotes engañan; la voz es la del Yasna y el traductor lo nombra el propio libro

«The learned commentators, not knowing of the Second Form of the Soma of the Iranians (called Haoma), have arbitrarily changed ‘urine’ to ‘excrement’ and have puzzled over the meaning.» — Wasson atribuye a los comentaristas el cambio arbitrario de orina por excremento en ese verso y lo explica por su desconocimiento de la Segunda Forma del Haoma

«Surely Zoroaster meant what he said: he was excoriating the consumption of urine in the Soma sacrifice.» — Wasson sostiene que Zoroastro decía lo que decía y que censuraba el consumo de orina en el sacrificio, y lo enuncia con el adverbio de certeza puesto delante

«If my interpretation be accepted, there is opened up a promising line of inquiry in Zoroastrian scholarship.» — Wasson propone que de aceptarse su lectura se abre una línea de indagación para los estudios zoroástricos, y lo deja en condicional

«In the vast reaches of the Mahabharata, the classical Indian epic, there occurs one episode - an isolated episode of unknown lineage - that bears with startling clarity on our Second Form.» — Wasson presenta el episodio del Mahabharata como testimonio aislado y de linaje desconocido que atañe con claridad a la Segunda Forma

«It was introduced into the text perhaps a thousand years after the fly-agaric had ceased to be used in the Soma sacrifice, and perhaps the editor did not know its meaning, which only today we are recovering.» — Wasson data la entrada del episodio en el texto quizá mil años después de abandonado el agárico y conjetura que el propio editor desconocía su sentido

«And Uttafika saw copious streams of water flowing from his lower parts.» — pasaje del Mahabharata en la traducción de O'Flaherty: el sabio Uttanka ve manar agua copiosa de las partes bajas del matanga; el troceo devuelve el nombre propio con varias grafías, Uttarika, Uttaiika y Uttafika

«The sage did not rejoice in that water, and he reviled Krsna with harsh words.» — pasaje del Mahabharata en traducción de O'Flaherty: el sabio rechaza el agua ofrecida y reprende a Krsna

«Then Krsna came, bearing his disc and conch, and Uttaika said to him, ‘It was not proper for you to give me such a thing, water in the form of the stream from a mdtafga.’» — pasaje del Mahabharata en traducción de O'Flaherty: Uttanka reprocha a Krsna haberle dado agua en forma de chorro de un matanga; el troceo imprime mdtafga

«For your sake I said to Indra, “Give the amrta to Uttafka in the form of water.» — pasaje del Mahabharata en traducción de O'Flaherty: Krsna declara haber pedido a Indra que diera el amrta a Uttanka en forma de agua

«Indra said to me, “A mortal should not become immortal; give some other boon to him.”» — pasaje del Mahabharata en traducción de O'Flaherty: Indra objeta que un mortal no debe volverse inmortal y ofrece otro don

«We found the first reference to Soma-urine in the RgVeda at a point in the liturgy where the proceedings and the religious emotion called for frankness in utterance.» — Wasson sitúa la primera referencia a la orina de Soma en un punto de la liturgia donde el himno hablaba con franqueza

«There should be yet others in the ReVeda itself, perhaps more veiled as befits a holy mystery.» — Wasson anuncia que debe haber más referencias en el propio RgVeda, más veladas por tratarse de un misterio sacro

«I believe there are many such, but for the orderly progress of my argument I will defer their discussion until I reach the third of the three ‘filtres’.» — Wasson declara creer que hay muchas y aplaza su discusión hasta el tercero de los tres filtros

«Until this very day no poet in the English language has ever sung the supernal beauties of the fly-agaric; nor I believe has any novelist or essayist paid obeisance to this remarkable fruit.» — Wasson consigna la ausencia del agárico en la poesía inglesa como dato de partida del capítulo sobre epítetos

«It seemed that a shadow hung over the fly-agaric, an ancestral curse; yes, a tabu.» — Wasson describe la relación europea con el agárico como sombra y maldición ancestral, y la nombra tabú

«At present I leave to the reader to find his own explanation for this tabu.» — Wasson se abstiene de explicar ese tabú y deja al lector la explicación

«The original ‘toadstool’ was the fly-agaric, if we judge by the French and Basque languages. In the conservative provinces of France the dialectal name of the fly-agaric is crapaudin, ‘the toad, and in the Biscay and Guipuzcoa country the Basques call it by the precise Basque equivalent of the French provincial name,» — Wasson deriva del francés y del vasco que el toadstool originario era el agárico, con crapaudin en las provincias francesas y amoroto como equivalente vasco

«In Mushrooms Russia and History (Pantheon Books, New York, 1957) my wife V. P. Wasson and I explored the folkloric and linguistic background of the fly-agaric throughout Europe, and showed the deep hold that it exerted at one time on the imagination of the north European peoples.» — Wasson remite a su libro anterior escrito con su mujer V. P. Wasson y declara qué se exploró allí, el fondo folclórico y lingüístico del agárico en Europa

«In the fall of the year, hard by a birch or pine, one is apt to find the fly-agaric. The season in the temperate zone lasts two or at most three weeks, with the climax coming in the middle week.» — Wasson describe la estación y el hábitat en que aparece el agárico en la zona templada

«The fly-agaric emerges as a little white ball, like cotton wool. It swells rapidly and bursts its white garment» — Wasson describe el desarrollo del hongo desde la bolita blanca hasta la ruptura del velo, descripción de la que saldrá su lectura del verso del envoltorio

«There is a further possibility. In modern experience the fly-agaric causes nausea.» — Wasson consigna la náusea que el agárico provoca según la experiencia moderna, dato del que sale la hipótesis siguiente

«might refer only to complicated ritualistic gestures and postures that had to be executed with precision. But in his judgement it is more likely that the blending of the ingredients had to be just right.» — Wasson expone las dos lecturas posibles del señalamiento de Bhawe y le adjudica a él la preferencia por la segunda, la mezcla exacta de los ingredientes; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«Here it is, as translated by Wendy O'Flaherty. Mahabharata, ASvamedha Parvan, 14.54.12-35» — Wasson declara que el episodio del Mahabharata va en traducción de Wendy O'Flaherty y da su referencia, con lo que la voz de la versión es de ella y no de él

«At first the patches almost cover the skin, but as the cap expands they are reduced in relative size and finally are nothing more than islands on the surface. In fact, under certain conditions, especially as a result of rain, they are washed off altogether and the fly-agaric then shines without blemish as a resplendent scarlet mushroom.» — Wasson describe cómo las placas blancas del agárico se reducen y hasta se lavan con la lluvia, dejando el sombrero escarlata sin mancha

«When the plant is gathered it soon loses its lustre and takes on a rather dull chestnut hue.» — Wasson consigna que el hongo recogido pierde el lustre y vira a un castaño apagado, dato que usará al leer los epítetos de color

«There is another variety found commonly in the rest of the United States, a variety that is a brilliant yellow, sometimes with a reddish tinge in the center of the cap.» — Wasson distingue una segunda variedad de Amanita muscaria, amarilla, común en el resto de los Estados Unidos

«No one knows what causes these two varieties in different sectors of the temperate zone, nor does anyone know whether the difference extends beyond the coloration and certain morphological features to the chemistry of the plant.’» — Wasson declara la ignorancia sobre la causa de esas dos variedades y sobre si la diferencia llega a la química de la planta

«My division of A. muscaria into two varieties will not satisfy the mycologists.» — Wasson anticipa en nota que su división en dos variedades no contentará a los micólogos, reserva que pone él mismo

«When the fly-agaric is crushed and the juice milked out, the liquor comes forth a tawny yellow.» — Wasson fija el color del jugo del agárico, amarillo leonado, que hará de puente con el epíteto hari

«in the RgVeda it is sometimes hard to say whether the poet, when he is speaking of Soma, has in mind the plant or the juice. The glowing adjectives of enhancement that he employs could describe either.» — Wasson advierte la ambigüedad entre planta y jugo en los himnos y dice que los adjetivos de realce sirven para ambos

«There are no words in the RgVeda that describe Soma as black, or gray, or green, or dark, or blue.» — Wasson consigna el argumento cromático negativo: el RgVeda nunca llama al Soma negro, gris, verde, oscuro ni azul

«All the great Vedic scholars from Burnouf to Renou seem to be in agreement on this.» — Wasson adjudica ese acuerdo a los vedistas de Burnouf a Renou, con el grado puesto en el verbo

«Hari is the most common of the colour epithets for Soma in the RgVeda.» — Wasson sitúa hari como el epíteto de color más frecuente del Soma en el RgVeda

«The word hdri is cognate with hiranya (golden) in Sanskrit and with yéA0¢ (gall) and yAwpés (yellow) in Greek, and ultimately with the English ‘gall’ and ‘yellow’.» — Wasson da la etimología de hari por hiranya en sánscrito y por las formas griegas de hiel y amarillo; el troceo devuelve corrompidas las palabras griegas

«Hari is the precise adjective that one would wish to employ in Vedic to describe the fly-agaric.» — Wasson declara hari el adjetivo exacto que él querría en védico para el agárico

«It is dazzling, brilliant, lustrous, resplendent. flaming. In colour it seems to have run from red to light yellow.» — Wasson describe la intensidad que hari expresa además del tono y sitúa su rango entre el rojo y el amarillo claro

«The mythological horses of the sun-god were hdri: in this context the word is usually rendered by ‘bay’ or ‘chestnut’, but one doubts whether any mundane colour such as ‘bay’ would describe the steeds of the sun.» — Wasson usa los caballos hari del dios sol para mostrar que el término no designa un color mundano, y objeta las versiones por bayo o castaño

«Hari is of course a term of enhancement, and by being linked together, Soma and the sun-god’s horses are mutually enhanced. How well the breathtaking fly-agaric fits into this picture.» — Wasson lee hari como término de realce recíproco entre el Soma y los caballos del sol

«This according to Grassmann means reddish, bright brown, golden-yellow, red, the red of morning.» — Grassmann, citado por Wasson, define aruna por rojizo, pardo claro, amarillo dorado, rojo y rojo de la aurora

«babhru: reddish brown, brown. Monier Williams gives ‘tawny’.» — Wasson recoge la definición de babhru como pardo rojizo y la versión de Monier Williams por leonado

«The dried fly-agaric is dull by comparison with the fresh specimen, babhri rather than hdri.» — Wasson enlaza los dos epítetos con el estado del hongo: el agárico seco es babhru y el fresco hari

«The poets of the RgVeda not only use the same adjective for Soma and the sun-god’s horses. They compare Soma directly with the sun.» — Wasson señala que los poetas no solo comparten adjetivo entre el Soma y los caballos del sol sino que comparan el Soma con el sol mismo

«The sun is a shining disc and thus a compelling metaphor for the fly-agaric, as compelling as it is inappropriate for any chlorophyll-bearing plant.» — Wasson lee el disco solar como metáfora que conviene al agárico y no a una planta con clorofila

«For the past century students of the RgVeda have been aware of a link that ties Soma to Agni, the god of fire.» — Wasson consigna que los estudiosos del RgVeda llevan un siglo advirtiendo el lazo entre Soma y Agni, el dios del fuego

«Bergaigne even went so far as to advance the hypothesis that the two had been interchangeable.» — Bergaigne, citado por Wasson, llegó a proponer que Soma y Agni fueran intercambiables

«Soma is the child of the thunder-storm. The plant shares its liquid nature with the rain, its brilliance with the lightning (IX 22”), and the fire that lightning causes. Its inebriating potency is thought to rival the subtlety of flames.» — Wasson describe el parentesco del Soma con la tormenta, el agua de la lluvia, el brillo del relámpago y el fuego que enciende

«Some years ago I gathered together evidence indicating that a peculiar relationship existed in primitive man’s men» — Wasson remite a su propio trabajo anterior sobre la relación entre el mundo de los hongos y las tormentas en la mentalidad primitiva

«This relationship exists between Soma and the thunder-storm, and in fact it reaches an intensity no where else found. The flame-like plant, child of the thunder-bolt, possesses inebriating qualities that harmonize with its celestial appearance.» — Wasson sostiene que esa relación alcanza en el Soma una intensidad que no encuentra en otra parte

«These observations on the colour of Soma may have failed to convey the full impression of radiance that marks Soma throughout the RgVeda, radiance without a specific colour linked to it.» — Wasson admite que sus observaciones sobre el color pueden no haber transmitido la impresión de irradiación sin color fijo que marca al Soma

«In the following verse the poet telescopes the life history of the fly-agaric, and how delicately he does it! For the first time in millennia the verse takes on meaning:» — Wasson anuncia su lectura del verso IX 71 como historia natural condensada del agárico y declara que por primera vez en milenios el verso cobra sentido

«Aggressive as a killer of peoples he advances, bellowing with power. He sloughs off the Asurian colour that is his. He abandons his envelope, goes to the rendez-vous with the Father. With what floats he makes continually his vesture-of-grand-occasion.» — verso IX 71 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el Soma se despoja del color asúrico y abandona su envoltura para vestirse de gala

«In the first line the poet reminds us of the extraordinary strength displayed by a simple mushroom in forcing its way to the surface against obstacles.» — Wasson lee el primer verso como recuerdo de la fuerza con que un hongo se abre paso hasta la superficie

«is not a colour: it is the radiance associated with Asuras, which at this period in Indo-Aryan history meant the divinities.» — Wasson niega que asúrico sea un color y lo define como la irradiación asociada a los asuras, que en ese momento de la historia indoaria designaban a las divinidades

«The fly-agaric sloughs off the radiant envelope that is his to start with, the ‘universal veil’, and prepares to meet with the Sky» — Wasson traslada el verso a la historia del hongo, que se despoja del velo universal; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«He dons of course his gorgeous apparel, his nirnij, his ‘vesture-of-grand-occasion’, what Renou calls his robe d apparat.» — Wasson identifica el nirnij del Soma con la vestidura de gala y recoge la versión de Renou, robe d'apparat; el troceo pierde el apóstrofo del francés

«Often his costume is linked with the milk of cows: this is the fly-agaric while still studded with plaques of snow, with tufts of snowy wool.» — Wasson lee el vínculo entre la vestidura del Soma y la leche de vaca como el agárico tachonado de placas blancas

«At least some of the poets knew their fly-agaric in situ, high in the mountains: could the last phrase in this verse have been written by anyone who did not know it?» — Wasson sostiene en forma de pregunta que al menos algunos poetas conocieron el hongo en el sitio, alto en la montaña

«He [Soma] bellows, terrifying bull, with might, sharpening his shining [hari] horns, gazing afar. The Soma rests in his well-appointed birth-place. The hide is of bull, the dress of sheep.» — verso IX 70 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el toro que afila los cuernos y la piel de toro y el vestido de oveja

«‘The hide is of bull, the dress of sheep.’ The red bull of IX 97" supplies him with his skin; his dress is of fluffy tufts of white sheep’s wool.» — Wasson traduce esa pareja de imágenes a los rasgos del hongo, la piel roja del toro y los mechones blancos de lana de oveja

«Often have I penetrated into a forest in the fall of the year as night gathered and seen the whiteness of the white mushrooms, as they seemed to take to themselves the last rays of the setting sun, and hold them fast as all else faded into the darkness.» — Wasson cuenta su propia experiencia en el bosque otoñal, con los hongos blancos reteniendo los últimos rayos del sol, y la ofrece como clave del verso siguiente

«By day he appears hdri [colour of fire], by night, silvery white.» — verso IX 97 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, sobre el Soma que de día aparece hari y de noche blanco plateado

«Soma’s scarlet coat dominates by day; by night the redness sinks out of sight, and the white patches, silvery by moon and starlight, take over.» — Wasson explica el verso por la física del hongo, el rojo que se hunde de noche y las placas blancas que se vuelven plateadas a la luz de la luna

«It exchanged attributes with Soma: both were seated high in the mountains, both were gazing afar off, both bellowed, both sharpened shining horns.» — Wasson inventaría los atributos que el toro y el Soma intercambian en los himnos

«The hallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexico act passively: the subject seems to an outsider to be withdrawn in meditation.» — Wasson contrasta el efecto pasivo de los hongos alucinógenos de México, donde el sujeto parece recogido, con el del Soma

«Soma, in addition to translating one to Elysium, seems to have possessed a kinetic potency, filling one with the joy of extraordinary physical and vocal activity. This is reported alike in the RgVeda and in Siberia, where, as we shall see, phenomenal displays of physical prowess sometimes attend inebriation by the fly-agaric.» — Wasson atribuye al Soma una potencia cinética además del arrobamiento y dice hallarla igual en el RgVeda y en Siberia

«It is important that the modern reader fix his attention on the sense of power that Soma gave to the poets of the RgVeda.» — Wasson pide al lector moderno que fije la atención en la sensación de poder que el Soma daba a los poetas

«Some have deduced from this verse that Soma must have been a plant with thorns! But of course the ‘sharpened horns’ are nothing more than the familiar cliché for a bull, and the bull is Soma.» — Wasson objeta a quienes dedujeron del verso de los cuernos afilados que el Soma tenía espinas, y lo explica por el tópico del toro

«The swollen hemisphere of the fly-agaric’s cap naturally suggests an udder to the poet:» — Wasson lee el hemisferio hinchado del sombrero del agárico como sugerencia natural de la ubre para el poeta

«Approaching his mother, he [Indra] cries for food; he looks toward the sharp Soma as toward the udder.» — verso III 48 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde Indra mira hacia el Soma como hacia la ubre

«The sweet juices have hurried to the god like milch cows [to a calf].» — verso IX 68 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con los jugos dulces que corren al dios como vacas lecheras al ternero

«Milking the dear sweetness from the divine udder, he has sat in his accustomed place.» — verso IX 107 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, sobre la dulzura ordeñada de la ubre divina

«Not only is the Soma plant likened to an udder; the stalk or amsu (literally a ‘shoot’, a perfect word for the stipe of a mushroom) is likened to a teat:» — Wasson extiende la imagen de la ubre al tallo o amsu, que glosa como brote y declara palabra perfecta para el estípite de un hongo

«The priests milk this am3u for you both [Varuna and Mitra, two gods], like the auroral milch cow, with the aid of stones they milk the Soma, with the aid of stones.» — verso I 137 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde los sacerdotes ordeñan el amsu con la ayuda de las piedras

«The first milk of the amsu is the best.» — verso del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, sobre la primera leche del amsu como la mejor

«He has tapped so to speak the pure udder of the cows, rendering the milk clear as is the juice yielded by the amsu.» — verso IV 1 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde la leche se aclara como el jugo que rinde el amsu

«The ten fingers, the two arms, harness the pressing stone; they are the preparers of the Soma, with active hands.» — verso V 43 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con los diez dedos y los dos brazos que uncen la piedra de prensar

«They milk the amiu, this bull at home on the mountain.» — verso IX 95 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde se ordeña el amsu, toro que habita en la montaña; el troceo imprime amiu por amsu

«In the light of my fly-agaric hypothesis, the milking imagery that pervades the Soma passages in the RgVeda acquires new meaning.» — Wasson declara qué gana la imagen del ordeño bajo su hipótesis y objeta que una planta con clorofila no sugiere ubre ni ordeño

«Over much of Eurasia certain important species of wild mushrooms are dried and strung together on strings by the stipes, hanging caps down. (The caps shrink more than the stipes and are more friable.) This may have been the practice in Vedic times and would explain, if explanation be needed, the emphasis on the stipe in the vocabulary.» — Wasson explica el predominio del término amsu por la práctica de secar los hongos ensartados por el estípite, y pone la condición en la frase, si hace falta explicación

«Bogoraz, writing about the turn of the century, says expressly that in the Chukotka the fly-agarics were usually strung up in three’s, this being it seems the trading unit.» — Bogoraz, citado por Wasson y remitido al exhibit [22], reporta que en la Chukotka los agáricos se ensartaban de tres en tres, unidad que parece haber sido la de intercambio

«In English we speak of the ‘cap’ of the mushroom, but in many other languages including the Vedic ‘head’ is used instead:» — Wasson señala que en védico y en otras lenguas la parte del hongo que el inglés llama sombrero se dice cabeza

«This bull, heaven’s head [miirdhdn], Soma, when pressed, is escorted by masterly men into the vessels, he the all-knowing.» — verso IX 27 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el Soma es la cabeza del cielo

«While Soma enters into contact with the fingers of the officiants, he protects his head [Siras].» — verso IX 68 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el Soma protege su cabeza al entrar en contacto con los dedos de los oficiantes

«On Soma’s head [miirdhdn] the cows with a full udder mix their best milk in streams.» — verso del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde las vacas mezclan su mejor leche sobre la cabeza del Soma

«In speaking of Soma the poets of the RgVeda have recourse repeatedly to four conceits. They have never been adequately explained. They are not descriptive in any immediate sense: they express what the poets considered transcendental truths.» — Wasson anuncia los cuatro conceptos poéticos recurrentes y declara que nunca se explicaron de modo satisfactorio y que no son descriptivos sino expresión de verdades trascendentales

«We speak because of our descent from the ancient father; the tongue moves with the eye of Soma.» — verso I 87 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde la lengua se mueve con el ojo del Soma

«Quickened by the seven minds, he [Soma] has encouraged the rivers free of grief, which have strengthened his single eye.» — verso IX 9 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, sobre los ríos que fortalecen el ojo único del Soma

«I have drunk the navel [i.e., Soma] into the navel [i.e., stomach] for our sake. Indeed, the eye is altogether with the sun. [Bhawe rendering]» — verso IX 10 del RgVeda en la versión de Bhawe, que el propio volumen nombra entre corchetes; la voz de la traducción es la de Bhawe

«The one element in these verses, some of them difficult, that concerns us here is ‘the single eye’.» — Wasson aísla el ojo único como el elemento que le interesa de esos versos difíciles

«Does not the photograph, reproduced in Plate x, explain the image that the poet had in mind? How perverse this metaphor is if we have to do with a creeper, valli. How meaningless if we deal with rhubarb.» — Wasson remite a la lámina fotográfica para explicar la imagen del ojo único y objeta por perversa la misma imagen aplicada a una enredadera o al ruibarbo

«The ocean [of Soma] has been cleansed in the waters; mainstay of the sky, the Soma in the filtre, he who is favourable to us.» — verso X 123 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el Soma es sostén del cielo dentro del filtro

«He has spilled forth, mainstay of the sky, the offered drink; he flows throughout the world...» — verso IX 86 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el Soma sostén del cielo derramándose por el mundo

«We have given only a selection of the passages where Soma is a mainstay of the sky. Others have translated this by ‘pillar’ and ‘fulcrum’ of the sky.» — Wasson declara que solo ofrece una selección de los pasajes del sostén del cielo y recoge las otras versiones del término, pilar y fulcro

«What poet could conceive of a creeper, a climber, any vine - some species of Sarcostemma or Ephedra - as ‘mainstay of the sky’, ‘foundation of the earth’?» — Wasson objeta en forma de pregunta que una enredadera o trepadora pudiera llamarse sostén del cielo y fundamento de la tierra

«capital that is the fly-agaric lends itself well to this poetic conceit.» — cierre de la frase anterior, que el troceo pone al abrir el chunk siguiente y que la ficha consigna aparte por el corte

«‘Navel’, nabhi, is one of the most important words in the RgVeda.» — Wasson declara nabhi, ombligo, una de las palabras más importantes del RgVeda

«What we call ‘blood kin’ for the Vedic poets was ‘umbilical kin’; in this sense we find it nine times.» — Wasson mide los usos de nabhi y señala que el parentesco de sangre era para los poetas védicos parentesco umbilical

«Soma is the Navel of the Way (= Rtd), says the poet.» — Wasson recoge del himno el título de ombligo del Camino para el Soma

«This figurative use of the navel for Soma in Vedic times arrested my attention. In the fungal vocabularies of various unrelated Eurasian peoples I had come across the navel, and here it was playing a réle in the India of the Aryans! Was this accidental convergence, or was it because Soma was a mushroom» — Wasson cuenta que el ombligo ya le había salido en vocabularios fúngicos de pueblos euroasiáticos sin parentesco y plantea la alternativa entre convergencia accidental y hongo; el troceo imprime réle por rôle

«But it is a fact that peoples who know their mushrooms and live with them in their daily lives are apt to see parallels between mushrooms and the umbilicus.» — Wasson enuncia como hecho que los pueblos que viven con los hongos tienden a ver paralelos entre el hongo y el ombligo

«The lexicographer Dal reports that in Russia pup means ‘navel’ and the derivative pupyri is applied in the familiar language to fungal growths.» — el lexicógrafo Dal, citado por Wasson, reporta el ruso pup por ombligo y el derivado pupyri aplicado a los hongos

«In contemporary Cambodian the word psat means both navel and mushroom.» — Wasson trae el camboyano psat, que designa a la vez ombligo y hongo, como pieza de su serie léxica

«In standard contemporary Korean the word recurs in the form p’sat. There it means only ‘mushroom’, but in two southwestern dialects spoken only on the island of TSedju, in the province of Cholla Namdo, words that may stem back to the same root mean the navel.» — Wasson sigue la palabra hasta el coreano estándar, donde solo significa hongo, y hasta dos dialectos de la isla de Tsedju, donde emparentadas designan el ombligo

«In April 1966 Georges Dumézil introduced to me a young Turkish national, Orhan Alparslan, a student of architecture at the University of Paris.» — Wasson fecha en abril de 1966 la presentación que Georges Dumézil le hizo del estudiante turco Orhan Alparslan, testigo del que sacará el término siguiente

«He drew the shaggy mane - Coprinus comatus -, explained that it quickly turned into black ink but the black was tinged with violet, and gave its local name as gébek mantari, Turkish words meaning ‘navel mushroom’.» — Wasson reporta de Alparslan el nombre local del Coprinus comatus, göbek mantari, que traduce por hongo de ombligo; el troceo imprime gébek

«Even in the scientific vocabulary of mycologists the navel has crept in. Many species of mushrooms are either ‘umbilicate’ or ‘umbonate’, depending on whether the ‘navel’ is a pocket in the middle of the cap or a protrusion. There is a genus, the Omphalia, whose name comes from the Greek» — Wasson lleva la serie al vocabulario científico, con las especies umbilicadas y umbonadas y el género Omphalia

«True, these are neo-classical words devised in the last two centuries by scientists, but scientific names, especially those devised in the youth of the science (such as is here the case), often reflect facts lying deep in the consciousness of the race. The muscaria, for example, in Amanita muscaria, expresses the folk traditions of the Germanic race.» — Wasson acota que esos términos son neoclásicos y de los últimos dos siglos, y sostiene aun así que reflejan hechos hondos de la conciencia de la raza, con muscaria como ejemplo

«It is not my contention that these far flung analogies in vocabulary have influenced each other; quite the contrary. I believe a mushroom is apt to suggest the navel to the primitive observer, wherever he be, and that the Vedic people, obsessed as they were with the fly-agaric, applied to it the navel analogy, and imbued it with a multitude of transcendental meanings.» — Wasson niega que las analogías léxicas se hayan influido entre sí y propone en cambio que el hongo sugiere el ombligo al observador dondequiera que esté

«Your highest navel is attached in heaven; your fingers grow on the back of the earth.» — verso IX 79 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el ombligo más alto prendido en el cielo

«The sharp seer, in heaven’s navel, is magnified in the woolen filtre, Soma the wise, possessed of good intelligence.» — verso del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el Soma es el vidente agudo en el ombligo del cielo

«Soma is repeatedly said to be in the navel of the earth, in the navel of heaven. It was a practice of the RgVeda poets to use epithets proper to one god when speaking of another. Agni and Soma, fire and the ‘fire-agaric’ (as I am tempted to call the fly-agaric) thus exchange epithets, and ‘navel’ is often applied to Agni.» — Wasson consigna la práctica rgvédica de usar epítetos de un dios al hablar de otro y la aplica al intercambio entre Agni y el Soma, que llama con juego de palabras el fire-agaric

«But I think it will not be disputed that the navel figure belongs to Soma; the frequency of its use with Soma and the elaboration of the uses make it peculiarly Soma’s.» — Wasson adjudica la figura del ombligo al Soma por frecuencia y elaboración, y lo dice con el grado puesto en el creo

«In the ReVeda filtres figure prominently. One of them, a filtre of lamb’s wool, presents no problem. After the Soma had been pounded with stones and mixed with water, it was forced through a filtre or strainer, which caught the pulp and fibrous elements and allowed the tawny yellow liquor to pass through and run down to the vats.» — Wasson describe el filtro de lana de cordero como el que no plantea problema, y con él la mecánica del colado; el troceo imprime ReVeda por RgVeda

«But the RgVeda speaks of two other filtres that have always baffled the scholars. If Soma is the fly-agaric they present no problem. The woolen filtre is in fact the second or middle filtre.» — Wasson declara que los otros dos filtros han desconcertado siempre a los estudiosos y sostiene que dejan de ser problema si el Soma es el agárico

«In the order of their function, the verses speak first of a celestial filtre, the filtre that I offer to the reader in Plate xu, where the sun’s rays, escorting Soma down from the sky, are caught and held on the fiery back of heaven (= the pileus of the fly-agaric).» — Wasson identifica el primer filtro con el cielo, donde los rayos del sol quedan retenidos en el dorso ígneo que él lee como el sombrero del agárico

«In the first verse that I shall quote the poet says expressly that King Soma has the filtre for his chariot, and immediately thereafter cites the thousand studs, bhrsti, that carry him to fame; ie., the white patches on his cap.» — Wasson lee los mil clavos o bhrsti del verso como las placas blancas del sombrero del hongo

«King, having the filtre for chariot, he has attained the victory prize; a thousand studs, he conquers puissant renown.» — verso IX 96 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el rey Soma tiene el filtro por carro y mil clavos

«How clear this would have been for Geldner and Bhawe if they had possessed the key. Bhawe, commenting on this verse in his PartI, p. 53, refers to the ‘mysterious sieve through which the sun’s rays pass’.» — Wasson sostiene que Geldner y Bhawe habrían leído claro el verso con la clave en la mano, y recoge la expresión de Bhawe sobre el tamiz misterioso

«Geldner before him had sensed that the Somas and the Suns are the same, and in his commentary had divined that the filtre straining the sun’s rays is referred to elsewhere» — Wasson acredita a Geldner haber intuido la identidad entre los Somas y los soles y haber adivinado el filtro que cuela los rayos

«As a poetic figure for the fly-agaric, there seems nothing to explain here.» — Wasson declara que bajo su lectura la figura no necesita explicación

«The fly-agaric is both fire and sun, it catches the sun’s rays on its back and holds them there, where they filtre the Soma juice into the plant.» — Wasson resume su lectura del primer filtro: el hongo es fuego y sol a la vez y retiene los rayos en su dorso, donde filtran el jugo hacia dentro de la planta

«Here Soma is addressed under the name of Agni. Metaphorically the miraculous plant seems to share every attribute of Agni, - flamecoloured, subtle, it purifies with its filtre as fire does with its flames.» — Wasson lee el himno IX 67 como invocación al Soma bajo el nombre de Agni y enumera los atributos compartidos

«Monarch of everything that sees the sun-light, Soma cleanses himself. Triumphing over the Prophets, he made the Word of the Way to resound, he who is cleansed by the Sun’s ray, he the father of poems, Master-Poet never yet equalled!» — verso IX 76 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el Soma se purifica en el rayo del sol y es padre de los poemas

«Light has come to the plant, a sun equal to gold... dbhiid u bha u amSdve hiranyam prati suryah» — verso I 46 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el texto védico transliterado que el libro añade a cada cita, sobre la luz que llega a la planta

«Make me to burn like fire started by friction’, says the poet, addressing Soma.» — verso VIII 48 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el poeta pide al Soma arder como fuego de frotación; Wasson lo trae para el lazo entre Soma y Agni

«With unfading vesture, brilliant, newly clothed, the immortal hdri wraps himself all around. By authority he has taken the back [i.e., the vault] of heaven to clothe himself in, a spread-cloth like to a cloud» — verso IX 69 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, sobre el hari inmortal que se envuelve en el dorso del cielo; el mismo verso se imprime dos veces en el libro, aquí y al pie de la lámina II, y el verbatim se ancla en el cuerpo

«Like a serpent he creeps out of his old skin. dhir nd jiirndm dti sarpati tvdcam» — verso IX 90 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con su texto védico, que Wasson presenta como el único símil banal del pasaje

«The bull was the mightiest beast familiar to the Indo-Aryans.» — Wasson sitúa al toro como la bestia más poderosa que conocían los indoarios; la frase sigue al abrir el chunk siguiente y el verbatim se corta ahí

«was the symbol of strength in the RgVeda and it was the commonest metaphor for Soma.» — cierre de la frase anterior, que el troceo reemite al abrir el chunk siguiente bajo la misma plana: el toro es el símbolo de la fuerza y la metáfora más frecuente del Soma

«But the sturdy stanchion with its resplendent» — Wasson contrapone a la objeción de la enredadera el puntal robusto del agárico; la frase se cierra en el chunk siguiente y el verbatim se corta en el límite

«By Rtd he means the divine order of things» — Wasson glosa Rta como el orden divino de las cosas; la frase sigue al otro lado de dos planas de lámina y el verbatim se corta aquí

«seems to convey somewhat the same idea as the Tao of Lao Tze.» — cierre de la glosa anterior de Rta, que Wasson aproxima al Tao de Lao Tse con el grado puesto en el verbo; la frase arranca tres planas antes, cruzando dos láminas

«We recall how the single eye of Soma was tied to the eye of the sun in IX 10°; in that same verse the navel now figures intelligibly:» — Wasson enlaza el ojo único del Soma con el ombligo dentro del mismo verso IX 10, y declara que así cobra sentido

«Again two hymns later Soma is called the all-seeing navel of the wise:» — Wasson recoge el título de ombligo del cielo que dos himnos más adelante se da al Soma

«Thy clear rays spread over the back of heaven, the filtre, O Soma, ...» — verso IX 66 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con los rayos claros del Soma extendidos por el dorso del cielo como filtro

«Thy filtre has been spread, O Brahmanaspati [Soma]... pavitram te vitatam brahmanas pate prabhir gatrani pdry esi visvdtah» — verso IX 83 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el filtro extendido de Brahmanaspati, seguido de su texto védico transliterado

«How easy it is for the poet to move from the earthly to the transcendental plane.» — Wasson señala la facilidad con que el poeta pasa del plano terrestre al trascendental

«Soma, fire, sun, sun’s rays, the navel of the earth, the single eye, mainstay of the sky, celestial strainer, thunder-storm, aurora — they are all interlocked, meeting in our resplendent fly-agaric.» — Wasson enumera los términos que su lectura enlaza en una sola cosmología y los hace converger en el agárico

«As for thee, O Soma-juice, thou art clarified in the filtre so as to establish thyself [in] space for the gods.» — verso IX 86 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el jugo clarificado en el filtro para establecerse en el espacio de los dioses

«...By a thousand paths free of dust, Soma, armed with verses, knowing the Word, the Sun passes the filtre.» — verso IX 91 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el Sol que atraviesa el filtro por mil senderos sin polvo

«It seems that in this verse the Sun is a metaphor, standing for Soma.» — Wasson lee el Sol de ese verso como metáfora del Soma, con el grado puesto en el verbo

«A third filtre is mentioned in two verses of the RgVeda, and this brings us back to the discussion of the Two Forms of Soma on pp. 25 ff, which we promised to resume at a later point in the argument.» — Wasson anuncia el tercer filtro y lo enlaza con la discusión aplazada de las dos formas del Soma

«The Guardian of the Rtd [Soma] cannot be deceived, he of the good inspiring force; he carries three filtres inside his heart.» — verso IX 73 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el guardián del Rta lleva tres filtros dentro del corazón

«Thou runnest through the three filtres stretched out; thou flowest the length, clarified.» — verso IX 97 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el Soma que corre por los tres filtros extendidos

«Let us assume the fly-agaric surmise is well founded. Then the third filtre becomes clear: the Soma juice that is drunk by ‘Indra’ and ‘Vayu’ in the course of the liturgy is filtered in their organisms and issues forth as sparkling yellow urine, retaining its inebriating virtue but having been purged of its nauseating properties.» — Wasson enuncia su lectura del tercer filtro: el organismo de los oficiantes que encarnan a Indra y a Vayu, del que el jugo sale como orina amarilla que conserva la virtud embriagante y pierde la náusea

«That the priceless ambrosia was filtered down from the celestial sphere on the sun’s rays into the plant is clear.» — Wasson recapitula los dos filtros que ya ha fijado, el celeste de los rayos y el de lana de cordero

«What happened next? ‘Indra’ and ‘Vayu’ consumed the liquor mixed with milk or curds and it would appear that their condition was a matter of considerable anxiety.» — Wasson lee la inquietud de los himnos por el estado de los oficiantes como indicio de lo que ocurría después de beber

«The poets do not stress the inebriation of the priests. Instead they take us with Soma into Indra’s heart, into his belly or bellies, into his entrails. If these verses do not mean that in the Vedic ritual the priests were impersonating the gods, what do they mean?» — Wasson señala que los himnos no insisten en la embriaguez de los sacerdotes sino en el paso del Soma por las entrañas de Indra, y deja la pregunta por la personificación de los dioses en el rito

«Purify thyself in Indra’s stomach, O juice! As a river with a vessel, enable us to pass to the other side, thou who knowest; thou who battlest as a hero, save us from disgrace!» — verso IX 70 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde el jugo se purifica en el estómago de Indra

«For he who knows the country gives the directions to him who informs himself.» — cierre del verso IX 70 en la versión del volumen, con el que conoce el país dando las indicaciones a quien pregunta

«Obviously there was doubt about the outcome of the perilous passage. ‘Indra’ and his colleagues had to know their business, had to be experienced pilots. It looks as though Bhawe was justified in saying that skill was needed in mixing the Soma juice with milk or curds in the right way.» — Wasson lee la incertidumbre del paso peligroso como respaldo de lo dicho por Bhawe sobre la destreza que exigía la mezcla

«Is not the following verse imbued with new meaning, in the light of my interpretation, - the human waters being put into movement?» — Wasson propone en forma de pregunta que las aguas humanas puestas en movimiento del verso cobran sentido nuevo bajo su lectura

«Clarify thou thyself by that stream by which thou madest the sun to shine, putting into movement the human waters!» — verso IX 63 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con las aguas humanas puestas en movimiento

«Here is a clear statement. As in the other two filtres, Soma is clarifying itself in the belly of Indra, in preparation for a further step.» — Wasson lee el Soma clarificándose en el vientre de Indra como preparación de un paso ulterior, en paralelo con los otros dos filtros

«The 86th hymn is climactic for Indra as Soma’s filtre: IX 86? Thy inebriating drinks, swift, are released ahead, like teams running in divers directions, like the milch cow with her milk towards her calf, so the Soma juices, waves rich in honey, go to Indra, thunder-bolt carrier.» — verso IX 86 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, que Wasson declara el clímax del himno sobre Indra como filtro del Soma

«Like a race horse launched in movement for the victory prize, flow, O Soma, thou who procurest the light-of-the-sun for heaven’s vat, whose mother is the pressing stone; thou, Bull, seated in the filtre above the calf’s wool, clarifying thyself, thou Soma, that Indra may have his pleasure!» — verso IX 86 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el Soma como caballo de carreras y la piedra de prensar por madre

«Lodged in the belly of Indra, roaring with vigour, held in hand by the Officiants, thou hast made the sun to mount the sky.» — verso IX 86 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el Soma alojado en el vientre de Indra haciendo subir el sol al cielo

«Enter into the heart of Indra, Soma’s receptacle, like the rivers into the ocean, thou, [O Soma,] who pleasest Mitra, Varuna, Vayu, O thou supreme Mainstay of the Sky!» — verso IX 108 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, con el Soma entrando en el corazón de Indra como los ríos en el océano

«The second verse of IX 75 begins with “Tongue of the Way’ (rtdsya jihva), and the poet continues to apostrophize Soma as the source of eloquence.» — Wasson localiza la fórmula lengua del Camino en el segundo verso de IX 75 y glosa Rta como el orden divino de las cosas

«“Tongue of the Way’ could not be translated in any other way, but how could Soma be a tongue?» — Wasson consigna el desconcierto de Caland y de Henry ante la fórmula, que no admitía otra traducción y no dejaba entender cómo el Soma podía ser una lengua

«These scrupulous scholars did not visualize the fly-agaric: its cap, the full blown red tongue, held the clue to the little mystery.» — Wasson resuelve el enigma por el sombrero rojo desplegado del agárico, que lee como la lengua, y señala que esos estudiosos escrupulosos no lo tenían ante los ojos

«In a more mundane sense these spots are called in Vedic bhrsti, a word that is used for the knobs or studs on a cudgel, as on the cudgel of Indra.» — Wasson identifica las manchas del hongo con el término védico bhrsti, usado para los clavos de una maza como la de Indra

«With his thousand knobs or studs Soma conquers potent fame: so say the hymns in two places, IX 8354 and 864°4.» — Wasson localiza en dos sitios del himnario la fórmula de los mil clavos con que el Soma conquista fama

«There is yet another passage pertinent to this theme, and it illustrates well the kind of problem that working in a language as remote as Vedic leads one into.» — Wasson anuncia un pasaje que ilustra la clase de problema que plantea trabajar en una lengua tan remota como el védico

«Early in my inquiries I came upon a verse, IX 15°, that seemed to present an obstacle to my fly-agaric thesis.» — Wasson declara haber encontrado temprano un verso que parecía obstáculo a su propia tesis, y lo trae en vez de omitirlo

«According to the poet of this hymn, when the Soma plant is pressed and then run through the woolen filtre, it leaves behind in the filtre its ‘knots’ or ‘nodules’.» — Wasson expone el obstáculo: según el himno, el Soma deja en el filtro de lana sus nudos o nódulos, parusa en védico

«Now mushrooms have no knots or nodules, which are characteristic of shrubs and trees.» — Wasson enuncia la dificultad en toda su fuerza: los hongos no tienen nudos ni nódulos, que son propios de arbustos y árboles

«The ‘knots’, it seemed, had been ‘sticking to’ (pibdand) Soma’s body, and they were shining (vdsiini) also!» — Wasson recoge de Bhawe que los nudos se adherían al cuerpo del Soma y además brillaban, análisis que declara original y al parecer sólido

«Without knowing of our fly-agaric thesis, he comes out with a sense that fits the fly-agaric perfectly.» — Wasson sostiene que Bhawe, sin conocer la tesis del agárico, dio con un sentido que le encaja

«The shining ‘rays’ (as the Vedic poets are always referring to them), the scales or white patches or knobs or warts sticking to the cap (as we say) of the fly-agaric, are left behind in the strainer.» — Wasson traduce los nudos brillantes a las escamas o verrugas blancas adheridas al sombrero del hongo, que quedan en el colador

«Whether the Vedic word pdrus covers a semantic area broad enough to embrace not only the knots in wood but also the ‘knobs’ on the fly-agaric’s cap, or whether the poet was resorting to a metaphor as we do in English, I leave to Vedic scholars to determine.» — Wasson deja a los vedistas la decisión entre extensión semántica y metáfora, abstención que la ficha conserva

«This example illustrates the delicacy of the task of the translator, the rare prescience of gifted students who are oft-times groping in the dark» — Wasson lee el caso como muestra de la delicadeza del oficio del traductor y de la presciencia de los estudiosos que van a tientas

«As an instance of this help I will cite the word sahdsrapdjas, an epithet for Soma that occurs twice in the RgVeda in almost identical passages.» — Wasson introduce el epíteto sahasrapajas como segundo ejemplo de lo que su identificación aportaría al traductor

«But what is the meaning of a thousand -pdjas? On this there has been much comment but no agreement.» — Wasson consigna la falta de acuerdo sobre el segundo elemento de ese epíteto

«Some have thought the word meant ‘forms’, others have suggested ‘colours’, and yet a third commentator sees in it ‘rays’.» — Wasson inventaría las tres lecturas propuestas, formas, colores y rayos, sin arbitrar entre ellas

«But in the light of our Plate xu and our discussion of the First Filtre are we not simply viewing the thousand ‘studs’ from a different metaphoric angle?» — Wasson propone en forma de pregunta que se trate de los mil clavos vistos desde otro ángulo metafórico

«We do not yet know the precise meaning of -pdjas, nor the anatomy of its poetic associations, but we do localize it and, for lack of a better, ‘rays’ will do.» — Wasson declara que sigue sin conocerse el sentido preciso del término y acepta rayos a falta de algo mejor, abstención que la ficha conserva

«The Vedic poets see the white spots on the fly-agaric either as ‘studs’ or as sparkles of the divine light. (We in the English-speaking world see them as warts disfiguring a repulsive toadstool.» — Wasson contrapone la mirada védica sobre las manchas blancas, clavos o chispas de luz divina, con la del mundo anglohablante, que las ve como verrugas de un hongo repulsivo

«great scholars like Renou have felt that Soma was the heart and soul of the RgVeda.» — Wasson recoge de Renou la idea de que el Soma era el corazón y el alma del RgVeda, dicha cuando aún no se sabía qué era

«Does the fly-agaric help us in understanding this verse, which has troubled the translators?» — Wasson abre el capítulo del Soma y la mosca con la pregunta por el verso I 119, que declara problemático para los traductores

«To you, O Asvins, that fly betrayed the Soma.» — verso I 119 del RgVeda en la versión del volumen, donde una mosca delata el Soma a los Asvin

«The word for ‘fly’, mdksika, might mean bee. The word for Soma is mddhu, ‘honey’, a frequent metaphor for Soma. The verse might well be interpreted as meaning that the bees have betrayed their honey to the Agvins. This is grammatically and semantically unexceptionable, but it is banal to the point of inanity.» — Wasson expone la lectura alternativa por abejas y miel, la declara impecable gramatical y semánticamente, y a la vez banal hasta la inanidad

«On the other hand, if a fly betrayed Soma to the A8vins, we are plunging to the depths of Indo-European folklore. Throughout northern Europe, wherever the fly-agaric is well known, there is a folk belief that the fly-agaric is linked to flies. Here we find the statement that the fly betrayed Soma to the Asvins. Did the fly lead the ASvins to the fly-agaric?» — Wasson enlaza la mosca del verso con la creencia folclórica noreuropea que liga el agárico a las moscas y deja la pregunta abierta

«I have conducted experiments with the fresh Eurasian fly-agaric, splitting the stipe (stem, amsu) lengthwise and letting it bleed. Where flies have access to such stipes, the flies are drawn to them, suck the juice, and collapse helpless into a stupor.» — Wasson reporta sus propios experimentos con el agárico fresco, cuyo jugo estupefacía a las moscas

«They do not die from the juice. On the contrary they recover completely in a matter of hours or one or two days. While in the stupefied state they may of course be killed by their enemies or be blown away to their deaths in non-viable surroundings.» — Wasson acota el efecto: las moscas no mueren por el jugo y se recuperan en horas o días, aunque en el estupor puedan morir por otra causa

«The name Soma is derived from the root su, meaning ‘to press’. Soma is the pressed one.» — Wasson deriva el nombre Soma de la raíz su, prensar, y lo glosa como el prensado

«Another word for Soma is dndhas. Both Soma and dndhas are used in the RgVeda to designate the plant and its juice, dndhas being probably cognate with évvec, the Greek word for ‘flower’. (It is as though the Aryans called Soma the flower.» — Wasson da andhas como segundo nombre del Soma y lo emparienta con la palabra griega de flor; el troceo devuelve corrompida la voz griega

«but the plant must have carried a name before it was elevated to its high station as a god and before it could have been called by a name derived from the liturgical act of pressing; this early name is lost.» — Wasson sostiene que la planta debió tener un nombre anterior a su elevación a dios y a su denominación por el acto litúrgico, y declara ese nombre perdido

«The Vedic lexicographer Grassmann translated dndhas by the word Kraut, ‘herb’, such as ‘food for cattle’.» — Grassmann, citado por Wasson, vierte andhas por Kraut, hierba, en el sentido de forraje

«In classical Sanskrit one of the common words for ‘herb’ is t¢na, and, surprisingly, in the earliest Sanskrit dictionary, the Amarakoga (ca. A.D. 450), it is defined not only as ‘herb’ but as ‘mushroom’.» — Wasson señala que el diccionario sánscrito más antiguo, el Amarakosa, define trna no solo como hierba sino como hongo

«In the uplands you have created trnam for this people, in the lowlands ingenious waters.» — verso del RgVeda dirigido a los Rbhu en la versión del volumen, donde se crea trnam en las tierras altas

«Because Soma is repeatedly associated in the hymns with the heights, if I am right that Soma is the fly-agaric, this sentence should be reviewed to consider whether t’na does not mean here the divine plant, the fly-agaric.» — Wasson pide revisar si trna designa allí la planta divina, con la condición puesta dentro de la frase, si tiene razón

«But in the Vedic mind the plant categories did not correspond precisely to our own, and the three terms for ‘herb’ seem to have embraced all small fleshy plants.» — Wasson advierte que las categorías vegetales védicas no coinciden con las modernas y que los tres términos de hierba abarcaban toda planta pequeña y carnosa

«Similarly, as we shall see, the Chinese term chih # originally meant a fleshy plant, but as time passed its meaning came to be confined to a particular mushroom.» — Wasson anuncia el paralelo chino del término chih, que empezó designando una planta carnosa y acabó designando un hongo particular

«Many other names are applied to Soma in the RgVeda, all of them metaphors stressing one or another of its aspects.» — Wasson describe el resto del vocabulario del Soma como metáforas que subrayan uno u otro de sus aspectos

«In passages where the drink receives the highest homage it is sometimes called amftta, cognate with ‘ambrosia’, the liquor of immortality.» — Wasson consigna amrta como el nombre del Soma en los pasajes de mayor homenaje y lo emparienta con ambrosía

«The juice is pdvamdna, from the root pu, ‘clear flowing’, or indu, the ‘bright drop’, or sometimes drapsd, the ‘drop’, or rdsa, the ‘fluid’, or pit, the ‘beverage’, or m» — Wasson inventaría los nombres del jugo, pavamana, indu, drapsa, rasa, pitu, mada y madhu, cada uno con su glosa

«The rich Soma vocabulary reflects the importance of the plant and its sacred rdle.» — Wasson lee la riqueza de ese vocabulario como índice de la importancia y del papel sagrado de la planta; el troceo imprime rdle por rôle

«The ordinary word for a common or garden mushroom occurs only once in the RgVeda, in a hymn addressed to Indra» — Wasson consigna que la palabra corriente de hongo aparece una sola vez en el RgVeda, en un himno a Indra

«Yaska, the earliest of the commentators on the RgVeda, who lived not later than the 5th century B.C., said kstimpa meant a mushroom, ahichatrikd, and Geldner accepts this identification.» — Wasson reporta que Yaska, el más antiguo comentarista del RgVeda, glosó ksumpa como hongo, y que Geldner acepta la identificación

«The word survives in contemporary Hindi as khumbi and in the market place of Old Delhi one buys under that name a wild mushroom belonging to the genus Phellorina, close to or identical with Phellorina Delestrei Dur.» — Wasson sigue la palabra hasta el hindi khumbi y hasta el hongo silvestre que se vende con ese nombre en el mercado del viejo Delhi

«It is not surprising, on the contrary it is to be expected, that the sacred mushroom should be in a category by itself, segregated from the rest of the mushroom world.» — Wasson sostiene que el hongo sagrado debe estar en categoría aparte y trae el caso mazateco de México, cuya lengua parte el mundo fúngico en dos palabras

«Mushroom in classical Sanskrit is chattra. In the sense of ‘mushroom’ this word may not have existed in Vedic times; certainly the Aryans did not bring it down from the North.» — Wasson consigna chattra como hongo en sánscrito clásico y niega que los arios trajeran la palabra del norte en ese sentido

«The word itself comes from the root chad, ‘to cover’, and its primary meaning is ‘parasol’.» — Wasson deriva chattra de la raíz chad, cubrir, con parasol por sentido primario

«When the Aryans invaded Iran and India, they gave to this newly discovered utensil an Aryan name, chattra, and later extended the meaning of that name to embrace the fleshy capped fungi.» — Wasson reconstruye la historia de la palabra: los arios habrían nombrado el utensilio nuevo al invadir Irán y la India y luego habrían extendido el nombre a los hongos de sombrero carnoso

«In India today mushrooms do not play an important role. Only in the Northwest, in Kashmir and the Punjab, are they much relished, as well as among Muslims and Sikhs in the Punjab and Delhi.» — Wasson describe el lugar menor del hongo en la India de su tiempo y localiza el gusto en el noroeste, Cachemira y el Punyab, y entre musulmanes y sijs

«The aristocrats of the mushroom world in Kashmir are the morels, called kana-gch, the ‘ear-morel’; recently they have become too expensive for the people of Kashmir to eat, and today they are gathered only for export to the Punjab, New Delhi, and Paris. But they still figure in the folklore of Kashmir and must be served at wedding feasts, if there are means to buy them.» — Wasson consigna el papel de las colmenillas en Cachemira, su precio de exportación y su presencia obligada en los banquetes de boda

«For mushrooms considered inedible, kukur-mut(t)d, “dog’s urine’, and endless variations of the same expression, are the dominant word throughout India.» — Wasson recoge la expresión dominante para los hongos no comestibles en la India, orina de perro, y sus variantes

«In the languages derived from Sanskrit of modern India I have found no trace of a sacred mushroom.» — Wasson declara la búsqueda negativa: no halló rastro de hongo sagrado en las lenguas modernas derivadas del sánscrito

«The Laws of Manu, Chap. V 5, place a tabu on mushrooms for the three upper castes of Hindus (= ‘twice-born men’): ‘Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms [kavaka] and all plants springing from impure substances are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men.’» — las Leyes de Manu, citadas por Wasson, prohíben los hongos a las tres castas altas junto con el ajo, el puerro y la cebolla y todo lo nacido de sustancias impuras

«It is impossible to say whether this prohibition is related to a sacred use of the fly-agaric in Vedic times; probably not.» — Wasson se abstiene de relacionar esa prohibición con un uso sagrado del agárico en tiempos védicos y se inclina por la negativa

«Clearly the Hindus are mycophobes. In the Punjab, Kashmir, and the Northwest, where the population has been Muslim and Sikh for centuries -—in the Indus Valley, south of the Hindu Kush - there is a deep-seated mycophilia running counter to the general Hindu attitude. This is the area where the RgVeda was composed.» — Wasson opone la micofobia que adjudica a los hindúes a la micofilia arraigada del Punyab, Cachemira y el noroeste, y hace notar que esa es la zona donde se compuso el RgVeda

«There is one episode conspicuous in the religious annals of India in which mushrooms played, or may have played, a decisive réle: the death of Buddha at the age of 80 in the middle of the sixth century B. C.» — Wasson anuncia el episodio de la muerte del Buddha como el único caso conspicuo en que los hongos tuvieron o pudieron tener papel decisivo en los anales religiosos de la India; el troceo parte la cifra de la edad a fin de renglón

«He was making his way with his followers, talking and preaching as he went, through the kingdom of Magadha, the present state of Bihar, and had paused for the night at a place called Pava. One Chunda, a metal worker, asked him for dinner and he accepted.» — Wasson sitúa el episodio en el reino de Magadha, en Pava, con el herrero Chunda como anfitrión

«Among other dishes Chunda served siikara-maddava, called in one recension sikaramansa. (These words are from the Buddhist scriptures written in the Pali language, a tongue spoken a century or more later than the events we are describing and farther to the west. The Buddha himself must have spoken Magadhi Prakrit, also closely related to Sanskrit.» — Wasson da el nombre del plato en sus dos recensiones y acota la distancia entre la lengua de las escrituras budistas, el pali, y la que debió hablar el Buddha, el prácrito magadhi

«Buddhism has never made much of this, but the two great schools, Mahayana and Theravada, have disagreed on it.» — Wasson consigna el desacuerdo entre las escuelas Mahayana y Theravada sobre el sentido del plato, y declara que el budismo nunca hizo mucho del asunto

«remarked that the expression, “Tongue of the Way’, was picturesque and said it meant prayer.» — Bergaigne, citado por Wasson, califica de pintoresca la fórmula lengua del Camino y la interpreta como plegaria; el verbatim arranca tras la llamada de nota pegada al apellido

«and I found that he had devoted two pages of concentrated commentary to all the words that attend these ‘knots’.» — Wasson remite al comentario de Bhawe, dos páginas concentradas sobre las palabras que rodean a esos nudos

«For southern peoples the parasol, furnishing protection from the sun, is of importance, and from Cambodia to Ethiopia it is a symbol of» — Wasson explica el valor del parasol en los pueblos del sur como protección del sol y símbolo extendido de Camboya a Etiopía; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«authority, in India the mark of the Ksatriya caste, the rulers, the rajputs.» — cierre de la frase anterior: en la India el parasol marca la casta ksatriya, la de los gobernantes; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«Let him avoid honey, flesh, and mushrooms growing on the ground [bhiimi kavaka]» — precepto de las Leyes de Manu para el ermitaño o asceta en la versión que cita el volumen, con la miel, la carne y los hongos del suelo entre lo que ha de evitar

«The two terms mean the same thing, but what is that meaning? The first word means ‘swine’, ‘boar’, cognate with the Latin sus, English ‘swine’. The second element means soft flesh. “Soft flesh of swine?’ ‘Swine’s soft flesh?’ i.e., the soft flesh of which pigs are fond? A subjective genitive or an objective genitive?» — Wasson desmenuza el compuesto del plato y deja enfrentadas las dos lecturas, carne blanda de cerdo o carne blanda de la que los cerdos gustan, en forma de preguntas

«The Theravada school believes, on the other hand, that he died from mushrooms, a food of which pigs are fond.» — Wasson consigna la posición theravada sobre la muerte del Buddha, que la atribuye a hongos y no a carne de cerdo

«A Chinese translation of the Digha Nikdya, including the Book of the Great Decease, made in the beginning of the fifth century A.D., rendered siikara-maddava by mu erh, ‘tree mushroom’.» — Wasson trae la traducción china del Digha Nikaya de principios del siglo quinto, que vierte sukara-maddava por hongo de árbol

«the sources — Chinese, Sanskrit, and Pali-— need to be re-examined with minute care.» — Wasson pide reexaminar con cuidado minucioso las fuentes china, sánscrita y pali antes de proponer explicación

«Nor, so far as I now know, are the ReVeda and Soma to be associated with the triple-tiered chattra (‘parasol’ and ‘mushroom’) that surmounts the great stupa at Sanchi,» — Wasson consigna otra negativa: hasta donde sabe, ni el RgVeda ni el Soma se asocian con el chattra de tres pisos que corona la gran estupa de Sanchi ni con las piedras-hongo megalíticas de Kerala y del Nepal; el troceo imprime ReVeda

«George Watt, the botanist who devoted his life to the study of the flora of India,’ is said to have declared that ‘no plant is known at present [1884] which would fulfil all the requirements [of Soma], and he lays particular stress on the fact that the vague and poetical descriptions given of the Soma make any scientific identification almost impossible.’*» — Wasson reproduce la declaración que Max Müller atribuye al botánico George Watt, según la cual ninguna planta conocida en 1884 cumplía todos los requisitos del Soma; en nota el propio Wasson advierte que esas observaciones no aparecen en lo publicado por Watt

«Watt did not read Sanskrit, much less Vedic. He did not allow for the deficiencies in the translations of the RgVeda on which he depended: he may have been unaware of them.» — Wasson acota el alcance del testimonio de Watt, que no leía sánscrito ni védico y dependía de traducciones deficientes

«The early renderings of the RgVeda made the ancient poets sound like upper class Europeans of the 19th century, frock-coated, with their inhibitions and pruderies, their etiolated religious outlook.» — Wasson describe el efecto de las primeras traducciones, que hacían sonar a los poetas antiguos como europeos decimonónicos de levita

«Even today one hears it said that the RgVeda is vague and contradictory about Soma.» — Wasson consigna el juicio corriente de que el RgVeda es vago y contradictorio sobre el Soma

«This recalls the blind men who were defining the elephant by feeling each one a different part of the huge beast. Their reports were contradictory indeed.» — Wasson responde a ese juicio con la parábola de los ciegos y el elefante

«Who is to say that the RgVeda is contradictory without first knowing what Soma is?» — Wasson devuelve la pregunta: quién puede llamar contradictorio al RgVeda sin saber antes qué es el Soma

«The hymns of the RgVeda fit the fly-agaric like a glove.» — Wasson enuncia el ajuste entre los himnos y el agárico con un símil de guante

«Given that familiarity, a reading of Geldner, Renou, and Bhawe leads straight to the fly-agaric.» — Wasson declara qué se necesita para llegar a su conclusión, familiaridad con las plantas psicotrópicas del mundo y su papel en la religión primitiva, y con eso la lectura de Geldner, Renou y Bhawe

«Indians and Westerners who reverence the RgVeda for its religious feeling will perhaps be revolted by the dual forms of Soma and will even experience a visceral resistance to this solution of the enigma.» — Wasson anticipa el rechazo visceral que su solución puede provocar en indios y occidentales que veneran el RgVeda

«For almost a century and a half Soma has been the great unknown of Vedic studies, until this unknown had come to be considered a permanent built-in feature of this remote area of learning.» — Wasson describe cómo el Soma llegó a ser una incógnita permanente de los estudios védicos a lo largo de siglo y medio

«It permitted even the great Bergaigne, in an unguarded moment, to suppose that Soma was merely some plant or other expressly selected by Aryan priests who went looking high in the mountains for this purpose (an ‘Ecclesiastical Commission’, we would call it), that the myth of Soma’s mountain origin might be fulfilled ;’ as though the myth came first and the plant was an afterthought!» — Wasson reporta y objeta la suposición de Bergaigne de que el Soma fuera una planta cualquiera escogida por los sacerdotes para cumplir el mito de su origen montañés, y la califica de poner el mito antes que la planta

«This was possible only because Soma remained a blank. If Bergaigne was right, the poets of the RgVeda, and especially of Mandala IX, must have been engaging in make-believe.» — Wasson deriva de esa suposición la consecuencia que la vuelve inaceptable para él, que los poetas estuvieran fingiendo

«His remark flouted all that the poets had to say in praise of the marvelous properties of the plant and the divine inebriation that resulted from drinking its juice.» — Wasson objeta que la observación de Bergaigne contradice todo lo que los poetas dicen de la planta y de la embriaguez divina

«Their religion was founded on a hoax.» — Wasson resume en una frase la consecuencia de la posición que objeta, que la religión védica se fundara en un engaño

«On the other hand the identification of Soma will give impetus to Vedic studies.» — Wasson sostiene que identificar el Soma dará impulso a los estudios védicos

«If I be right, the whole corpus of hymns, and the Avesta as well, must be re-read in the light of the discovery that a divine mushroom was at the center of these religions, was the focus of these poets.» — Wasson declara lo que su tesis exigiría releer, el corpus entero de himnos y el Avesta, con la condición puesta delante, si tiene razón

«How astonishing that we can still draw parallels with the fly-agaric cult in Siberia, where as we shall see in Part Three it lingers on, in the last stages of degeneration among the peripheral tribes of the extreme north.» — Wasson enlaza el caso védico con el culto del agárico en Siberia, que declara en las últimas fases de degeneración entre las tribus periféricas del extremo norte

«In Siberia the fly-agaric is utilized by the shamans.» — Wasson consigna que en Siberia el agárico lo usan los chamanes

«In the Indus Valley we associate it with an organized priesthood.» — Wasson contrapone a ese uso chamánico el sacerdocio organizado del valle del Indo

«May not a shamanistic religion have acquired an hieratic structure under the pressures of a tough war of conquest lasting centuries?» — Wasson plantea en forma de pregunta que una religión chamánica adquiriera estructura hierática bajo la presión de una guerra de conquista de siglos

«In a world of enemies the shamans may have found it in their own interest and the interest of the community to close their ranks, to band together and organize a tribal priesthood, as a weapon of political power.» — Wasson conjetura el interés de los chamanes en cerrar filas y organizarse en sacerdocio tribal como arma de poder político, y lo dice en condicional

«The assembling of the hymn book, about which Vedic scholars know something from internal evidence, may have kept step with the organizing of the priesthood.» — Wasson propone que la reunión del himnario pudiera haber ido a la par de la organización del sacerdocio

«Why was Soma so soon abandoned in India, perhaps even before the forms were closed on the canon of the RgVeda?» — Wasson abre la pregunta por el abandono temprano del Soma, quizá anterior al cierre del canon

«For one thing, questions of supply, which must always have been awkward, became impossible when the Indo-Aryans spread out over all of India. The mushroom crop in the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas was each year a fixed quantity.» — Wasson da como primera razón del abandono el problema del abasto al extenderse los indoarios por toda la India

«Of course for a time the priests could make do with insufficient fly-agarics (as they had had to do many times in seasons of short supply), stretching out the Holy Element by utilizing the Second form, and by mixing the precious fluid with ever more water and milk until only a symbol of the Real Presence remained.» — Wasson describe el estiramiento del elemento sagrado por la Segunda Forma y por la dilución creciente hasta quedar solo un símbolo de la presencia real

«Possibly the Second form fell from favour and came under the condemnation of the priesthood, as it seems to have done in some quarters in Iran.» — Wasson conjetura que la Segunda Forma cayera en desgracia y fuera condenada por el sacerdocio, como le parece haber pasado en algunos sectores de Irán

«The silence among later Indian writers about the true Soma would indicate that the decision to abandon it was deliberate and universal, and extended even to the discussion of it.» — Wasson lee el silencio de los escritores indios posteriores como indicio de que la decisión de abandonar el Soma fue deliberada y universal

«But the memory of Soma must have stayed alive in the inner circles of Brahmans, perhaps for centuries.» — Wasson sostiene que el recuerdo del Soma debió sobrevivir en los círculos internos de brahmanes, con el grado puesto en el quizá

«India is a land where the incredible sometimes comes true, and I should be delighted, but not altogether surprised, to discover that there are still circles privy to the knowledge of the true Soma.» — Wasson declara que no le sorprendería del todo descubrir que aún existan círculos con conocimiento del verdadero Soma

«As the substance of the Sacrifice became diluted and finally vanished, as the Divine Inebriant was reduced to a fading sacerdotal memory, inevitably more and more emphasis was placed by the priests on the efficacy of pure liturgy, and sacerdotalism proliferated to a point that the world has never seen equalled.» — Wasson enlaza la desaparición del inebriante con el desplazamiento del énfasis hacia la eficacia de la liturgia pura y con la proliferación del sacerdotalismo

«The Brahmans of those days, profoundly moved by the legacy they had received from their ancestors and not yet possessed of an alphabet, set up, and copperriveted in place, a method of preserving by sheer memory the words and melody of the original hymns that would withstand the vicissitudes of time.» — Wasson describe el sistema de conservación memorística de los himnos montado por los brahmanes antes del alfabeto

«Would it be too much to say that the psychotropic mushrooms stirred them to make this supreme effort?» — Wasson deja en forma de pregunta la atribución de ese esfuerzo memorístico al impulso de los hongos psicotrópicos

«With the passing of the generations Soma, the Divine Plant, no longer a part of Hindu experience, became sublimated in later Hindu mythology and took its place in the heavenly firmament as the Moon God.» — Wasson traza la sublimación posterior del Soma en la mitología hindú y su colocación en el firmamento como dios de la Luna

«Dr. Stietencron has asked whether the Soma-Moon equivalence may not have been suggested by several of the attributes of the fly-agaric — its» — Stietencron, citado por Wasson, pregunta si la equivalencia Soma-Luna no la habrán sugerido varios atributos del agárico

«successive phases as it passes from the egg stage through to its ultimate end, all in a period comparable with the monthly cycles of the moon, though quicker; its pock-marked face; its white flesh; its white rotundity before it breaks through the white veil; the crescent that appears when the cap is bisected at a certain stage of its growth.» — Wasson enumera los rasgos del hongo que sostendrían esa equivalencia, las fases sucesivas, la cara picada, la carne blanca, la redondez antes de romper el velo y la media luna que aparece al bisecar el sombrero

«A people richly endowed with poetic imagination would need only these features to see in the moon a transcendental fly-agaric.» — Wasson sostiene que a un pueblo de imaginación poética le bastarían esos rasgos para ver en la luna un agárico trascendental

«The sublime adventure of religious contemplation, the mystical experience, which the priestly caste (and perhaps others) of the Indo-Aryans had known through the mediation of the fly-agaric, could now only be achieved through regulated austerity and mortification of the flesh, and the Hindus, who had known to the full the bliss that contemplation can give, made themselves the masters of these techniques: the price being counted as nothing compared with the prize.» — Wasson liga el paso de la mediación del hongo a la austeridad regulada y la mortificación con el dominio hindú de esas técnicas contemplativas; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Possibly we can adduce evidence that will show vestiges of the cult of the sacred mushroom surviving in esoteric circles under Iranian influence down to the 11th century of the Christian era.» — Wasson anuncia el rastro del culto del hongo sagrado en círculos esotéricos de influencia irania hasta el siglo once

«The evidence is tenuous but in the light of my fly-agaric thesis it is tantalizingly suggestive.» — Wasson califica su propia evidencia de tenue y a la vez de sugerente bajo su tesis, grado que la ficha conserva

«Of the sacred texts of Iran only a part survives, and much of what survives is corrupt and confusing. A succession of religions marked the history of ancient Iran - the primitive religion that Zoroaster undertook to reform, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Manichzism, some others, each of them preserving features of its predecessors and changing the emphasis, but all of them laying stress on the dualism of this world, the conflict between light and dark, between good and bad.» — Wasson describe la sucesión de religiones del Irán antiguo, la anterior a Zoroastro, el zoroastrismo, el mitraísmo y el maniqueísmo, y les adjudica en común el acento en el dualismo entre luz y sombra

«For some years before his conversion to the Christian faith in A. D. 386, St. Augustine was a follower of Mani, though he never visited Iran.» — Wasson consigna que Agustín fue seguidor de Mani antes de su conversión en el 386 y que nunca visitó Irán

«immediately thereafter he wrote his attack on the Manicheeans, in which there is a passage, seldom noticed, condemning them for eating mushrooms, as well as other delicacies.» — Wasson localiza en el ataque de Agustín a los maniqueos un pasaje poco advertido que los condena por comer hongos; el troceo imprime Manicheeans con el corte de renglón dentro

«Quid porro insanius dici aut cogitari potest, hominem boletos, orizam, tubera, placentas, caroenum, piper, laser, distento ventre cum gratulatione ructantem, et quotidie talia requirentem, non inveniri quemadmodum a tribus signaculis, id est a regula sanctitatis excidisse videatur.» — pasaje latino de Agustín de Hipona que el volumen reproduce del De Moribus Manichaeorum, con los boletos entre los manjares que censura; el troceo imprime el latín tal cual y con el corte de renglón dentro de sanctitatis

«So great was St. Augustine’s influence on later churchmen that I think his mycophobic utterance may have had a part in shaping the virulent diatribes against mushroom-eaters of St. Frangois de Sales and Jeremy Taylor.» — Wasson conjetura que la influencia de Agustín y su declaración micofóbica hayan contribuido a las diatribas posteriores de Francisco de Sales y de Jeremy Taylor contra los comedores de hongos; la nota lo dice con el grado puesto en el creo

«In imperial Rome boletus was the name applied to what we call the genus Amanita, including both the edible and the toxic amanitas.» — Wasson acota en nota que en la Roma imperial boletus nombraba lo que hoy es el género Amanita, tóxicas y comestibles por igual

«Only an ethno-mycologist might remark, on coming across this sentence in the great Doctor of the Church, that of the seven cates bringing down his censure, two belong to the fungal tribe, that the first of the seven is the Amanitas to which the fly-agaric belongs, and that he is writing against the Manichzeans, an Iranian religion founded by Mani about a century earlier.» — Wasson señala lo que solo un etnomicólogo notaría en la frase de Agustín, que dos de los siete manjares censurados son hongos y que el primero es el género al que pertenece el agárico, y que el texto va contra una religión irania; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Even an ethno-mycologist could hardly do more than make a mental note of this; which note, however, would spring to life on reading about the Manichzans in China.» — Wasson declara que la nota mental solo cobra vida al leer sobre los maniqueos en China

«The Iranians introduced the religion of Mani into China in A. D. 694 and 719, and during the rest of the T’ang dynasty and down through the Sung this Iranian sect of Manichzeans played something of a réle in the religious life of the Chinese, especially in their impact on the Taoists.» — Wasson data en el 694 y el 719 la entrada de la religión de Mani en China y le adjudica un papel en la vida religiosa china, en particular por su impacto sobre los taoístas; el troceo imprime réle por rôle

«They won a victory when in A.D. 763 they gained as a convert the Khan of the Uighurs, a powerful Mongolian people.» — Wasson data en el 763 la conversión del kan de los uigures como victoria de los maniqueos en China

«Much later an unfriendly Chinese official, Lu Yu FE i (A.D. 11251209), Wrote two reports on the activities and practices of the devotees of Manicheism in Fukien province. Among their evil ways he lists their practice of eating certain mushrooms:» — Wasson presenta los dos informes de Lu Yu sobre los maniqueos de Fukien y anuncia el reproche de comer ciertos hongos

«The two distinguished French sinologues who edited this text, Messrs. Chavannes and Pelliot, could not be expected to know» — Wasson nombra a Chavannes y a Pelliot como editores del texto chino y acota que no cabía esperar de ellos el dato micológico

«Chinese mycologists call it Russula rubra (Kromb.) Bres., and anyone conversant with the province would assume that this is the mushroom of which Lu Yu speaks.» — Wasson identifica ese hongo como Russula rubra y lo propone como el que nombra Lu Yu

«How astonishing was this charge of mycophagia, which Lu Yu hurled against the little sect of Mani disciples.» — Wasson subraya lo asombroso de un reproche de micofagia dirigido a una secta en un país que conoce y consume hongos silvestres

«It is not as though a mycophobic Englishman had leveled the heinous accusation against, say, a band of Gypsies.» — Wasson refuerza el argumento con un contraste: no es un inglés micófobo acusando a una banda de gitanos

«To be guilty of this offense the Manichzans must have been gluttons for mushrooms, and the local red mushrooms to boot, and clearly, since he was speaking about their religion, the practice was a part of their religion.» — Wasson deduce del reproche que los maniqueos debían ser voraces de hongos y rojos, y que la práctica formaba parte de su religión

«Were not these mushrooms another substitute for Soma, a substitute more appropriate, in that it was red mushrooms, than any known to have been used in India?» — Wasson propone en forma de pregunta que esos hongos rojos fueran otro sustituto del Soma, más apropiado que los conocidos en la India

«The second report of Lu Yu, probably submitted in A.D. 1166, is just as interesting.» — Wasson data el segundo informe de Lu Yu hacia el 1166 y lo declara igual de interesante

«They [the Manichzeans] consider urine as a ritual water and use it for their ablutions.» — informe de Lu Yu en la traducción que reproduce el volumen: los maniqueos tienen la orina por agua ritual y la usan en sus abluciones

«MM. Chavannes and Pelliot observe in a footnote that ‘the use of cow’s urine is known in Brahmanism and, on certain occasions, in Mazdaism [Zoroastrianism]; but the context here hardly permits one to think of anything except human urine, and analogies are more rare on this point’.» — Chavannes y Pelliot, citados por Wasson, señalan el uso de orina de vaca en el brahmanismo y en ocasiones en el mazdeísmo, y sostienen que aquí el contexto apenas permite pensar en otra cosa que en orina humana

«Lu Yu goes on to complain that as the Manichzans eat so many Russula mushrooms, the price of mushrooms of the Russula kind goes up.» — Wasson resume la segunda queja de Lu Yu, que el consumo maniqueo encarece los hongos del tipo Russula

«As they eat fungi mushrooms, therefore mushrooms fungi grow dear.» — segunda frase del informe de Lu Yu en la traducción que reproduce el volumen, con el juego de los dos caracteres chinos invertidos

«Mani was born in Iran perhaps a millennium or more after Zoroaster and at least 1,500 years after the period when the RgVeda was being composed in the Indus Valley.» — Wasson mide la distancia temporal entre Mani, Zoroastro y la composición del RgVeda, dato que su propio argumento debe salvar

«If anyone takes the attitude that, because of the lapse of time, the practices of the Manichzans are irrelevant to my Soma-Haoma-fly-agaric thesis, I will not argue with him.» — Wasson se hace cargo de la objeción por el lapso de tiempo y declara que no discutirá con quien la sostenga

«In a part of the world and in a period where religious practices and beliefs showed a marked underlying stability and persistence, it seems to me that the use in this Iranian cult of urine, apparently human urine, and of mushrooms, red mushrooms, is more than chance.» — Wasson sostiene que en esa zona y ese periodo la persistencia de prácticas religiosas vuelve el uso maniqueo de orina y de hongos rojos más que casual, y lo dice como parecer suyo

«In esoteric religious circles the ancient practices may have lived on with modifications for many centuries.» — Wasson deja la supervivencia de prácticas antiguas en círculos esotéricos con el grado puesto en el verbo

«The religion of Zoroaster still survives in the community of Parsis, largely centered in Bombay.» — Wasson consigna la supervivencia de la religión de Zoroastro en la comunidad parsi de Bombay

«It is pertinent to my argument that they still drink urine in their religious rites, though only in token amounts and only the urine of a bull.» — Wasson declara pertinente a su argumento que los parsis sigan bebiendo orina en sus ritos, y acota en la misma frase los dos límites, cantidades simbólicas y solo orina de toro

«So much emphasis is laid on cows in the RgVeda and on the urine of bulls in the religion of the Parsis that the question naturally presents itself whether cows consume the fly-agaric and whether they are affected by it, along with their urine and milk. I cannot answer this.» — Wasson plantea la pregunta por el consumo de agárico por las vacas y su efecto sobre la orina y la leche, y responde con una abstención expresa

«In early October 1966 with three Japanese friends, all mycologists,? I visited Sugadaira, in Nagano prefecture, five hours west of Tokyo by fast train. There were many birch trees scattered over the mountains, and an abundance of fly-agarics growing at their feet. A herd of heifers was grazing in the lush highland pasture, and we took advantage of the opportunity to offer them some of the fly-agarics that we had in our baskets. Two of the animals ate them from our hands avidly; two or three turned away with indifference.» — Wasson relata su prueba con novillas en Sugadaira, donde dos animales comieron agáricos de su mano y dos o tres se apartaron

«We did not have an opportunity to catch the urine of the heifers that had eaten the fly-agarics; besides, they would have eaten many, many more, had we supplied them.» — Wasson declara por qué el experimento quedó incompleto: no pudieron recoger la orina de las novillas y estas habrían comido muchos más hongos

«In 1965 and again in 1966 we tried out the fly-agarics repeatedly on ourselves. The results were disappointing.» — Wasson data en 1965 y 1966 sus propias pruebas repetidas con el agárico y declara decepcionantes los resultados

«We ate them raw, on empty stomachs. We drank the juice, on empty stomachs. We mixed the juice with milk, and drank the mixture, always on empty stomachs. We felt nauseated and some of us threw up. We felt disposed to sleep, and fell into a deep slumber from which shouts could not rouse us, lying like logs, not snoring, dead to the outside world.» — Wasson describe el protocolo de sus pruebas y sus efectos, náusea, vómito y un sueño profundo del que no los despertaban los gritos

«When in this state I once had vivid dreams, but nothing like what happened when I took the Psilocybe mushrooms in Mexico, where I did not sleep at all.» — Wasson contrasta esos sueños vívidos con lo ocurrido al tomar los hongos Psilocybe en México, donde no durmió

«Rokuya Imazeki took his mushrooms with mizo shiru, the delectable soup that the Japanese usually serve with breakfast, and he toasted his mushroom caps on a fork before an open fire.» — Wasson describe la única prueba que llama exitosa y su diferencia de procedimiento, la sopa japonesa y el tostado de los sombreros al fuego

«When he rose from the sleep that came from the mushrooms, he was in full elation. For three hours he could not help but speak; he was a compulsive speaker.» — Wasson reporta el estado de Imazeki al despertar, en plena elación y hablando sin poder parar durante tres horas

«The purport of his remarks was that this was nothing like the alcoholic state; it was infinitely better, beyond all comparison.» — Imazeki, reportado por Wasson, sostiene que aquello no se parecía en nada al estado alcohólico y que era infinitamente mejor, sin comparación posible

«We did not know at the time why, on this single occasion, our friend Imazeki was affected in this way.» — Wasson declara que en ese momento no sabían por qué solo esa vez el efecto fue ese, y la ficha conserva la ignorancia declarada

«The northern forest and tundra folk live in an intimacy with the reindeer that is hard for us to imagine, an intimacy that amounts almost to a symbiotic relationship.» — Wasson describe la relación de los pueblos del bosque y la tundra con el reno como casi simbiótica

«Reindeer manifest two addictions, two passions, one to urine especially human urine, and the other to mushrooms including the fly-agaric.» — Wasson atribuye al reno dos adicciones, a la orina y sobre todo a la humana, y a los hongos incluido el agárico

«When human urine or mushrooms are in the vicinity, the half-domesticated beasts become unmanageable.» — Wasson describe el efecto de esas dos adicciones sobre el comportamiento de los renos semidomesticados

«Reindeer, like men, suffer (or enjoy) profound mental disturbances after eating the fly-agaric.» — Wasson consigna que los renos padecen o gozan trastornos mentales profundos tras comer el agárico, y deja las dos lecturas del verbo dentro de la frase

«In the give and take of the human species and the reindeer may not the human race have learned from the reindeer to esteem urine and the inebriating qualities of the fly-agaric also, and finally the combination of the two?» — Wasson plantea en forma de pregunta que la especie humana aprendiera del reno a estimar la orina y el agárico y luego la combinación de ambos

«It has been said that in Vedic times — ca. B. C. 1500-1000 — reindeer had not been domesticated.» — Wasson consigna la afirmación corriente de que en tiempos védicos el reno no estaba domesticado y la pone en voz impersonal

«It is thought that the ancestors of the Aryans did not live in the reindeer latitudes.» — Wasson consigna la opinión de que los antepasados de los arios no vivían en las latitudes del reno

«There is linguistic evidence that may show the Indo-Europeans discovered the virtues of the fly-agaric before the Siberian tribes, and we are beginning to perceive the extent of the trade relations that always existed across those vast land expanses of Siberia.» — Wasson apunta la evidencia lingüística que podría mostrar a los indoeuropeos descubriendo el agárico antes que las tribus siberianas, y el comercio a través de Siberia

«In that heyday of the fly-agaric cult may the Indo-Europeans have mastered techniques that encouraged cows to eat the resplendent heavenly mushroom?» — Wasson deja en forma de pregunta la posibilidad de técnicas indoeuropeas para que las vacas comieran el hongo

«All these questions are speculative and at present unanswerable.» — Wasson cierra el capítulo declarando especulativas y por ahora incontestables todas esas preguntas

«In the Shahnameh of Firdousi there is an episode that bears on our quest for the genuine Soma. The Shahnameh (‘Book of Kings’) is the great Persian epic of 60,000 rimed couplets, a repository of all Iranian history and all national legends known to the poet.» — Wasson presenta el Shahnameh de Firdusi y lo describe como epopeya persa de sesenta mil pareados rimados y repositorio de la historia y las leyendas iranias

«Firdousi completed his prodigious work just after A.D. tooo, and the episode that interests us is attributed to the 6th century, at the court of the outstanding Sassanid king Khosru I, called Anushirvan (‘the Blessed’), who reigned from A. D. 531 to 579.» — Wasson data la obra de Firdusi poco después del año mil y el episodio en el siglo sexto, en la corte del sasánida Khosru I Anushirvan; el troceo imprime tooo por 1000

«Whether the episode as recounted by Firdousi took place as told or whether he merely passes on an embroidered version of what had become a legend is immaterial: its terms are what interest us,‘ whether true or false.» — Wasson declara indiferente para su uso que el episodio sea histórico o legendario, porque lo que le interesa son sus términos

«Here is my summary of the passage pertinent to our inquiry. It will be apparent later why I have put a sentence in italic.» — Wasson advierte que lo que sigue es resumen suyo y no traducción, y anuncia la cursiva que usará

«I record the extraordinary circumstances of Buddha’s death because they bring in mushrooms» — Wasson declara por qué consigna el episodio de la muerte del Buddha, porque trae hongos al caso, y se abstiene de enlazarlo con el Soma en la plana siguiente; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«Playing the Vedic game with aces wild has had its charms: it allowed individual» — Wasson describe con una metáfora de naipes la comodidad que daba a los vedistas dejar el Soma sin identificar; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana, donde sigue la frase

«it is tantalizingly suggestive. For the first time our trail leads us to China.» — Wasson califica su evidencia de sugerente y anuncia el giro del rastro hacia China

«Writing to confound the Manichzeans, St. Augustine speaks of those who stuff themselves every day, to gratify their appetites, with boletos (a class of mushroom)» — Wasson parafrasea el pasaje latino de Agustín y glosa boletos como una clase de hongo

«What they eat is always the red mushrooms, hung hsiin» — informe de Lu Yu en la traducción que reproduce el volumen: los maniqueos comen siempre los hongos rojos, hung hsün, con la transliteración tal como la imprime el troceo

«precisely in Fukien province that there grows an abundance of an edible red mushroom, which is gathered there and widely eaten not only in Fukien province but throughout China.» — Wasson aporta el dato que los sinólogos no tenían, la abundancia en Fukien de un hongo rojo comestible que se come en toda China; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«O King, friend of learning, you who explore science and who keep it in memory, today I have perused in a serene spirit an Indian book. It is said therein that on a mountain in India there grows a plant brilliant as Byzantine satin.» — parlamento de Burso en el resumen que Wasson hace del Shahnameh de Firdusi, con la planta india brillante como raso bizantino

«If a skillful man gathers it and mixes it cannily, and if then he spreads it on a dead man, the dead man recovers the power of speech without fail and forthwith.» — continuación del parlamento de Burso en el resumen de Wasson: la hierba, recogida y mezclada con arte y extendida sobre un muerto, le devuelve el habla; Wasson señala que es la frase que pone en cursiva

«It would be only just that the dead return to life, since the world has for king the Blessed One.’» — cierre del parlamento de Burso en el resumen de Wasson, que pide la licencia del rey para emprender la busca

«It is not likely that this will be, but perhaps we must try.» — respuesta del rey Khosru en el resumen que Wasson hace del Shahnameh, que declara improbable el prodigio y aun así manda intentarlo

«The King added that as Bursdé would probably need a guide, he should go amply supplied with gifts for the Indian Rajah.» — Wasson resume la providencia del rey, que manda a Burso con guía y con regalos para el rajá indio

«Bursdé set out on his journey and arrived in the presence of the Rajah, who welcomed him and read the letter delivered to him.» — Wasson resume el viaje de Burso hasta la presencia del rajá

«He assured Bursoé that all the Brahmans living in the mountains would help him.» — Wasson resume la promesa del rajá, que todos los brahmanes de las montañas ayudarían a Burso

«After crushing them he spread them over corpses, ‘but those herbs did not bring back a single one to life.’» — Wasson resume el fracaso de la prueba: machacadas y extendidas sobre cadáveres, ninguna de las hierbas devolvió la vida

«The rest of the tale, which recounts how Burs6é extricated himself as well as he could from his embarrassing predicament, does not concern us.» — Wasson declara fuera de su asunto el resto del relato de Firdusi

«It is noteworthy (1) that the book that Bursoé had read was Indian;» — Wasson enumera los cuatro puntos que le interesan del episodio y empieza por el origen indio del libro que Burso había leído

«that according to the Indian book the herb shimmered like satin of Byzantium;» — segundo punto de la enumeración de Wasson, el brillo de la hierba como raso de Bizancio según el libro indio

«that in India Bursdé had recourse to the mountains;» — tercer punto de la enumeración de Wasson, la busca en las montañas de la India

«The herb grew in the mountains of India - no other place is mentioned. Bursdé had been reading an Indian book - we are not told what one nor when it was written.» — Wasson acota lo que el episodio dice y lo que calla, la montaña como único sitio nombrado y el libro indio sin identificar ni datar

«In the episode do we not hear a clear though fading echo of the Soma of the ReVeda, of the marvelous herb that grew high in the mountains and for which the Brahmans alone held the key?» — Wasson deja en forma de pregunta el eco del Soma del RgVeda en el episodio; el troceo imprime ReVeda

«Tn Indian literature the Puranas contain legends and tales of the olden days, all of them religious and in verse. The different Puranas took their present shape at different times, running from perhaps the 4th to the 16th centuries.» — Wasson presenta los Puranas como colecciones de leyendas religiosas en verso y fecha su forma actual entre los siglos cuarto y dieciséis; el troceo imprime Tn por In

«A story is told in several of the Puranas that may bear on the Bursdé episode in the Shahnameh.» — Wasson anuncia un relato de varios Puranas que puede tener que ver con el episodio de Burso

«The version that I shall give is from the Padma Purdna, Part 2, Book 6, Chapter 8, verses 40-63.» — Wasson declara de qué Purana toma la versión que reproduce y da su localización exacta

«Scholars tell us that it assumed its present form between A. D. 800 to 1000.» — Wasson data entre el 800 y el 1000 la forma actual de ese texto, según los estudiosos

«A certain Mount Drona figures in it: “dréna’ (from dru, Sanskrit, ‘made of wood’) is the word commonly used in the RgVeda for the wooden vessels that contain Soma.» — Wasson señala el monte Drona del relato y hace notar que drona es en el RgVeda el nombre de los vasos de madera que contienen el Soma

«Jalandhara was the king of the demons and he was waging war against the gods. The spiritual preceptor of the demons, their guru, was named Sukra; he had a magic incantation that he had received from Siva by means of which he revived all the demons as they fell in battle. Visnu, who was leading the army of the gods, said to Brhaspati, who was the guru of the gods, ‘Sukra has revived all the demons. Why do you not revive the gods?’ Brhaspati said, ‘I will revive the gods with herbs.» — relato del Padma Purana en traducción de Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, que el propio volumen acredita al pie: Sukra revive a los demonios por encantamiento y Brhaspati promete revivir a los dioses con hierbas

«Then Brhaspati went to the great Drona Mountain beside the ocean of milk, and he took the herbs that grew there and by means of yoga he revived the gods.» — relato del Padma Purana en traducción de O'Flaherty: Brhaspati toma las hierbas del monte Drona junto al océano de leche y por el yoga revive a los dioses

«There is a mountain named Drona beside the ocean of milk, and herbs grow there that revive the dead. The guru of the gods went there and took the herbs and revived the gods who had fallen in battle.» — parlamento de Sukra en el Padma Purana según la traducción de O'Flaherty, con las hierbas que reviven a los muertos; el volumen lo imprime en cursiva y aquí va sin ella

«Jalandhara then commanded the mountain to go down to the nether world below the earth, and Drona went there; as he went, all the herbs cried out.» — relato del Padma Purana en traducción de O'Flaherty: Jalandhara manda la montaña al mundo inferior y las hierbas gritan al bajar

«In the Sanskrit text the word for herb is osadhi, one of the terms often used for Soma in the RgVeda.» — Wasson señala que la palabra del texto sánscrito para hierba es osadhi, uno de los términos que el RgVeda usa para el Soma

«In Sanskrit there was a poetic convention that precious herbs (osadhi) grew on the Himalayas. They were brilliant and shone like lamps at night.» — Wasson consigna la convención poética sánscrita de las hierbas preciosas que crecen en el Himalaya y brillan de noche como lámparas

«Where the magic herbs (osadhi) cast their glow into the caves of mountaineers who lie there with their mistresses, lamps of the love-chamber that need no oil.» — verso del Kumarasambhava de Kalidasa en la versión que cita el volumen, con las hierbas mágicas que alumbran las cuevas como lámparas sin aceite

«He also supplied me with a Sanskrit proverb, which may go back to a Prakrit original: ‘On the snowy mountains grows the magic herb, but the snake is on your head.’» — proverbio sánscrito que Daniel H. H. Ingalls suministró a Wasson y que este consigna con su fuente: en las montañas nevadas crece la hierba mágica, pero la serpiente está sobre tu cabeza

«All Chinese know the ling chih # =, a conception that goes back in Chinese cultural history for thousands of years; just how far back is the question at issue here.» — Wasson presenta el ling chih como concepción china de miles de años y declara que justamente cuán atrás llega es la cuestión en disputa

«The ling chih is a symbol of happy augury, bespeaking good fortune, good health, longevity, even life with the immortals.» — Wasson describe el ling chih como símbolo de buen augurio, fortuna, salud, longevidad y vida con los inmortales

«Conventionally the phrase is translated by ‘the divine fungus - or mushroom - of immortality’.» — Wasson da la traducción convencional de ling chih por hongo divino de la inmortalidad

«The ‘marvelous herb’ would be a simpler rendering, or again the ‘herb of spiritual potency’.» — Wasson propone dos versiones alternativas del término, hierba maravillosa y hierba de potencia espiritual

«The Chinese would distill from the chosen objects a conventional meaning, and thereafter the objects were used in literature and art to convey this meaning, like pictographs.» — Wasson describe el procedimiento chino de destilar un sentido convencional de un objeto natural y usarlo luego en la literatura y el arte como pictografía

«At an early date the Taoists captured the concept of a divine mushroom of immortality, and they exploited it fantastically in their writings in the first millennium of our era and even later, until the original idea was lost in a welter of imaginary divagations.» — Wasson data en fecha temprana la captura taoísta del concepto del hongo divino de la inmortalidad y describe su explotación fantástica hasta perderse la idea original

«Beginning with the Yiian Dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368) the ling chih has been endlessly represented in art - in paintings, carvings in jade and deer’s antlers, furniture and carpet designs, balustrades, jewelry, lady’s combs, perfume bottles, in short wherever the artistic urge found an outlet.» — Wasson data en la dinastía Yuan la representación incesante del ling chih en el arte y enumera los soportes

«It has become a cliché in newspapers, novels, conversation.» — Wasson consigna la vigencia del ling chih como lugar común en periódicos, novelas y conversación

«For two thousand years the idea of the ling chih has passed through various phases in the cultural history of China, and I hope someday to publish my notes on these, looking to the time when enough will be known for someone to write the biography of the miraculous fungal idea.» — Wasson declara su proyecto de publicar sus notas sobre las fases del ling chih y aplaza la biografía de la idea fúngica

«Up to now students of Chinese culture have always regarded the ling chih as indigenous to China.» — Wasson consigna que hasta entonces los estudiosos de la cultura china habían tenido el ling chih por indígena

«and was a ‘literary’ reflection of Soma, the miraculous mushroom of the RgVeda.» — Wasson enuncia su propia propuesta, que el ling chih llegó de la India como reflejo literario del Soma del RgVeda

«Certainly the fungal idea, once it reached China, found there fertile soil: an “elixir of immortality’ has bemused many peoples, such as the West Europeans in the 16th century, but the Chinese seem to have been singularly susceptible to this will-o’-the-wisp, always hoping to come upon a plant or mineral or juice that would prolong virility and longevity.» — Wasson describe el terreno fértil que la idea fúngica encontró en China y el atractivo duradero del elixir de la inmortalidad, con el paralelo europeo del siglo dieciséis; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«The novelty of the ling chih is precisely that it was a mushroom, and this is India’s contribution to our story.» — Wasson fija en qué consiste la novedad del ling chih, en que sea un hongo, y la adjudica a la contribución india

«Alfred Salmony in his Antler and Tongue' has called attention to the accumulating evidence of the influence of India on the China of the Late Eastern Chou, from the 7th to the 3rd centuries B.C.» — Salmony, citado por Wasson, reúne la evidencia de la influencia india sobre la China del Chou oriental tardío

«He has pointed out that the influence could be solely ‘literary’, i.e., whereby the Chinese ‘heard tell’ of practices elsewhere and under the stimulus of such reports sought to duplicate them.» — Wasson recoge de Salmony la acotación de que esa influencia pudo ser solo literaria, por relatos oídos y luego imitados

«This is what Joseph Needham calls ‘stimulus diffusion’,? what I would call ‘idea diffusion’.» — Wasson recoge el término de Joseph Needham, difusión por estímulo, y propone el suyo, difusión de idea

«Salmony cites a number of examples and supplies the bibliographical references. To this list I now propose to add the ling chih.» — Wasson declara su aportación a la lista de Salmony, el propio ling chih

«It is often called the ‘miraculous chih’, #? Z , or ‘auspicious herb’, $4 4.» — Wasson inventaría las expresiones chinas alternativas para el hongo milagroso, chih milagroso y hierba auspiciosa, con sus caracteres

«With Chinese culture the idea spread to Korea and Japan, where however it has tended to be confined to the literate and intellectual classes.» — Wasson sigue la difusión de la idea a Corea y Japón y acota que allí quedó confinada a las clases letradas

«Ling chih in Japan, written with the same Chinese characters, becomes reishi, the | yielding to r in the customary way. But more widely used than reishi today is mannentake #% 4-4, ‘ten-thousand-year mushroom’.» — Wasson da las formas japonesas del término, reishi y el más usado mannentake, hongo de diez mil años

«Scholars say that in the archaic stage of Chinese culture the character for chih = was written “f, a pictograph of ‘herb’, a small plant that was not woody.» — Wasson reporta de los estudiosos que el carácter de chih se escribía en la etapa arcaica como pictografía de hierba, planta pequeña y no leñosa

«In the Li Chi, one of the “Thirteen Classics’ of China, chih # is listed as a ritual food of the emperor, thus figuring in the religious ceremonies that were an important part of his functions.» — Wasson localiza chih en el Li Chi como alimento ritual del emperador, con lo que lo mete en las ceremonias religiosas imperiales

«The early commentators gloss this as meaning an edible mushroom growing on trees, probably what is known in recent centuries as the tree-ear, mu erh RE, familiar throughout the temperate zone to those versed in mushroom lore as the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus (Fr.) Qu» — Wasson recoge la glosa de los primeros comentaristas, un hongo comestible de árbol, y lo identifica con el mu erh y con Pleurotus ostreatus

«The Li Chi comes down to us in a recension dating from the early Han (the two centuries before Christ), but the contents are supposed to have been assembled in the late Chou period, from the 7th to the 3rd centuries B.C.» — Wasson data la recensión del Li Chi en el Han temprano y su contenido en el Chou tardío

«the idea of ling chih, a supernatural mushroom with miraculous powers, appears first in the Ch’in Dynasty (B.C. 221-207) under the great Emperor Shih-huang, who assumed the title of the ‘First Emperor’, by which he has always been known, for it was he who unified all China for the first time» — Wasson data la primera aparición de la idea del ling chih en la dinastía Ch'in, bajo el Primer Emperador Shih-huang

«Until his reign we find not a single word about the marvelous plant: no mention in the Classics, in the inscriptions on the bronze vessels, on the oracle bones. There are no carvings in jade or deer’s antlers, no representations in pottery or jewelry, on halberds or belt buckles.» — Wasson enuncia el argumento negativo que sostiene esa datación: ni una palabra en los clásicos, en los bronces ni en los huesos oraculares, ni figura en jade, cerámica o joyería

«If the conception had existed, we must assume an implausible conspiracy of silence in this singularly articulate people concerning an idea that prompts thousands of tongues to wag.» — Wasson lee ese silencio como implausible en un pueblo tan articulado, con lo que refuerza la datación tardía

«Then, suddenly, there is a burst of talk about the wonder fungus, but only talk. People busy themselves looking for it, especially in the mountains, but no one finds it.» — Wasson describe el estallido de habla sobre el hongo prodigioso que solo es habla, con la busca en las montañas sin hallazgo

«The great historian Ssu-ma Ch’ien (B. C. 145-787) is the source of most of our reliable information on this. There are many passages in his account of Shih-huang’s reign telling of talks between the Emperor and his necromancers: a magical herb (‘chih’) existed, but where was it? Everyone was searching but it was nowhere to be found.» — Wasson declara a Ssu-ma Ch'ien su fuente principal y resume los diálogos del emperador con sus nigromantes sobre la hierba mágica

«Emperor was advised to go into the mountains alone, and in disguise, obscurely, on tip-toe, and perhaps he might surprise it!» — cierre de la frase anterior: al emperador se le aconseja ir solo y disfrazado a la montaña por si sorprende a la planta; la frase arranca cuatro planas antes, cruzando dos láminas

«We your humble servants are trying to find chih.:It is one of the miraculous medicines that even the gods cannot come upon easily.’» — parlamento del sabio Lu-shéng ante el emperador en la versión que reproduce el volumen: la medicina milagrosa que ni los dioses hallan con facilidad

«The Emperor has been told of a marvelous plant and, asking his necromancers to find it, gets only evasive answers.» — Wasson describe la situación del emperador ante sus nigromantes, que solo dan respuestas evasivas

«They believe (or pretend to believe) the reports of its properties, but have no idea what to look for.» — Wasson deja en la frase la doble posibilidad sobre los nigromantes, que crean o finjan creer los informes, y sostiene que no sabían qué buscar

«Addressing the “master of humanity’, who clearly believed the reports, they do not dare confess their ignorance by telling the truth.» — Wasson explica el silencio de los nigromantes por el temor a confesar su ignorancia ante un emperador que creía los informes

«Or again we read that Shih-huang sends vessels into the Eastern Sea to seek the mysterious fungus on islands off the coast and far away.» — Wasson consigna los navíos enviados al mar Oriental a buscar el hongo en las islas

«One sage (or necromancer, or shaman), Hsii Fu, seems to have rallied hundreds of youths of both sexes to embark with him and to have sailed away to the Southeast.» — Wasson presenta a Hsü Fu con las tres denominaciones posibles y resume la partida de los centenares de jóvenes; el troceo imprime Hsii

«According to one account, they never returned, but Ssu-ma Ch’ien tells us that Hsii Fu came back and reported falsely about as follows:» — Wasson consigna la divergencia entre los relatos del viaje, uno que dice que nunca volvieron y el de Ssu-ma Ch'ien que da a Hsü Fu de vuelta con un informe falso, y no armoniza las dos versiones

«Your humble servants sailed east and southward and reached P’éng-lai [allegedly one of the three godly islands in the Seas}. There your humble servants saw palaces made of chih. There were servants, copper in colour and dragon in appearance.» — informe de Hsü Fu en la versión que reproduce el volumen, con los palacios de chih vistos en P'eng-lai

«The palaces were so bright that they lit up the heavens.*» — cierre del informe de Hsü Fu en la versión del volumen, con los palacios que alumbraban los cielos

«I take it that the reports of Soma had reached the Emperor by the sea route: hence the voyages to establish contact with the source of information.» — Wasson enuncia su lectura del episodio, que las noticias del Soma habían llegado al emperador por vía marítima, y la marca como interpretación suya

«I take it that the reports placed Soma high in the mountains: hence the futile excursions into the mountains to find the plant.» — Wasson deriva de esas noticias las excursiones inútiles a la montaña, con el mismo verbo de opinión delante

«In any case in China the conception of the miraculous chih probably does not antedate the 3rd century B.C.» — Wasson fecha en no antes del siglo tercero antes de Cristo la concepción china del chih milagroso, con el grado puesto en el verbo

«Contemporary with Ssu-ma Ch’ien there was a famous gentleman-in-waiting at court by name Tung-fang Shuo & 7-4, a man renowned for his ready wit.» — Wasson presenta a Tung-fang Shuo, cortesano contemporáneo de Ssu-ma Ch'ien célebre por su ingenio

«In the Taoist canon there survives a work attributed to him, the Shih chou chi + 3{ 4z,, ‘Notes on Ten Continents’, that gives another account of the voyage of Hsii Fu.» — Wasson localiza en el canon taoísta el Shih chou chi atribuido a Tung-fang Shuo, con otra versión del viaje de Hsü Fu

«Scholars say that the attribution to Tung-fang Shuo is certainly spurious, and that the Shih chou chi could not have been written before the 4th or 5th centuries and probably several centuries later.» — Wasson recoge de los estudiosos que la atribución es espuria y que el texto no puede ser anterior a los siglos cuarto o quinto y probablemente es bastante posterior

«In short it is a product of the second half of the first millennium, therefore contemporaneous sensu lato with Bursoé’s journey and with the Padma Piirana from which we have already quoted.» — Wasson sitúa ese texto en la segunda mitad del primer milenio y lo declara contemporáneo en sentido amplio del viaje de Burso y del Padma Purana

«In the following excerpt taken from the Shih chou chit we have underlined phrases that will strike a familiar chord:» — Wasson advierte que subraya en el pasaje chino las frases que harán resonar una cuerda conocida

«The isle of Tsu is situated close by, in the Eastern Sea. There grows a never-dying plant, shaped like water-grass, with blades three to four ch’ih [feet] in length.» — pasaje del Shih chou chi en la traducción de De Groot que el volumen reproduce con enmiendas declaradas, sobre la planta que no muere de la isla de Tsu

«A man who has been dead three days revives immediately when this plant is laid on him.» — pasaje del Shih chou chi en la versión del volumen: un muerto de tres días revive de inmediato cuando se le pone encima la planta

«In the time of Shih-huang-ti of the Ch’in dynasty, when murdered people lay broadcast in the ‘great preserve’ and across the roads, birds resembling crows or ravens appeared with this plant in their bills, and placed it on the faces of those corpses, with the effect that they sat up immediately, and revived.» — pasaje del Shih chou chi en la versión del volumen, con los cuervos que traían la planta en el pico y la ponían en la cara de los cadáveres

«‘This herb [ts’ao]’, thus spoke the sage, “is the herb of immortality of the Tsu island in the Eastern Ocean,» — parlamento del médico del Valle de los Espectros en el Shih chou chi según la versión del volumen, que identifica la hierba como la de la inmortalidad de la isla de Tsu

«where it grows in a red marble field. Some call it chih 2 which feeds the shén #@ [spirit]. Its leaves grow luxuriantly, and one stalk suffices to give life to a man.’» — cierre del parlamento del sabio en el Shih chou chi según la versión del volumen, con el campo de mármol rojo y el tallo único que basta para dar vida

«On these words Shih-huang-ti with enthusiasm spoke: ‘Can it be fetched from there?’ And he sent an envoy to the island, one Hsii Fu, with five hundred young people of both sexes, in command of a ship with decks. They put to sea to seek the island but they never came back.» — cierre del pasaje del Shih chou chi en la versión del volumen, con el envío de Hsü Fu y quinientos jóvenes que no regresaron

«Here then we have three tales that intermesh in an odd manner. The Iranian version conveys a clear echo of the Soma of the RgVeda.» — Wasson enlaza los tres relatos, el iranio, el indio y el chino, y adjudica al primero un eco claro del Soma

«There has been added to the marvelous herb one fabulous property: it revives the dead.» — Wasson señala la propiedad fabulosa añadida a la hierba maravillosa en esos relatos, que resucita a los muertos

«In the Indian tale an herb with the identical miraculous virtue grows on Mount Drona, the name of this mountain echoing the word in the RgVeda that designates the receptacle for the juice of Soma.» — Wasson enlaza el relato indio con el védico por el nombre del monte Drona, que hace eco al término del RgVeda para el recipiente del jugo del Soma

«In the late Chinese revision of the Hsii Fu tale the same fabulous virtue is attributed to an herb: it makes the dead to rise.» — Wasson encuentra en la versión china tardía la misma virtud fabulosa atribuida a una hierba

«This tale is a variant of one told by Ssu-ma Chien perhaps six or seven hundred years earlier about the First Emperor, Shih-huang, and a fungus or mushroom with miraculous properties.» — Wasson data la variante seis o siete siglos después del relato de Ssu-ma Ch'ien sobre el Primer Emperador y el hongo milagroso

«Here is an example of idea diffusion, and the idea, I believe, had its source in the Soma of the RgVeda.» — Wasson declara el caso ejemplo de difusión de idea y adjudica su fuente al Soma del RgVeda, con el grado puesto en el creo

«The marvelous fungus of the Chinese, first appearing in the reign of Shih Huang-ti, must today be viewed in the light of Sino-Indian contacts and the evidence that Soma was a mushroom.» — Wasson pide leer el hongo maravilloso chino a la luz de los contactos sinoindios y de la evidencia de que el Soma era un hongo

«The next chapter in the history of the ling chih takes place in B.C. 109, a century after the time of the Emperor Shih-huang. The Han Dynasty (B.C. 206- A.D. 220) now rules China and Wu-ti occupies the throne.» — Wasson data en el 109 antes de Cristo el capítulo siguiente de la historia del ling chih, bajo el emperador Wu de los Han

«The sources for our information about the episode that I am going to relate are the same Ssu-ma Ch’ien whom we have already quoted and who was contemporary with the later event, and Pan Ku (A. D. 32-92), the chronicler of the Han Dynasty and also a reliable historian.» — Wasson declara sus dos fuentes para el episodio, Ssu-ma Ch'ien y Pan Ku, y las califica de fiables

«In the imperial Kan-ch’tian palace building operations had been under way in the first half of the year. Then, in late summer (probably August), in an inner pavilion of the palace, there appeared a fungal plant, a marvelous growth with nine paired ‘leaves’.» — Wasson relata la aparición de la planta fúngica de nueve hojas pareadas en un pabellón interior del palacio imperial

«He issued an edict and exclaimed that even the inner chambers of the palace were not discriminated against.» — Wasson resume el edicto imperial, que proclamaba que ni las cámaras interiores del palacio quedaban discriminadas

«He proclaimed an amnesty of prisoners, served beef and wine to a hundred families, and composed an ode for the occasion, the earliest poem about a mushroom (but far from the last and far from the best) that comes down to us in Chinese history.» — Wasson enumera los actos con que el emperador celebró el hallazgo y declara la oda el poema más antiguo sobre un hongo que conserva la historia china, con la reserva puesta entre paréntesis

«My secluded dwelling produces an herb, t. oe &. # Nine stems with twin leaves! = SER The palace pages busy themselves with ee ES this miracle; j KG BE They lay out pictures and consult records! ie y Gat The essence of the Mysterious Breath, There it is, returned again to this BIA residence, ge Ls) RK Day after day this superb growth, Ba RE # This chih, which unfolds its beauties most marvelously» — oda del emperador Wu en la versión que reproduce el volumen desde Pan Ku, con el herbario de nueve tallos y hojas gemelas y el aliento misterioso

«Under the Emperor Wu taxes were levied harshly to meet his needs and grumbling was widespread.» — Wasson sitúa el contexto político del episodio, con impuestos duros y descontento extendido

«He was hardly popular and perhaps he seized on the unusual appearance of a fungal growth inside the palace chambers as a public relations ploy» — Wasson conjetura que el emperador aprovechara la aparición del hongo como maniobra de imagen, y lo dice con el grado puesto en el quizá

«The episode is known to this day by everyone familiar with Chinese history, somewhat like the vase of Clovis in French history and King Alfred and the pancakes in English history.» — Wasson mide la fama del episodio en China con dos paralelos, el vaso de Clovis en Francia y el rey Alfredo y los panes en Inglaterra

«The ode is No. 13 in the nineteen ritual odes that were sung to music on the seasonal occasions of the Chinese year.» — Wasson localiza la oda entre las diecinueve odas rituales que se cantaban en las ocasiones estacionales del año chino

«At last the unidentified chih of Shih-huang-ti had found an identity, an identity that it has retained to this day.» — Wasson fija en ese episodio el momento en que el chih sin identificar adquirió la identidad que conserva

«I think it is safe to assume that the plant found growing in the imperial palace in B.C. 109 was Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss.) Karst.» — Wasson identifica como Ganoderma lucidum la planta hallada en el palacio en el 109 antes de Cristo, con el grado puesto en el creo seguro suponer

«The definitive scientific identification of the fungus pictured in Chinese paintings since the Yiian Dynasty was made by two Japanese mycologists, by Iwao Hino in May 1937 and by Rokuya Imazeki in 1934 and 1939.» — Wasson acredita a los micólogos japoneses Iwao Hino y Rokuya Imazeki la identificación científica del hongo representado en la pintura china desde la dinastía Yuan

«Later in the story the Rajah is identified as having his capital at Kanauj, the» — Wasson localiza la capital del rajá en Kanauj, dato que añade entre corchetes al resumen; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«meager ruins of which still exist in Uttar Pradesh, fifty miles from Kanpur, on the Ganges far south of the Himalayas.» — cierre del corchete anterior, con las ruinas de Kanauj en Uttar Pradesh y su distancia del Himalaya; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«other receptacle for Soma, the mountain out of which the marvelous herb grew.» — Wasson lee el traslado del término drona del recipiente a la montaña de donde brota la hierba; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«The first reports about Soma probably reached China in the reign of» — Wasson data hacia el reinado de Shih-huang-ti la llegada de las primeras noticias del Soma a China; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«The Emperor Wu made the most of the event. He identified the plant» — Wasson describe el aprovechamiento del suceso por el emperador Wu; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana, donde sigue la frase

«with the famous chih that Shih-huang and his necromancers could not locate.» — cierre de la frase anterior: el emperador Wu identificó la planta con el chih que Shih-huang y sus nigromantes no habían logrado hallar

«Naturally this fungus had nothing to do with its Indian precursor, which Shih-huang had never» — Wasson separa el hongo chino identificado de su precursor indio; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«Ganoderma lucidum is a woody fungus, therefore inedible, that grows widely in the temperate zone.» — Wasson describe el Ganoderma lucidum como hongo leñoso y por tanto incomible, extendido por la zona templada

«We see it in Europe and America, but we have never made anything of it.» — Wasson consigna que en Europa y América el mismo hongo nunca dio lugar a nada

«In appearance it can be of stunning beauty, with its rich lacquer-like finish, the concentric lines of its strange pileus, its odd stem.» — Wasson describe la belleza del hongo, con su acabado como de laca y las líneas concéntricas del sombrero

«Those unversed in these matters often refuse to believe that the high polish of this mushroom has not been artificially applied.» — Wasson consigna la incredulidad de los legos ante el pulido del hongo, que no creen natural

«There is the normal form, and there is the endless variety of other shapes and consistencies that it assumes when it grows under abnormal conditions, as for example in the dark.» — Wasson declara protea la virtud peculiar del hongo, con una forma normal y una variedad interminable cuando crece en condiciones anómalas como la oscuridad

«The cap (or ‘pileus’) is always attached to the stem (or ‘stipe’) eccentrically, and it can give rise to the ‘paired leaves’ of Wu-ti, as we show in Plates x1v and xv.» — Wasson explica la inserción excéntrica del sombrero sobre el pie y la deriva de ahí la posibilidad de las hojas gemelas de la oda de Wu-ti

«In classic Chinese the pileus of a mushroom was a ‘leaf’ and in Japanese this use of ‘leaf’ has survived down to our own day. The Chinese character is -£, in Chinese reading yeh, Japanese ha.» — Wasson acota que en chino clásico el sombrero del hongo era una hoja y que el uso sobrevive en japonés, con el carácter y sus dos lecturas

«We know that there had been building operations going forward in the Imperial Palace earlier in the year.» — Wasson recuerda las obras en el palacio imperial de ese año como dato del caso

«This is precisely the condition that might produce an abnormal chih inside the new structure: the wood was not seasoned and the growth made its appearance in the obscurity of the secluded chambers.» — Wasson enlaza las obras con la aparición del hongo anómalo, por la madera sin curar y la oscuridad de las cámaras retiradas

«The nine “double-leaves’ would be a rare curiosity, but it is certainly not at all unbelievable.» — Wasson declara las nueve hojas dobles rareza curiosa y a la vez nada increíble

«Pan Ku, the chronicler of the Han Emperors, composed a second ode to the ling chih, more than a century after the Emperor Wu’s.» — Wasson data más de un siglo después de la oda de Wu-ti la segunda oda al ling chih compuesta por Pan Ku

«The attentive reader will have noted that until now we have never quoted an ancient source for the name ling chih.» — Wasson hace notar al lector que hasta ahí no se ha citado fuente antigua alguna para el nombre ling chih

«Everyone has used either chih alone, or ts’ao chih Bs, ‘plant chih’, or chih ts’ao # ®, ‘chih plant’.» — Wasson inventaría las formas antiguas del término, chih solo, ts'ao chih y chih ts'ao, con sus caracteres

«Ling has a long and complicated history in Chinese. To start with, it is made up by the combination of three characters — ,49, ‘rain’; wee (three mouths) ‘praying for’; and #., ‘shaman’.» — Wasson descompone el carácter ling en sus tres elementos, lluvia, tres bocas que oran y chamán; el troceo devuelve corrompidos los caracteres chinos

«Combined in a single character, they mean spiritual potency, a stirring of the soul.» — Wasson glosa el sentido del carácter compuesto, potencia espiritual y conmoción del alma

«Ling chih grows with the settling dew, Re 2 JED BR al The sign of the three virtues, happy omen’s picture fulfilled. 3b For 7rA DKA It prolongs lives and glorifies the capital. @, Ka b It accompanies the Emperor on high, a ® NS Image of the Sky! RR Hl A 2X Hw HF Image of the sun and the moon, it throws out bursts of light!» — oda de Pan Ku al ling chih en la versión que reproduce el volumen, con el rocío que lo hace crecer y la imagen del cielo y de los astros

«The three Virtues of the Universe are the Heavens, the Earth, and Man. The pictures of happy omens were mythical documents from heaven depicting auspicious marvels such as the unicorn, the phoenix, the dragon, and the ling chih.» — Wasson glosa las tres virtudes de la oda y describe las pinturas de buen augurio como documentos míticos del cielo con el unicornio, el fénix, el dragón y el ling chih

«Was not Pan Ku’s ode intended to be used as an alternative to Wu-ti’s in the liturgical year?» — Wasson deja en forma de pregunta el uso litúrgico alternativo de la oda de Pan Ku

«Lately the art historians have provided us with an unexpected development in the history of ling chih.» — Wasson anuncia la aportación inesperada de los historiadores del arte a la historia del ling chih

«A Russian archzological expedition in 1924-5 unearthed some remarkable artefacts in tombs at Noin Ula in what is now Mongolia. They date from the first century A.D., perhaps the early part of the century.» — Wasson data en 1924 y 1925 la expedición rusa que desenterró los objetos de Noin Ula, en la actual Mongolia, y los fecha en el siglo primero

«It consists of two rocky crags, a bird perched on each of the crags leaning down and outward, a graceful tree between the crags, and outside the crags, a plant with nine stalks terminating in what Michael Sullivan calls a ‘poached-egg’ design.» — Wasson describe el motivo repetido del textil de Noin Ula, con los dos riscos, las aves inclinadas, el árbol y la planta de nueve tallos que Sullivan llama diseño de huevo escalfado

«Perceval Yetts in his description of this textile refers to the plant as a ‘clumsy fungoid form’. Sullivan has identified it with ling chih.» — Wasson enfrenta las dos lecturas del motivo, la forma fungoide torpe de Perceval Yetts y la identificación de Sullivan con el ling chih, y no arbitra

«Here is independent support for my thesis of an Indian origin for the ling chih notion.» — Wasson lee esa propuesta de Sullivan como apoyo independiente de su propia tesis del origen indio del ling chih

«I suggest that the fungal form was the artist’s effort to embody the Emperor Wu’s chih with nine twin-leaves, his knowledge of it being only literary.» — Wasson propone que la forma fúngica del textil sea el intento del artista de figurar el chih de nueve hojas gemelas de Wu-ti a partir de un conocimiento solo literario

«And if India inspired the crags, perhaps the birds reaching down to the fungoid forms re-enact the familiar Indian legend of the rape of Soma by a falcon from a celestial mountain top.» — Wasson conjetura que las aves que se inclinan hacia las formas fungoides reactúen la leyenda india del rapto del Soma por un halcón desde la cumbre celeste

«If I am right, we see the genesis of the ling chih in the reign of Shih Huang-ti, when on the strength of verbal reports from India about a miraculous mushroom he sent his necromancers looking for it here there and everywhere in the mountains.» — Wasson resume la génesis del ling chih que su tesis propone, con la condición puesta delante, si tiene razón, y los informes verbales llegados de la India

«We see Wu-ti fixing the identity of this elusive mushroom on Ganoderma lucidum thanks to its fortuitous appearance in an inner chamber of his palace — a changeling that he was successful in foisting on the Chinese people.» — Wasson describe la fijación de la identidad del hongo por Wu-ti sobre el Ganoderma lucidum y la llama un cambiazo que logró colar al pueblo chino

«We see artists in the later Han, obviously unfamiliar with the fungus itself, depicting from verbal reports a fungus every whit as fabulous as the phoenix, the dragon, and the unicorn.» — Wasson describe a los artistas del Han tardío figurando de oídas un hongo tan fabuloso como el fénix, el dragón y el unicornio

«If I failed to make good my case for the fly-agaric as Soma, the argument in this chapter has no base.» — Wasson declara que todo el capítulo se queda sin base si falla su caso del agárico como Soma, condición que la ficha conserva

«If Soma was the fly-agaric, then I submit the probabilities favour Soma as the inspiration for the Chinese idea of a divine mushroom of immortality.» — Wasson somete la probabilidad de que el Soma inspirara la idea china del hongo divino de la inmortalidad, con el condicional delante

«That the idea lived on in Iran and India well into the first millennium of our era is certain:» — Wasson declara cierta la pervivencia de la idea en Irán y la India bien entrado el primer milenio y enumera sus testigos, Firdusi, el Mahabharata, los Puranas y Kalidasa

«In these centuries the Chinese picked up the idea but only by hearsay.» — Wasson acota el modo en que los chinos recogieron la idea, solo de oídas

«The strange convolutions of its pileus suggested to the Chinese mind the cumulus where the Immortals dwell, and thus in the course of time there came about an artistic convention by which, in the Yiian Dynasty and later, the painters made the clouds of the Celestial plane and the Herb of Immortality resemble each other to a point where, in extreme cases, it is hard to tell them apart.» — Wasson enlaza las convoluciones del sombrero del hongo con el cúmulo donde moran los Inmortales y explica por ahí la convención pictórica que vuelve indistinguibles la nube celeste y la hierba de inmortalidad

«We have advanced one step toward a United Field throughout Eurasia for a religious origin underlying the supernatural folklore that centres on an hallucinogenic mushroom. In Part Three we will carry this argument into northern Eurasia.» — Wasson declara el alcance que atribuye a su capítulo, un paso hacia un campo unificado euroasiático para el origen religioso del folclor del hongo alucinógeno

«But meanwhile we invite our readers to divert their attention to Dr. O’Flaherty’s account of the post-Vedic history of the Soma question.» — Wasson remite al lector al ensayo de O'Flaherty sobre la historia post-védica de la cuestión del Soma

«The lesson that one must draw from her narrative about the futility of much scholarship is humbling.» — Wasson califica de humillante la lección que saca del relato de O'Flaherty sobre la futilidad de mucha erudición

«HE history of the search for Soma is, properly, the history of Vedic studies in general, as the Soma sacrifice was the focal point of the Vedic religion.» — Doniger O'Flaherty abre la Parte Dos declarando que la historia de la busca del Soma es propiamente la historia de los estudios védicos, porque el sacrificio era el foco de esa religión; la capitular I se imprime suelta y el troceo devuelve HE por The

«Indeed, if one accepts the point of view that the whole of Indian mystical practice from the Upanisads through the more mechanical methods of yoga is merely an attempt to recapture the vision granted by the Soma plant, then the nature of that vision — and of that plant - underlies the whole of Indian religion, and everything of a mystical nature within that religion is pertinent to the identity of the plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enuncia en condicional la tesis de que toda la práctica mística india desde las Upanisads y el yoga sea un intento de recobrar la visión que daba el Soma, y saca de ahí el alcance del problema; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«I have worked in the Bodleian Library and the Indian Institute at Oxford, the India Office in London, and the British Museum, and of necessity I have omitted the contributions of Indian scholars whose works are not available in those collections.» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara sus bibliotecas de trabajo y el límite que de ahí se sigue, la omisión de los eruditos indios cuyas obras no están en esas colecciones

«Furthermore, I have dealt summarily with the Haoma of the Avesta, since the work done on the botanical identification of Haoma has been subsumed for the most part under the study of Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara haber tratado sumariamente el Haoma del Avesta y da la razón, que su identificación botánica se ha subsumido en la del Soma

«After the era of the Vedas there came a period when the centre of intellectual activity moved from the valley of the Indus to the upper Ganges and the Yamuna. A spate of works, the direct outgrowth of the Vedas and preserving ancient traditions, many of them lengthy, arose as a kind of corpus of ritual textbooks. These are the Brahmanas, prose works dating from about 800 B.C.» — Doniger O'Flaherty sitúa los Brahmanas como corpus de manuales rituales nacidos de los Vedas y los data hacia el 800 antes de Cristo

«Sura is generally believed to have been an alcoholic drink of some sort — wine or rice wine or fermented liquor or beer or even distilled spirits‘ — or else to refer to alcoholic drinks in general.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la opinión corriente sobre la sura como bebida alcohólica o como nombre genérico de las bebidas alcohólicas

«The Brahmanas say clearly that Soma was not stra. The Satapatha Brahmana declares: ‘Soma is truth, prosperity, light; and sird untruth, misery, darkness.» — pasaje del Satapatha Brahmana citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, que opone el Soma como verdad, prosperidad y luz a la sura como mentira, miseria y tiniebla

«Monier-Williams’ dictionary gives ‘distilled liquor’ as a primary meaning of sira, but evidence is strong that the distilling process was not known in India until a much later era.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta en nota la acepción de licor destilado que Monier-Williams da a sura, por la fecha tardía de la destilación en la India

«The Taittirtya Brahmana says, ‘Soma is male and stird is female; the two make a pair.» — pasaje del Taittiriya Brahmana citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, que hace del Soma y de la sura una pareja de macho y hembra; el troceo imprime Taittirtya y stird

«The sharp distinction made by the text seems to rule out the possibility that Soma was simply another kind of alcoholic drink, and it would seem probable that surd embraced all the fermented drinks that rated mention in the RgVeda.» — Doniger O'Flaherty lee esa distinción como exclusión de que el Soma fuera otra bebida alcohólica y propone que sura abarcara todas las fermentadas que el RgVeda menciona

«The Brahmanas are much preoccupied with the question of substitutes for Soma. They are books of ritual composed for the sacerdotal caste, and in places they seem to be deliberately obscure.» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe la preocupación de los Brahmanas por los sustitutos y les atribuye oscuridad deliberada en algunos pasajes

«If the priests knew what Soma was, they never stated it clearly, and their references to the Soma plant are ultimately of little help in establishing its botanical identity.» — Doniger O'Flaherty sostiene que si los sacerdotes sabían qué era el Soma nunca lo dijeron claro, y que sus referencias sirven de poco para la identificación botánica

«It may be assumed that Soma was none of the plants expressly suggested as substitutes for it, though of course it may have resembled any of them in some particular and probably did so.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enuncia el supuesto de que el Soma no era ninguna de las plantas propuestas como sustituto y deja abierto el parecido parcial

«But it is difficult to draw any sure conception from these negative hints, for the substitutes often bear little resemblance to each other, including as they do grasses, flowers, creepers, and even trees.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota el valor de esos indicios negativos por la disparidad de los sustitutos entre sí, que van de hierbas a árboles

«The Satapatha Brahmana sets forth an order in which substitutes should be used.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna el orden de sustitutos que fija el Satapatha Brahmana

«First comes the reddish-brown (arund) phdlguna plant, which may be used because it is similar to Soma (sémasya nyajiga), but the bright red (lohita) phalguna plant must not be used.» — Doniger O'Flaherty detalla la primera opción, la planta phalguna pardo rojiza por su semejanza con el Soma, y la exclusión de la variedad rojo brillante

«If phdlguna is unavailable, then the Syenahrta plant may serve, for there is a tradition that Soma was once carried away by a falcon, and a stalk (am3u) fell from the sky and became the Syenahrta plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty da la segunda opción, la syenahrta, con el mito del halcón que se llevó el Soma y del tallo caído del cielo

«The third choice is the dddra plant, which sprang from the liquor that flowed from the sacrificial animal when it was decapitated.» — Doniger O'Flaherty da la tercera opción, la adara, nacida del licor que manó del animal sacrificial decapitado

«Fourth comes the brown diirva grass, which is similar to Soma, and last choice is yellow kusa grass.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra la serie con la hierba durva parda y la kusa amarilla como última elección

«This being least satisfactory, a cow must be given in atonement.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la expiación que el texto exige por esa última elección, la entrega de una vaca

«The Tandya Brahmana says that the putika is the plant which grew from a leaf (or feather, parna) that fell when Soma was carried through the air, and that it is therefore a suitable substitute.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge del Tandya Brahmana el origen de la putika, nacida de la hoja o pluma caída cuando el Soma fue llevado por el aire

«Yet another etiological myth is used to explain the substitution of the fruit of the nyagrodha (sacred fig or banyan tree): the gods once tilted over their Soma cups, and the nyagrodha tree grew from the spilt drops.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el mito etiológico de la sustitución por el fruto del nyagrodha, nacido de las gotas derramadas de las copas de Soma de los dioses

«Elsewhere it is said that even when Soma is available, one should use the juice of the nyagrodha fruit for non-Brahmans to drink.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la prescripción de dar el jugo del fruto del nyagrodha a los no brahmanes aun cuando haya Soma

«It is probable that this fruit, like the dirvd and kusa grasses, was accepted as a substitute for Soma more by virtue of its own sacred nature than for any resemblance to the Soma plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty propone que ese fruto y las hierbas durva y kusa se aceptaran como sustitutos por su propia sacralidad más que por parecido con el Soma, y lo dice en probabilidad

«Various other substitutes for Soma appear in the Brahmanas: syamaka (cultivated millet, said by the Satapatha Brahmana to be most like Soma of all the plants),* mufija grass (sacred in itself), kattrna (a fragrant grass),> and parna (a sacred tree).» — Doniger O'Flaherty inventaría los demás sustitutos de los Brahmanas, syamaka, munja, kattrna y parna, con la razón de cada uno

«The European lexicographers - Wilson, Roth, Monier-Williams — struggle to identify all these plants in modern botanical terms but often arrive at conflicting conclusions, as do the Br» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe el forcejeo de los lexicógrafos europeos por identificar esas plantas en términos botánicos modernos y sus conclusiones en conflicto; el verbatim se corta antes de la cursiva del título

«The colour red is consistently associated with the Soma substitute.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enuncia el primer hecho que emerge de la literatura brahmánica, la asociación constante del color rojo con el sustituto del Soma

«Red is the colour of the nyagrodha flower; the colour of the phalguna plant;7 the colour of the acceptable dirvd grass;* and even the colour of the cow used in the purchase of Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enumera dónde aparece ese rojo, en la flor del nyagrodha, en la planta phalguna, en la hierba durva y en la vaca de la compra del Soma

«There is a clear distinction between the identity of Soma and the identity of the substitutes.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enuncia el segundo hecho, la distinción clara entre la identidad del Soma y la de los sustitutos

«for the substitutes, the Brdhmanas are the earliest sources of importance, but they contain no passages about the authentic Soma of sure evidential value. They are concerned with the ritual and symbolic nature of the Soma plant, not with its botanical identity.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota el valor documental de los Brahmanas: fuentes tempranas para los sustitutos y sin pasajes de valor probatorio sobre el Soma auténtico, porque su interés es ritual y simbólico

«The writers of the post-Brahmanic period, Sanskrit lexicographers and Vedic commentators, continued to dwell upon a multiplicity of plants that served as Soma, but most of them agreed upon only one thing: that Soma was a creeper (valli or lata).» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe el acuerdo de los lexicógrafos y comentaristas post-brahmánicos en un solo punto, que el Soma era una enredadera

«Yet nowhere in the RgVeda do these terms appear, Soma being there considered an herb (dsadhi) or plant (viridh).» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta que esos términos no aparecen en el RgVeda, donde el Soma es hierba o planta

«Amara Simha, the earliest of the Indian lexicographers (ca. A.D. 450) gives many synonyms for what he calls somavalli, all of which Monier-Williams has the courage to define as Cocculus cordifolius.» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta a Amara Simha y sus sinónimos de somavalli, y califica de valiente la identificación única que les da Monier-Williams

«Amara also describes a plant that he calls somaraji, which Monier-Williams says is Vernonia anthelmintica.t These are distinguished from surd.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la somaraji de Amara y la identificación que le da Monier-Williams, distinguida de la sura

«The later lexicographers generally imitate Amara in their discussions of Soma: Medini refers to an herb, the Soma creeper,? which Yaska had mentioned as an herb that caused exhilaration when pressed and mixed with water» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe la dependencia de los lexicógrafos posteriores respecto de Amara y recoge la hierba que según Yaska producía exaltación al prensarse y mezclarse con agua

«Sayana, the most famous of the Vedic commentators, refers to it as the Soma creeper.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Sayana, el más famoso de los comentaristas védicos, llama enredadera al Soma

«Sabarasvami, another great commentator, also refers to Soma as a creeper, but one that yields milky juice;» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Sabarasvami la enredadera de jugo lechoso

«this was to be retained as an acceptable attribute of Soma from then on through the European discussions, and the belief in the milky sap appears in the Hindu medical works as well.» — Doniger O'Flaherty sigue el atributo lechoso hasta las discusiones europeas y las obras médicas hindúes

«One might expect the early medical treatises to be less fanciful than the Brahmanas, but this is not the case.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que los tratados médicos tempranos no resultan menos fantasiosos que los Brahmanas

«The Dhanvantariyanighantu, a medical work of ca. A.D. 1400, says that the Soma creeper yields the Soma milk and is dear to Brahmans.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data hacia el 1400 el Dhanvantariyanighantu y recoge su enredadera de Soma que da leche de Soma

«The Rdjanighantu describes the properties of Soma: the somavalli has great clusters and is a bow-like creeper, yielding the Soma milk; the somavalli is acrid, pungent, cool, black, sweet, and it serves to dispel biliousness, to quench thirst, to cause wounds to dry up, and to purify.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge del Rajanighantu las propiedades atribuidas a la somavalli, acre, picante, fría, negra y dulce, y sus usos médicos

«A more detailed, but hardly more scientific, description appears in the Susrutasamhitd, a medical text in verse, dating from perhaps the fourth century A.D., which reduces to its ultimate absurdity the passion for symmetry and classification that permeates these writings.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data hacia el siglo cuarto el Susrutasamhita y dice que reduce al absurdo la pasión clasificatoria de esa literatura

«It tells us that although there was originally created one kind of somavalli, it was then divided into twenty-four varieties:» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la división de la somavalli en veinticuatro variedades que hace ese texto médico

«amsuman Soma smells like ghee; mufijara Soma has leaves like those of garlic; garudahrta (= syenahrta) and Svetaksa (‘white-eyes’) are pale, look like cast-off snake-skins, and are found pendant from the boughs of trees» — muestra de esas veinticuatro variedades según el texto médico citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, con el Soma que huele a ghee y los que penden de las ramas como pieles de serpiente

«Unfortunately, the enumeration of these varieties proves of limited value for botanical identification:» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara de valor limitado esa enumeración para la identificación botánica

«one reads that all of them have the same qualities, all are creepers with milky juice, all are used in the same way, and all have fifteen black leaves, which appear one per day during the waxing moon and drop off one per day during the waning moon.» — Doniger O'Flaherty da la razón de ese valor limitado: todas las variedades comparten cualidades y las quince hojas negras que salen y caen con las fases de la luna

«Folk medicine and medical science in India are known collectively as Ayurveda (‘The Sacred Knowledge of Long Life’).» — Doniger O'Flaherty glosa el Ayurveda como el nombre colectivo de la medicina popular y científica de la India

«for the treatment of the rocky crags in either Han China or the Near East, and he suggests a derivation from India, the wall painting in Cave X at Ajanta dating from the first century B.C. showing a similar silhouette.» — Sullivan, citado por Wasson, no halla paralelo para el tratamiento de los riscos en la China Han ni en el Próximo Oriente y propone una derivación india desde la pintura de la cueva X de Ajanta; el troceo intercala aquí el pie de la figura 2 y el verbatim arranca después

«In place of such an all-inclusive study, the present essay attempts to» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota el objeto de su ensayo frente al estudio total que acaba de describir; la frase sigue al abrir el chunk siguiente y el verbatim se corta ahí

«summarize what has been written since Vedic times about the physical nature of the Soma plant and the substitutes for Soma.» — cierre de la frase anterior: el ensayo resume lo escrito desde tiempos védicos sobre la naturaleza física de la planta y sus sustitutos

«whose characteristics are described in the sacred text, then they may use the species of creeper (lata) which is known as putika; if they cannot find putika, then they may use the dark grass (’yamalani trndni) known as arjundni.» — pasaje del comentario de Sayana citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, con la cadena de sustituciones de la putika a la hierba oscura arjunani; la cita arranca en la plana anterior

«This ascription to Soma of a ‘milky’ quality was probably based upon the Vedic statements that Soma was mixed with milk, or that Soma itself became white when mixed with milk» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica en nota el origen probable del atributo lechoso del Soma; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana, donde sigue la nota

«Yet Edward Balfour, in his Cyclopedia of India, published in London in 1885, maintained that the Soma plant itself derived its name from the Sanskrit word for moon» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge en nota la derivación contraria que sostuvo Edward Balfour, que hacía venir el nombre de la planta del sánscrito de luna

«It describes the plant as a black creeper, sour, leafless, yielding milk, having fleshy skin, causing or preventing phlegm, causing vomiting, and eaten by goats.» — descripción ayurvédica del Soma que Max Müller citó en 1855 como la más antigua de tono científico, según la reproduce Doniger O'Flaherty: enredadera negra, agria, sin hojas y que dan de comer a las cabras

«In spite of the admittedly late origin of this description, and in spite of the many equally authoritative descriptions in earlier Sanskrit works which contradict it, it served European scholars as a peg on which to hang their favourite theories.» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica por qué esa descripción tardía sirvió a los europeos de percha para sus teorías favoritas, pese a las descripciones anteriores que la contradicen

«Its sharp detail and ‘scientific’ tone contrasted favourably with such descriptions as that of the Susruta, and it seemed to agree with the descriptions of Soma given to Westerners by Indians of that day.» — Doniger O'Flaherty adjudica el éxito de esa descripción a su detalle nítido y su tono científico y a que coincidía con lo que los indios de entonces contaban a los occidentales

«The earliest non-Indian notices of Soma are in the Avesta, where the plant appears as Haoma, but these references are more obscure than those of the RgVeda;» — Doniger O'Flaherty sitúa en el Avesta las noticias no indias más antiguas del Soma, bajo el nombre de Haoma, y las declara más oscuras que las del RgVeda

«The earlier parts of the Avesta—the Yasts - refer to Haoma as being strained for the sacrifice,” as the only drink which is attended with piety rather than with anger,’ as a tall, golden plant* with golden eyes.» — Doniger O'Flaherty inventaría lo que los Yast dicen del Haoma, colado para el sacrificio, la única bebida que trae piedad y no ira, planta alta y dorada de ojos de oro

«The Yasna seems to distinguish between Haoma and other intoxicating beverages, of which it disapproves, but it has been suggested that Zoroaster hated the Haoma drinkers as well as drinkers in general.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la distinción del Yasna entre el Haoma y las demás bebidas embriagantes y le opone la sugerencia de que Zoroastro odiara también a los bebedores de Haoma

«Beyond this general description, and the evidence that the Soma cult was at least Indo-Iranian rather than simply Indian in its origin, the Avesta sheds little light on the Soma problem.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota lo que el Avesta aporta al problema, poco más que el indicio de que el culto era indoiranio y no solo indio

«Megasthenes said of the Indians, “They never drink wine except at sacrifices,’ distinguishing this sacrificial wine from their ordinary liquor — probably surd — which he describes as “composed of rice instead of barley.’?» — Megástenes, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, consigna que los indios solo bebían vino en los sacrificios y distingue ese vino del licor ordinario hecho de arroz

«McCrindle suggests that this “wine was probably Soma juice,’ and as the passage is certainly pre-Tantric it must in fact refer to Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la conjetura de McCrindle de que ese vino fuera jugo de Soma y la refuerza por la fecha pre-tántrica del pasaje

«Thus Megasthenes - misled no doubt by the similar rites among his own people - must be held responsible for the origination of a misconception that continues to plague Vedic studies to the present day.» — Doniger O'Flaherty adjudica a Megástenes el origen de un malentendido que a su juicio sigue estorbando los estudios védicos, y lo explica por el paralelo con los ritos griegos

«Plutarch speaks of a plant that the Iranians dedicated to a religious use:» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta el pasaje de Plutarco sobre una planta que los iranios dedicaban a un uso religioso

«For pounding in a mortar an herb called én. they invoke Hades and darkness; then having mingled it with the blood of a slaughtered wolf, they bear it forth into a sunless place and cast it away.» — pasaje de Plutarco en la versión que reproduce el volumen, con la hierba machacada en mortero, la invocación a Hades y la sangre de lobo

«Bernadakis conjectured that this dmpt was the same as the p@Av of the Odyssey x 305, a fabulous herb probably cognate with the Sanskrit miila (root);» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la conjetura de Bernadakis que identificaba esa hierba con el moly de la Odisea, emparentado quizá con el sánscrito de raíz

«Orientalists of note, including Paul Anton de Lagarde,? have suggested that éympt was none other than the Haoma of the Iranians, the Soma of the Indians.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que orientalistas de nota, entre ellos Lagarde, propusieron que esa hierba fuera el Haoma iranio y el Soma indio

«We must beware of correcting the text on this point, as the majority of editors have done following P. de Lagarde.» — Benveniste, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, advierte contra la enmienda del texto que hizo la mayoría de los editores siguiendo a Lagarde

«The substitution of the plant wadv for the enigmatic due: is the device of harassed interpreters and is no better than the explanation of duet by hauma; the first is arbitrary, and the second absurd...» — Benveniste, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, llama recurso de intérpretes apurados a la sustitución de la hierba y califica de arbitraria la primera explicación y de absurda la segunda

«6uopy is another name of amomum which is used in the cult of Ahriman as hauma is sacred to the cult of Ohrmazd.*» — Benveniste, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, propone en cambio que el término sea otro nombre del amomo, usado en el culto de Ahriman como el hauma lo es en el de Ohrmazd

«In 1771 A. H. Anguetil-Duperron brought out the first translation of the Avesta, after having spent some years in India in association with the Parsis.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1771 la primera traducción del Avesta por Anquetil-Duperron, hecha tras años en la India con los parsis; el troceo imprime Anguetil

«For the Haoma plant, he observed, the Parsis used a tree (arbre) which, they said, grew in Persia but not in India and resembled a vine but never bore any fruit.» — Anquetil-Duperron, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, reporta que los parsis usaban como Haoma un árbol que decían crecido en Persia y no en la India, parecido a una vid y sin fruto

«Anquetil-Duperron thought the plant resembled a kind of heather (bruyére), with knots very close together and leaves like those of jasmine.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la descripción que Anquetil-Duperron hace de la planta, parecida al brezo, de nudos juntos y hojas de jazmín

«All these details lead me to believe that the Hom is the &wpo¢g of the Greeks and the amomum of the Romans.”» — conclusión de Anquetil-Duperron en la cita que reproduce el volumen, que identifica el Hom con el amomo de griegos y romanos

«As the Indo-Iranian connection was not yet established, nor the Soma cult itself discovered, this suggestion was not pursued.» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica por qué esa sugerencia no prosperó, porque aún no se había fijado la conexión indoirania ni descubierto el culto del Soma

«Then in 1784 the first translation of a Sanskrit work into English appeared, Charles Wilkins’s rendering of the Bhagavad Gitd.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1784 la primera traducción al inglés de una obra sánscrita, el Bhagavad Gita de Charles Wilkins

«In it he included a note: ‘Sém is the name of a creeper, the juice of which is commanded to be drunk at the conclusion of a sacrifice.’?» — nota de Charles Wilkins citada por Doniger O'Flaherty, que define Som como enredadera cuyo jugo se manda beber al cabo del sacrificio

«This is the earliest published citation of Soma in a European language that I have found.» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara esa nota la cita publicada más antigua del Soma en lengua europea que ha encontrado, con la reserva puesta en la frase

«In his 1794 translation of the laws of Manu, Sir William Jones describes Soma as ‘the moon plant (a species of mountain-rue).» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la definición del Soma que da William Jones en 1794, planta de la luna y especie de ruda de monte

«H. T. Colebrooke then published his translation of the Amarako%a, saying that the somrdj was Vernonia anthelmintica (= Conyza anthelmintica)» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la identificación botánica que Colebrooke da al somraj en su traducción del Amarakosa

«a source of error remains in the inaccuracy of the Commentators themselves... the correspondence of Sanscrit names with the generick and specifick names in Natural History is in many instances doubtful.» — advertencia de Colebrooke citada por Doniger O'Flaherty sobre la inexactitud de los comentaristas y lo dudoso de la correspondencia entre nombres sánscritos y nombres botánicos

«In 1814, William Carey published his Hortus Bengalensis, which was a summary of the manuscript that William Roxburgh was to publish in 1832.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1814 el Hortus Bengalensis de Carey como resumen del manuscrito que Roxburgh publicaría en 1832

«Carey identified Sarcostemma brevistigma (= Asclepias acida, Sarcostemma acidum, Sarcostemma viminale, Cynanchium viminale) as the plant known in Bengali and Sanskrit as somalutd, and also remarked that Ruta graveolens, a rue, bore the same Sanskrit name.”» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la identificación de Carey del Sarcostemma brevistigma con el somaluta y su advertencia de que la ruda llevaba el mismo nombre sánscrito

«He did not link them with the Vedas, but he did take occasion to observe that Himalayan plants do not grow in Bengal, an observation that was ignored by the Vedic scholars who later used Roxburgh’s work to identify Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty subraya que Carey no ligó esas plantas con los Vedas y sí observó que las plantas del Himalaya no crecen en Bengala, observación que los vedistas posteriores ignoraron

«In his 1819 Sanskrit Dictionary, Horace Hayman Wilson identified soma as ‘the moon plant (Asclepias acidum) [= Sarcostemma brevistigma],’ somavalli as ‘a twining plant (Menispermum glabrum) [= Tinospora cordifolia],’ or ‘a medicinal plant (Serratula anthelmintica ) [= Vernonia anthelmintica]’; in the 1832 edition of the dictionary, he added somarajin, which he defined as Serratula anthelmintica, though he still gave this as an alternative for somavalli as well.» — Doniger O'Flaherty inventaría las identificaciones que Horace Hayman Wilson da a soma, somavalli y somarajin en las dos ediciones de su diccionario sánscrito; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Sir Graves Chamney Haughton, in his 1825 edition of Jones’s Ordinances of Manu, had corrected Jones’s ‘mountain rue’ to ‘swallow-wort (Asclepias acidum) [= Sarcostemma brevistigma],’ probably following Carey.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la corrección que Haughton hace en 1825 a la ruda de monte de Jones, probablemente siguiendo a Carey

«Finally, in 1832 William Roxburgh published his Flora Indica; he identified Sarcostemma brevistigma with somalutd in Sanskrit and Bengali, a plant (as he said) of much milky juice of a mild nature and acid taste.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1832 la Flora Indica de Roxburgh y su identificación del Sarcostemma brevistigma con el somaluta, planta de jugo lechoso suave y sabor ácido

«This is hardly the description of a plant that induces religious ecstasy, but Roxburgh identifies it with som mentioned by Wilkins as the sacrificial plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta que esa no es descripción de una planta que produzca éxtasis religioso y señala aun así la identificación de Roxburgh con el som de Wilkins

«From these beginnings down to our own time Soma has been identified with various species of Sarcostemma (= Asclepiads, related to the American milkweeds), of Ephedra, of Periploca, all of them leafless climbers superficially resembling each other, yet belonging to genera botanically far apart.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el destino de la cuestión desde esos comienzos, con tres géneros de trepadoras sin hojas parecidas por fuera y lejanas botánicamente

«Botanists in India would gather specimens, identify them with scientific names, and add the vernacular names that local helpers would give them, such as somalut» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe el procedimiento que producía esas identificaciones, con los nombres vernáculos aportados por ayudantes locales

«Linguists and serious travellers would occasionally bring back plant names picked up in the various languages spoken from India to Iran that seemed to stem back to Soma or Haoma-e.g., hum, huma, yehma; um, uma; um, umbur? — and, linking them to the plant to which they belonged, present to the world another candidate for Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe la otra vía de candidaturas, los nombres recogidos de India a Irán que parecían remontar a Soma o Haoma

«Most of these plants were or had been at some time used as substitutes for Soma or Haoma: to be eligible, plants had to meet certain requirements, which may have changed from area to area and from century to century.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota que la mayoría de esas plantas habían servido de sustituto y que los requisitos pudieron cambiar por zona y por siglo

«R. G. Wasson’s Brahman informants said to him that the substitute ‘Somas’ had to be small, leafless, and with fleshy stems, attributes that are common in varying degrees to the three genera listed above and to the traditional descriptions in the Brahmanas and medical texts.» — Doniger O'Flaherty remite a los informantes brahmanes de Wasson para los tres requisitos del sustituto y los enlaza con los Brahmanas y los textos médicos; es el sitio donde la Parte Dos cita por nombre al autor de la Parte Uno

«For the next fifty years, Sanskritists and botanists alike merely elaborated upon Roxburgh’s identification.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el medio siglo siguiente como elaboración de la identificación de Roxburgh

«John Stevenson, in his translation of the Sdma Veda, says that Soma is “Sarcostemma viminale,’ ‘the moon-plant’ and describes in some detail the method of its use, observing that according to the commentator it is pressed and mixed with barley and allowed to stand for nine days, ‘but how many days precede [the ceremony] and how many follow, I do not know... the Soma, when properly prepared, is a powerful spirit . . .» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de John Stevenson, traductor del Sama Veda, la identificación del Soma y el método de preparación con cebada y nueve días de reposo, con la ignorancia que él mismo declara sobre el calendario del rito; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Vedic studies had now begun to assume considerable importance in Europe.» — Doniger O'Flaherty marca el punto en que los estudios védicos empiezan a pesar en Europa

«In 1844, Eugene Burnout published the first of a series of articles on Haoma, wherein he said that the Haoma juice, obtained by trituration, was the same as the Soma of the Vedic sacrifice, but he did not venture a botanical identification.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1844 los artículos de Eugène Burnouf sobre el Haoma, que lo identificó con el Soma védico sin aventurar identificación botánica; el troceo imprime Burnout

«In 1845, J. O. Voigt published his Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis, a catalogue of the plants in the H. E.L. C. Botanical garden. Once again soma-rdj is Vernonia anthelmintica and shom-luta is Sarcostemma brevistigma; Voigt also mentions that farmers use the Sarcostemma brevistigma to rid their fields of white ants.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1845 el catálogo de Voigt y recoge su dato sobre el uso del Sarcostemma contra las hormigas blancas

«He draws attention to the use of the Asclepiads in general as emetics and to their acrid and bitter milk, and points out that in the West Indies they are a popular remedy for worms in children, given in doses of a teaspoon to a tablespoon.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Voigt el uso de las asclepiadáceas como eméticos y como remedio antihelmíntico infantil en las Antillas

«Friedrich Windischmann thought that the Soma plant might be Sarcostemma brevistigma, but he doubted that the Indian Soma was the same as the Haoma of the Persians, as the plant might have changed with the change in location.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Windischmann la identificación tentativa con el Sarcostemma y su duda de que el Soma indio fuera el Haoma persa, por el cambio de sitio

«Yet he considered that the Avesta preserved the tradition of Soma and the sacrifice better than the RgVeda did, and he called attention to the Persian belief (remarked long ago by Anquetil-Duperron) that Soma did not grow in India.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Windischmann tenía al Avesta por mejor conservador de la tradición del Soma que el propio RgVeda y recogía la creencia persa de que el Soma no crecía en la India

«a certain herb, the Asclepias acida [ = Sarcostemma brevistigma], which grows abundantly upon the mountains of India and Persia . . . which, when fermented, possesses intoxicating qualities. In this circumstance, it is believed, lies the explanation of the whole matter. The simple-minded Arian [sic] people... had no sooner perceived that this liquid had power to... produce a temporary frenzy... than they found in it something divine» — pasaje de William Dwight Whitney citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, que explica la divinización del Soma por su embriaguez tras la fermentación; el volumen conserva el sic del original

«Otto Bohtlingk and Rudolph von Roth accepted only tentatively Sarcostemma brevistigma as Soma, and perspicaciously added that it seemed to grow farther south than the Vedas indicate.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la aceptación tentativa de Böhtlingk y Roth y su observación perspicaz de que la planta crece más al sur de lo que los Vedas indican

«Friedrich Max Miiller in 1855 published an important article in which he quoted Dhirtasvami’s description of Somat and said that this seemed to agree most strikingly with the accepted botanical descriptions of various Sarcostemmas. But he doubted whether the Vedic Soma would be found growing in Bombay (where the Sarcostemmas are found) rather than in the mountains of the North.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1855 el artículo de Max Müller que citó la descripción ayurvédica y recoge su duda de que el Soma védico creciera en Bombay y no en las montañas del norte; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Moreover, he asked, why would the Indians of the era of the Brahmanas use putika as a substitute for Soma if they could find ‘Soma’ itself - ie., Sarcostemma spp. - right in Bombay?» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la segunda objeción de Max Müller, por qué usar la putika como sustituto si el Soma mismo crecía en Bombay

«For thirty years no notice was taken of this Ayurvedic source, nor of Max Miiller’s doubts.» — Doniger O'Flaherty mide en treinta años el olvido de esa fuente y de esas dudas

«Martin Haug believed that the Persians had probably replaced the original Haoma with something else, retaining the name» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Martin Haug la tesis de que los persas sustituyeron el Haoma original conservando el nombre

«and he thought that the present-day Soma of the Indians was in fact a substitute, but that the substitute retained in a measure the qualities of the true Vedic plant, with no leaves and a bitter white sap: ‘It is a very nasty drink, but has some intoxicating effect,’ he wrote, having tasted it several times but being unable to take more than a few teaspoonfuls.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Haug el juicio de que el Soma indio de su tiempo era sustituto y aun así conservaba algo de la planta védica, y su propio testimonio de haberlo probado varias veces sin poder pasar de unas cucharaditas

«Sir George Christopher Birdwood, in his Catalogue of the Vegetable Productions of the Presidency of Bombay, including a list of the drugs sold in the bazaars of Western India, included Sarcostemma brevistigma under ‘drugs’, identifying it as the somalutd of the Vedas, a ‘fermented liquor... mixed with barley and ghee... This wine was drunk at all their religious ceremonies and was used as an intoxicant by the rishis... Water passed through a bundle of somalutd and a bag of salt will extirpate white ants from a field watered with it.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la entrada de Birdwood, que mete el Sarcostemma entre las drogas del bazar y lo identifica con el somaluta védico, licor fermentado con cebada y ghee

«Birdwood identified Sarcostemma brevistigma with S. acida and expressed the view that ‘the Som of the Vedas and the Hom of the Zend Avesta’ were perhaps ‘the real plant... present to the mind of the writer... of the first chapters of Genesis,’ — an original contribution to the debate, and one of the few that is not echoed by anyone.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la propuesta de Birdwood de que el Som védico y el Hom avéstico fueran la planta que tenía en mente el autor de los primeros capítulos del Génesis, y la califica de aportación original que nadie repitió

«In this year, Eugéne Burnouf published his Sanskrit dictionary, wherein he described Soma as the juice of Sarcostemma brevistigma; the following year, J. Forbes Watson described the Soma plant as Sarcostemma brevistigma; the somalata (Telegu) as the same species; and the somalutd (Sanskrit) as Ruta graveolens.» — Doniger O'Flaherty encadena las identificaciones de Burnouf y de Forbes Watson, con el somaluta sánscrito llevado a la ruda

«Paul Anton de Lagarde (Paul Anton Boetticher) maintained that époput was another word for pa@dAv or tyyavov, the mountain rue, and that it was a substitute used by the Greeks when they no longer had the hom itself, the original sacred plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Paul Anton de Lagarde la tesis de que el término griego designaba la ruda de monte y era sustituto usado por los griegos cuando ya no tenían el hom

«Lagarde maintained that the description of the harmal (= haoma = Gpotut = p@Av) given by Arabian botanists described the plant precisely: a shrub with leaves like those of a willow and flowers like those of jasmine, with an intoxicating and soporific effect.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Lagarde la descripción del harmal por los botánicos árabes, arbusto de hojas de sauce y flores de jazmín con efecto embriagante y soporífero

«He added that Soma and Haoma were not the same plant, though they had the same name and use» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Lagarde separaba el Soma del Haoma pese al nombre y al uso compartidos

«he linked the Soma of the RgVeda to rue by means of the Vedic epithet sahdsrapdjas, ‘possessing a thousand pdjas,’ which he related to the Greek term for rue» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe el puente etimológico con que Lagarde ligó el Soma a la ruda, por el epíteto védico de los mil pajas

«But no matter how many botanists and scholars accepted the Sarcostemma thesis, there were always reservations held in some quarters.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que la tesis del Sarcostemma nunca dejó de tener reservas en algunos sectores

«In 1871 John Garrett declared flatly that ‘the Soma of the Vedas is no longer known» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1871 la declaración tajante de John Garrett de que el Soma de los Vedas ya no se conoce en la India

«J. D. Hooker elaborated upon his earlier identification of Soma with Sarcostemma brunonianum by observing that this plant abounded in an acid milky juice and was ‘hence eaten by the natives as salad, and sucked by travellers to allay thirst, thus forming a remarkable exception to the usually poisonous nature of the Asclepia» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Hooker la elaboración de su identificación con el Sarcostemma brunonianum y sus propiedades, con la excepción que él le adjudica frente a los jugos venenosos de las asclepiadáceas; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«Drury suggested that the ‘moon creeper’ might be Calonyction muricatum (Ipomeea muricata), a plant whose swollen pedicels are cooked as vegetables and whose seeds are used as purgatives.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la propuesta de Drury de que la enredadera de la luna fuera una Calonyction, cuyos pedicelos se cocinan y cuyas semillas sirven de purgante

«Hermann Grassmann, whose Vedic dictionary is the standard work to this day, accepted the general view that Soma was a Sarcostemma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Grassmann, cuyo diccionario védico sigue siendo el estándar, aceptó la identificación corriente con el Sarcostemma

«In 1873 Rajendra Lala Mitra revived the case for Soma as an alcoholic beverage.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1873 la reactivación de la tesis alcohólica por Rajendra Lala Mitra

«The original Indo-Aryans drank ‘soma-beer and strong spirits,’ which, when they moved to the hot climate of India, tended to» — Doniger O'Flaherty reproduce la tesis de Mitra sobre la cerveza de soma y los licores fuertes de los indoarios; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«The later Vedas, accordingly, proposed a compromise, and leaving the rites intact, prohibited the use of spirits for the gratification of the senses.» — pasaje de Mitra citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, que lee en los Vedas tardíos un compromiso que dejaba los ritos intactos y prohibía el licor por placer

«Soma was ‘made with the expressed juice of a creeper (Asclepias acida or Sarcostemma viminale) [both = Sarcostemma brevistigma] diluted with water, mixed with barley meal, clarified butter [ghee], and the meal of wild paddy [nivdra], and fermented in a jar for nine days.» — pasaje de Mitra citado por Doniger O'Flaherty con su receta del Soma, jugo de enredadera diluido con agua, harina de cebada, mantequilla clarificada y arroz silvestre, fermentado nueve días

«Mitra was of the opinion that the starch of the two meals — barley and wild paddy - produced ‘vinous fermentation’ and that the Soma juice promoted fermentation and flavoured the brew while checking the acetous decomposition, in the manner of hops.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la mecánica que Mitra atribuía a la fermentación, con el jugo de Soma haciendo de lúpulo

«In this way Mitra seemed to cover every likelihood - except for the possibility that Soma was not alcoholic at all, but a plant containing a psychotropic drug.» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala la única posibilidad que Mitra dejó fuera, que el Soma no fuera alcohólico sino planta con droga psicotrópica

«It should also be pointed out that Mitra speaks of ‘soma-beer and strong spirits.’ Presumably he used this latter term in its customary sense, meaning distilled alcohol. This is an anachronism.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta a Mitra el uso de licores fuertes en su sentido corriente de alcohol destilado y lo declara anacronismo

«Arthur Coke Burnell called attention to the fact that there were different “Somas’ in different parts of India, the Hindus of the Coromandel coast using Sarcostemma brevistigma in their rites, and those of the Malabar coast using Ceropegia decaisneana or C. elegans.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Arthur Coke Burnell la existencia de Somas distintos en zonas distintas de la India, con especies diferentes en la costa de Coromandel y en la de Malabar

«In the following year, Martin Haug elaborated on his previous descriptions by describing the Soma plant as a small twining creeper with a row of leafless shoots containing sour, milky sap; he identified the plant as Sarcostemma intermedium, mentioning S. brevistigma and S. brunonianum as related varieties» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la descripción ampliada de Haug, enredadera pequeña de brotes sin hojas y savia lechosa agria, identificada con Sarcostemma intermedium

«he expressed his opinion that the plants denoted at the present time by the terms somalatd and somavalli were later substitutes.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna el parecer de Haug de que las plantas llamadas entonces somalata y somavalli eran sustitutos tardíos

«Friedrich Spiegel reported that the Indian Parsis sent their priests to Kerman to obtain Haoma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1878 el informe de Spiegel de que los parsis indios mandaban a sus sacerdotes a Kerman por el Haoma

«Bergaigne thought that Soma was a fermented drink and that milk was added to it to help the fermentation process.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Bergaigne la tesis del Soma como bebida fermentada a la que se añadía leche para ayudar a la fermentación

«He calls it a spirituous liquor, the word spirituous (une liqueur spiritueuse) being applicable in a broad sense to any volatile inebriating drink.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota el sentido amplio en que Bergaigne llamaba espirituoso al licor, aplicable a cualquier bebida embriagante volátil

«In 1879, Heinrich Zimmer acknowledged that present-day Hindus used a kind of Sarcostemma, citing Haug and adding that the nausea Haug had experienced was consistent with the Brahmana descriptions of Soma» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1879 el reconocimiento de Zimmer del uso de una especie de Sarcostemma y su enlace entre la náusea de Haug y las descripciones de los Brahmanas

«The Yasna devotes three full hymns to Haoma (9-11), which it describes as growing in the mountains» — Doniger O'Flaherty localiza en el Yasna los tres himnos al Haoma y empieza por la montaña; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«In 1929 Emile Benveniste dismissed this notion» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1929 el rechazo de esa identificación por Emile Benveniste

«but these two names are now considered to represent the same species: Sarcostemma brevistigma.» — cierre de la frase anterior: los dos nombres se tienen hoy por una sola especie; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«added his assent that Soma was Sarcostemma brevistigma» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna el asentimiento de Christian Lassen a la identificación con el Sarcostemma; el nombre queda en la plana anterior y el verbatim arranca aquí

«Drawing attention to the Odyssey verse describing the Av as a plant with a black root and a» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el apoyo que Lagarde busca en el verso de la Odisea sobre la planta de raíz negra; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«Kenneth Somerled Macdonald wrote, ‘Soma is now admitted, we believe, by the best Sanskrit scholars to have been intoxicating.» — Macdonald, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, sostiene en 1881 que los mejores sanscritistas admiten que el Soma era embriagante y que las referencias del RgVeda solo se avienen con esa lectura

«He proceeded to repeat Mitra’s theory in great detail, though he failed to give Mitra credit for it.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Macdonald repitió en detalle la teoría de Mitra sin acreditársela

«The early 1880’s saw the most enthusiastic and intense period of the Soma debate. Scholarly tempers flared, new and important names began to appear, and ingenious theses were advanced.» — Doniger O'Flaherty sitúa a principios de los años ochenta del siglo diecinueve el periodo más intenso del debate, con los ánimos encendidos

«Rudolph von Roth began it with an article in which he reviewed all the recent theories about Soma as well as some of the Brahmana information; he concluded that although Sarcostemma brevistigma seemed to be well established as the present-day Soma plant, there was no assurance that this plant - which grew in the plains — was the Vedic plant, which must still grow in the mountains.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el artículo con que Roth abrió esa fase, que separaba el Soma actual de llanura del védico de montaña

«Though he believed that the Soma of the Brahmanas was a substitute made necessary when the Vedic people moved away from their original home» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Roth la tesis de que el Soma de los Brahmanas era sustituto impuesto por el traslado desde el hogar original

«Soma was probably some species of Sarcostemma or at least an Asclepiad, and he felt that any information about the present-day Soma might shed light on the Vedic plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Roth tenía por probable que el Soma verdadero fuera una Sarcostemma o al menos una asclepiadácea y que lo actual alumbraría lo védico

«In the following year, Edward William West expressed the opinion that the plants used for Soma in India and Persia at the present time were substitutes for the original Haoma-Soma plant, and he observed that the most common substitute in South and West India was the Sarcostemma brevistigma, ‘a leafless bush of green succulent branches, growing upwards, with flowers like those of an onion,’ and resembling Euphorbia tirucalli or thornless milk-bush when not in flower.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Edward William West el parecer de que las plantas usadas entonces en India y Persia eran sustitutos, con la descripción del arbusto sin hojas y flores de cebolla

«In that same year Angelo de Gubernatis, quoting Roth, expressed doubt whether the Soma plant could be identified at that time; he suggested that perhaps the Soma cult had shifted to wine in Persia, Asia Minor, and Greece, and that in India in later times its place was taken by a beverage offered to the gods and deliberately made unpalatable so that no mortal would be tempted to drink it.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Angelo de Gubernatis la duda sobre la identificación y sus dos conjeturas, el paso del culto al vino en Persia, Asia Menor y Grecia y una bebida hecha desagradable a propósito para que ningún mortal la bebiera; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«He defined Soma as Sarcostemma brevistigma, ‘a kind of creeper with succulent, leafless stem,’ but he added, ‘And yet it is remarkable that this sacred plant [the original, true Soma] has fallen into complete neglect in modern times.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la definición que Monier-Williams da en 1883 y la reserva que él mismo añade sobre el abandono completo de la planta sagrada en los tiempos modernos

«When I asked the Brahmans of North India to procure specimens of the true Soma for me, I was told that, in consequence of the present sinful condition of the world, the holy plant had ceased to grow on terrestrial soil, and was only to be found in heaven.» — Monier-Williams, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, reporta que los brahmanes del norte de la India le dijeron que por la condición pecaminosa del mundo la planta santa había dejado de crecer en suelo terrestre y solo se hallaba en el cielo

«Nevertheless a creeper ‘said to be the true Soma’ had been pointed out to him by Burnell in South India, where it was being used by orthodox Brahmans.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que aun así Burnell le había mostrado a Monier-Williams en el sur de la India una enredadera que se decía el Soma verdadero, en uso entre brahmanes ortodoxos

«In 1884 D. N. Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij published a book of some 240 pages devoted entirely to Soma and containing a great deal of learned and imaginative material; unfortunately, since it was published in Russian and never translated, it was not noted by subsequent scholars writing in other European languages» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1884 el libro ruso de Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij sobre el Soma y explica por qué quedó fuera de la discusión, porque nunca se tradujo

«He maintained, on grounds of sound linguistic reasoning, that the word ‘soma’ applied first to the plant and later to the juice?» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij el argumento lingüístico de que soma designó primero la planta y después el jugo

«At the same time, the terms Soma and Haoma did not cease to signify also the divinity, whose gift or attribute the intoxicating beverage was considered to be. As concerns this last, it is presently obtained in India from a plant of the family Asclepias acida. Whether it was obtained from the same plant in antiquity, or from another, or if from another, from which particular one-all of these are questions that of necessity must remain for the time being without an answer. The description of the flower and the liquid of Soma in the RgVeda is not applicable to Asclepias acida and the beverage obtained from it.» — pasaje de Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij en la traducción que reproduce el volumen, que deja sin respuesta la identidad antigua de la planta y niega que la descripción rgvédica se aplique a la Asclepias acida

«Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij described the sacrament of collecting Soma as taking place at night, ‘in the light of the moon,’ observing: ‘Perhaps this feature has some link with the later identification of Soma with the moon.”» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij la recolección nocturna del Soma a la luz de la luna y su conjetura de que de ahí venga la identificación posterior con la luna

«It was mixed with water, sour milk, and barley corn. Then it underwent fermentation, after which a strong, intoxicating beverage was obtained. The description of this procedure is met in a number of places in the ninth Mandala of the RgVeda, but always in a fragmentary and often obscure form.» — pasaje de Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij en la versión del volumen sobre la mezcla y la fermentación, con la reserva de que las descripciones del Mandala IX son fragmentarias y a menudo oscuras

«This was the more or less conventional view of Soma, but then Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij went on to express his doubts that Soma had been a product of fermentation at all, and to suggest — in cautious but clear terms—that Soma might have been some sort of narcotic.» — Doniger O'Flaherty marca el punto en que Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij se aparta de la lectura convencional y sugiere en términos cautos que el Soma fuera un narcótico

«This is by far the earliest reference to such a possibility, and it is significant that it appears in the writings of a Russian, who may have known of the Siberian cults:» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara esa la referencia más antigua con mucho a esa posibilidad y hace notar que viene de un ruso que pudo conocer los cultos siberianos

«It is possible that the narcotic power of Soma was greater than the similar power of other drinks used in the time of the Veda; possibly it was of an essentially different nature.» — Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, deja abierto que el poder narcótico del Soma fuera mayor o de naturaleza distinta que el de las demás bebidas védicas

«The action of Soma is always depicted in the most many-hued colours, as something fascinating, elevating, illuminating; on the other hand the action of common drink (suird) is painted in far from such attractive colours...» — Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, contrapone los colores con que se pinta la acción del Soma y los mucho menos atractivos de la bebida común

«It is also quite possible that the superiority of Soma was entirely imaginary and rested solely on that religious sanction which fell to the portion of Soma (that is, not Asclepias acida or any other sort of Indian plant, but - Soma, as a religious and cultural psychological conception) as early as the most remote Indo-Iranian antiquity.» — Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, deja también abierta la posibilidad contraria, que la superioridad del Soma fuera imaginaria y descansara solo en su sanción religiosa desde la antigüedad indoirania

«Roth then brought out another paper, in which he emphasized his feeling that Soma must still exist.? But he acknowledged that Albert Regel, the botanist employed by the Russian government, who had searched for Soma at Roth’s request in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya watersheds, had reported finding no trace of a plant meeting Soma’s description.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el segundo trabajo de Roth y el resultado de la busca de Albert Regel en las cuencas del Sir Daria y del Amu Daria, sin rastro de planta que cumpliera la descripción

«Regel had expressed his opinion that the closest thing to Soma that he had found had been rhubarb, though he admitted that rhubarb was not used by the natives to make any intoxicating drink.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Regel que lo más cercano al Soma que halló fue el ruibarbo, con la admisión de que los nativos no hacían bebida embriagante con él

«Roth had supplied him with Vedic descriptions of Soma, and from them it was clear that none of the Asclepiads, Euphorbias, Ferulas, yellow Composite, or Cannabis sativa (hemp) conformed to the formula.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que con las descripciones védicas en la mano ninguna de las familias botánicas candidatas ni el cáñamo se ajustaba a la fórmula

«Wilkens, a zoologist specializing in South Turkestan, had reported to Roth that in his opinion Soma might be Peganum harmala,3 belonging to the Rutacee, though it lacked the sweetness and juiciness that the true Soma was thought to have had.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Wilkens la propuesta del Peganum harmala y la objeción que él mismo se pone, que le faltaban el dulzor y la jugosidad atribuidos al Soma

«Roth ended up with a flourish: ‘Usbekistani today may drink their kumiss in cups in which Soma once gave them cheer.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra el episodio con la frase de Roth sobre los uzbekos que quizá beben su kumis en las copas que una vez dieron alegría con el Soma

«find the Soma one need not be a botanist; the plant will have to be recognized in all its juiciness [Saftfiille] by every eye.» — cierre de la frase de Roth citada por Doniger O'Flaherty, que sostenía que para hallar el Soma no hacía falta ser botánico porque su jugosidad la reconocería cualquier ojo

«Charles James Lyall, Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam, translated Roth’s papers and forwarded them, with his own remarks, to the Afghan Frontier Delimitation Commission. They in turn handed them over to the botanist George Watt, who published them with his added remarks, under the heading, “A note upon Dr. Roth’s suggestion regarding the Soma Plant’, in a document issued as File No. 118 of the Government of India, Revenue and Agricultural Department, Simla, August 20, 1884.» — Doniger O'Flaherty reconstruye la cadena documental que produjo el File No. 118 del Gobierno de la India, de Lyall a la Comisión de Delimitación y de ahí al botánico Watt

«Watt felt that Roth had produced no evidence that Soma was a species of Sarcostemma or any other Asclepiad; he considered it ‘a great pity that Dr. Roth, instead of propounding his own theory at such length and in attempting to confute arguments against it, did not rather publish briefly the leading passages from Sanskrit literature descriptive of the plant .» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Watt la objeción de que Roth no aportó evidencia y el reproche de no haber puesto en manos del naturalista un extracto de los textos sánscritos en vez de su propia teoría

«Watt was of the opinion that Soma was not necessarily a succulent, juicy plant, but that it might be rather a dry branch used in a decoction, ‘either by simple maceration or boiling.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Watt la propuesta de que el Soma fuera una rama seca usada en decocción por maceración o hervor y no una planta jugosa

«Can any one who has examined the bitter milky sap of the Ascledpiadz ... suppose that such a liquid could ever be used for more than a medicinal purpose, and still less become the Soma of the Vedas? It is much more likely that the oblong fruits of the Afghan grape ..., imported into the plains, as they are at the present day, afforded the sweet and refreshing cup of which our Aryan ancestors became drunk while wrapt in the oblivion of religious enthusiasm.» — pasaje de Watt citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, que niega que la savia lechosa amarga sirviera para más que un uso medicinal y propone en su lugar la uva afgana

«He did not pursue this suggestion, however, and considered the Composite or Umbelliferae more likely than the Asclepiads as candidates for Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Watt no siguió esa sugerencia y prefería las compuestas o las umbelíferas a las asclepiadáceas

«In reply to this, Max Miiller wrote to the Academy journal on October 20, 1884, misquoting Haug (‘it was extremely nasty and not at all exhilarating’, where Haug had described the Soma he tasted as ‘a very nasty drink, but [it] has some intoxicating effect’), referring to the Brdhmana substitutes and the tradition that Soma ‘was brought by barbarians from the North,’ and finally getting to the point — that he, Friedrich Max Miiller, had published thirty years earlier the ‘oldest scientific description of the Soma plant’ that he knew of or had hope of finding, the Dhirtasvami description of the dark creeper eaten by goats.» — Doniger O'Flaherty reconstruye la carta de Max Müller de octubre de 1884 y le señala una cita errónea de Haug, con el punto final de la carta, la reivindicación de su propia descripción ayurvédica

«On November 9, Roth replied in the same journal to ‘the learned scholar’: ‘I did not, indeed, remember the passage referred to; but if it had been in my mind I should scarcely have mentioned it» — respuesta de Roth a Max Müller en la revista Academy según la cita Doniger O'Flaherty, que declara no recordar el pasaje y que aun recordándolo apenas lo habría mencionado

«He said it was impossible to date the ‘Ayurveda’, that Max Miiller’s passage sounded like descriptions of ‘the later, even the latest date, especially in the so-called Nighantus,’» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la objeción cronológica de Roth, que el Ayurveda no se puede datar y que ese pasaje suena a época tardía

«vamani by insisting that ‘it is not to be supposed that the Soma, or its principal substitute in later times, should have caused vomiting,» — Roth, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, objeta el adjetivo emético sosteniendo que no cabe suponer que el Soma ni su sustituto principal provocaran vómito; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«as a parting blow, correcting Max Miiller’s translation of Slesmald from ‘destroying phlegm’ to ‘producing phlegm.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la corrección con que Roth cerró su réplica, invirtiendo el sentido del adjetivo sánscrito sobre la flema

«He concluded that the plant described was merely the ‘Soma of later times which we know (that is, the Sarcostemma acida [brevistigma]), correctly described as bearing no leaves.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la conclusión de Roth, que la planta descrita era solo el Soma de tiempos tardíos, correctamente descrito como sin hojas

«He still believed that the ‘genuine original Soma’ would bear great resemblance to its later substitute, and answered Watt’s ‘decoction’ theory thus: ‘I am sorry not to be able to conform my views to those of the distinguished botanist.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la respuesta de Roth a la teoría de la decocción de Watt, con la negativa de que los arios bebieran una decocción como quien bebe té o café

«It would be, indeed, a disgrace to the interpreters of the Veda and Avesta if Dr. Watt were right.» — cierre de la respuesta de Roth citada por Doniger O'Flaherty, que declararía deshonra de los intérpretes del Veda y del Avesta que Watt tuviera razón

«He ended with the arch hope that the botanists of the Commission ‘will not bring us home, as Soma, the Asafcetida, which there obtrudes itself upon one’s notice, or any other Ferula.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el deseo socarrón con que Roth terminó, que los botánicos de la Comisión no trajeran a casa como Soma la asafétida ni otra férula

«He admitted that ‘this oldest scientific description of the Soma plant’ might refer to a later substitute, and concluded: ‘As to the Soma which the Brahmans knew (RgVeda x 85°), I shall welcome it whenever it is discovered, whether in the valley of the Oxus or in that of the Neckar.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la concesión de Max Müller de que su descripción pudiera ser de un sustituto tardío y su cierre, que dará la bienvenida al Soma donde se descubra, en el valle del Oxus o en el del Neckar

«J. G. Baker of the Kew Herbarium wrote to the Academy on November 15, noting that Dr. Aitchison had been selected as the botanist to attend the Afghan Delimitation Commission and supporting Max Miiller’s faith in the Sarcostemma, which, he pointed out, is eaten by men and animals throughout Sindh, Arabia, and Persia.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la entrada de los botánicos en la disputa con la carta de J. G. Baker del herbario de Kew, que apoyaba el Sarcostemma por ser comido por hombres y animales de Sind a Persia

«He said that the flowers of the Periploca aphylla are eaten by the natives of Baluchistan ‘and taste like raisins.» — Baker, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, reporta que los nativos de Baluchistán comen las flores de la Periploca aphylla y que saben a pasas

«W. T. Thiselton-Dyer of the Royal Kew Gardens then supported Watt’s suggestion of the Afghan grapes: “That the primitive Soma was something not less detestable than anything that could be extracted from a Sarcostemma I find it hard to believe.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el apoyo de Thiselton-Dyer a la uva afgana de Watt, con su declaración de que le cuesta creer que el Soma primitivo fuera tan detestable como lo que se saca de un Sarcostemma

«When, however, the original Soma was unprocurable, and the use became purely ceremonial, the unpalatableness of the Soma substitute was immaterial.» — Thiselton-Dyer, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, sostiene que al volverse puramente ceremonial el uso dejó de importar lo desagradable del sustituto

«The Sarcostemma, according to Thiselton-Dyer, was chosen when the Soma plant was forgotten (or unavailable in the hot plains) because ‘there is a faint resemblance in texture and appearance, though not in form, between the joint of a Sarcostemma and an unripe green grape,’ the Vedic Indians having had no word to distinguish a fruit from the stem of a plant, Thiselton-Dyer maintained.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la explicación de Thiselton-Dyer por el parecido de textura entre el nudo del Sarcostemma y una uva verde, y su premisa de que los indios védicos no distinguían fruto de tallo

«This is not true. Phala, ‘fruit,’ recurs in the RgVeda, referring to the fruit of a plant (not Soma) rather than to the stem.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta en nota esa premisa y aporta los sitios del RgVeda donde phala designa el fruto de una planta

«Max Miiller answered this, on December 8, with a reference to the Vedic tradition that Soma juice was mixed with barley milk, a process that, he suggested, was incompatible with the grape hypothesis but not with a kind of hops; he added that ‘a venturesome etymologist might not shrink even from maintaining that hops and Soma are the» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la respuesta de Max Müller del ocho de diciembre, que opuso a la hipótesis de la uva la mezcla védica con leche de cebada y propuso en cambio una especie de lúpulo

«deriving hops from Hungarian komlé, medizval Latin humolo, medizeval Greek youpéAy, and ultimately Sanskrit soma, ‘which, for a foreign word, brought from Persia into Europe, is tolerably near» — Doniger O'Flaherty reproduce la cadena etimológica con que Max Müller ligó el lúpulo al soma sánscrito, con su propia reserva de que para palabra extranjera queda tolerablemente cerca

«Now hops mixed with barley would give some kind of beer. Whether milk would improve the mixture I am not brewer enough to know.» — cierre de la propuesta de Max Müller citada por Doniger O'Flaherty, que se declara no bastante cervecero para saber si la leche mejoraría la mezcla

«Charles G. Leland then wrote to the Academy to support the hops hypothesis with information about the soma or sumer (‘the pronunciation is not fixed’) of the Romany tongue, apologizing that ‘any confirmation of this, drawn from such a very disreputable source as gypsy, is, indeed, not worth much,’ but pointing out that there was much Sanskrit in gypsy words and that soma in Romany meant ‘scent or flavour... thus the hop gives the suma or soma to the beer, as the lemon to punch.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la carta de Charles G. Leland, que apoyó la hipótesis del lúpulo con el soma del romaní, término que según él significa aroma o sabor

«He added that the fact that hops do not grow in the present dwelling place of the Hindus confirms rather than disproves Max Miiller’s theory, since if it were still available there the Indians would be using it instead of the present substitute.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el argumento de Leland de que la ausencia del lúpulo donde hoy viven los hindúes apoya en vez de contradecir la tesis de Max Müller

«A. Houtum-Schindler wrote from Teheran with a tale of a Sarcostemma that he had been shown by the Parsis in Kerman, a plant with a greenish white juice and a sweetish taste that caused vomiting when taken in amounts of more than a dozen drops, and that corresponded closely with Max Miiller’s Ayurvedic description — if it was viewed only ‘several days after it had been collected,’ by which time the stalk would have turned dark, the juice turned sour, and the leaves fallen off.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la carta de Houtum-Schindler desde Teherán sobre un Sarcostemma mostrado por los parsis de Kerman, que solo coincidía con la descripción ayurvédica días después de recogido

«To this ingenious postulate he added several descriptions of the Hum plant from various Persian dictionaries, including one of a deadly poison the fruit of which is much liked by partridges and which resembles a tamarisk tree — ‘the latter qualities evidently refer to another plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge las descripciones del Hum de los diccionarios persas que añadió Houtum-Schindler, con el veneno mortal cuyo fruto gusta a las perdices y su propia salvedad

«W. T. Thiselton-Dyer then identified still another plant used by the Parsis in their rites — the Ephedra vulgaris which, he said, bore sweet red berries and somewhat resembled Tamarix articulata, like the plant mentioned by Houtum-Schindler: ‘But he [Houtum-Schindler] also says it is “a deadly poison” (though apparently not to partridges). This does not agree with Ephedra, which is browsed by goats.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la identificación que Thiselton-Dyer propone en cambio, la Ephedra vulgaris, y su objeción de que un veneno mortal no cuadra con una planta que ramonean las cabras; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«On this note the Academy correspondence ended, but the argument continued.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra la correspondencia de la revista y advierte que la disputa siguió

«On January 25, 1885, Watt published his ‘Second Note on the Soma Plant,’ in which he said that a Dr. Dymock of Bombay had sent him a Haoma plant which was Periploca aphylla and had told him he thought that the plant was not used to obtain liquor but that a small portion of it was added to a liquor obtained from grain; he added that, according to the Parsis, the Haoma never decayed.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data la segunda nota de Watt y recoge el testimonio de Dymock sobre la Periploca aphylla añadida a un licor de grano y sobre la incorruptibilidad del Haoma según los parsis

«This strengthened Watt’s opinion that Soma was not a succulent plant, certainly not a Sarcostemma, an opinion which was further encouraged by a letter he had received from Rajendra Lala Mitra, who had suggested that Soma might have been used like hops as an ingredient in the preparation of a kind of beer, and that the Vedic phrase ‘Soma juice’ was merely a figure of speech.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enlaza esa noticia con la carta de Mitra a Watt, que proponía el Soma como el lúpulo de una cerveza y el jugo de Soma como figura retórica

«Watt was therefore convinced that the Haoma plant was the Soma after all, that ‘the dry and bitter twigs’ had been used to flavour some other beverages, ‘much in the same way as Acacia bark is used throughout India.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la conclusión de Watt, que el Haoma era el Soma y que las ramitas secas y amargas servían para dar sabor a otras bebidas como la corteza de acacia

«In passing, Watt rejected a suggestion he had received from Benjamin Lewis Rice that Soma might have been ‘sugarcane or some species of sorghum’; he concluded that Periploca aphylla - the Haoma of Dr. Dymock - was after all the most likely Soma plant, and he quoted Baker’s description of Periploca aphylla as having ‘flowers fragrant, eaten by natives, taste like raisins.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna el rechazo por Watt de la caña de azúcar y el sorgo de Rice y su conclusión a favor de la Periploca aphylla

«Surgeon General Edward Balfour, in the third edition of his Cyclopeedia of India, maintained that the Soma of Vedic times was a ‘distilled alcoholic fluid’ made from the Sarcostemma brevistigma which flowers during the rains in the Deccan.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Edward Balfour la tesis del Soma védico como fluido alcohólico destilado hecho del Sarcostemma del Decán

«In the same article he referred to the Soma juice as ‘a fermented liquor’ and ‘this beer or wine’» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala la incoherencia interna del artículo de Balfour, que llama al mismo jugo licor fermentado y cerveza o vino

«he believed that this liquid was used at all religious festivals and by the rishis at their meals; and he attributed to Windischmann the suggestion that the Soma plant may: have been the gogard tree.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Balfour el uso del líquido en todas las fiestas religiosas y por los rishis, y la atribución a Windischmann de la propuesta del árbol gogard

«In 1885 Julius Eggeling published the second volume of his translation of the Satapatha Brahmana, wherein he observed that the exact identity of the Soma plant was ‘still somewhat doubtful,’ but that every probability seemed to favour the Sarcostemma brevistigma or some other plant of the same genus.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1885 el segundo volumen de la traducción del Satapatha Brahmana de Eggeling, que declaraba aún algo dudosa la identidad de la planta y se inclinaba por el Sarcostemma

«Eggeling wrote: ‘One might as well ask a Hebrew scholar to give accurate descriptions of the “lily of the valley” to enable the botanist to identify and classify the lovely flower which delighted the heart of King Solomon. It is exactly the want of an accurate knowledge of the nature of the Soma plant which prevents Vedic scholars from being able to understand some of the few material allusions to it.’» — Eggeling, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, responde a Watt con el símil del hebraísta a quien se pidiera describir con exactitud el lirio del valle, y sostiene que es la falta de conocimiento de la planta lo que impide entender las alusiones; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Undaunted, Aitchison wrote a letter to the Daily News (13 March 1885) expressing his opinion that Soma was wine after all.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en marzo de 1885 la carta de Aitchison al Daily News, que sostenía que el Soma era vino al cabo

«He modified this, however, when he returned from Afghanistan and published The Botany of the Afghan Delimitation Commission, wherein he informed his readers that the natives of North Baluchistan call Periploca aphylla, Ephedra pachyclada, and another Ephedra ‘Hum, Huma, and Yehma.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la rectificación de Aitchison tras volver de Afganistán, con los nombres nativos de tres plantas del norte de Baluchistán

«He said that the natives eat the small red fruit of these plants, but he hesitated to identify any of them with the original Soma.”» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge que Aitchison consignó el consumo del frutito rojo de esas plantas y a la vez se abstuvo de identificar ninguna con el Soma original

«Max Miiller republished the Academy correspondence in his Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryans? with additional notes by Thiselton-Dyer, who supported Max Miiller by saying that Soma ‘was certainly in later times a fermented drink made from grain, to which the Soma plant itself was only added as an ingredient.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1888 la republicación por Max Müller de la correspondencia de la revista, con las notas de Thiselton-Dyer que lo apoyaban declarando el Soma bebida fermentada de grano con la planta como mero ingrediente

«Observing that, according to Roxburgh, the Sarcostemma was ‘not necessarily nauseous,’ he nevertheless rejected it as a possibility for the Primitive Soma, rejecting as well Houtum-Schindler’s Hum (which he identified as Periploca aphylla) and his tamarisk-like plant (which he identified as Periploca hydaspidis, indistinguishable, he said, from Ephedra foliata except when in flower).» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume los rechazos de Thiselton-Dyer, del Sarcostemma como Soma primitivo y de las dos plantas de Houtum-Schindler, con sus identificaciones botánicas

«George Watt concluded this episode with his article on Ephedra in the Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, where he rejected, among other hypotheses, his own former suggestion of the Afghan grape, though he could not resist noting that wild grapes are called “Um, Umbur’ in Kashmir.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Watt cerró el episodio rechazando su propia propuesta anterior de la uva afgana, sin resistirse a anotar el nombre de la uva silvestre en Cachemira

«He mentioned that Ephedra vulgaris grew in the Himalayas, that Ephedra pachyclada and E. foliata were found in Garhal and Afghanistan, that Periploca aphylla was used sometimes in Bombay, but that the Parsis’ huma was usually an Ephedra.» — Doniger O'Flaherty inventaría la geografía de las efedras y las periplocas que da Watt y su dato de que el huma de los parsis era casi siempre una Ephedra

«He said that putikas (Basella spp.), when stripped of their leaves, would resemble Sarcostemmas;» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Watt el parecido de las putikas despojadas de hojas con las Sarcostemmas

«And from all this he concluded that Soma refers to ‘an early discovery of the art of fermentation’ rather than to any plant in particular.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra el episodio del File No. 118 con la conclusión de Watt, que el Soma remite a un descubrimiento temprano del arte de la fermentación y no a planta alguna en particular

«All the sound and fury had proven nothing, after all.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el saldo de esa fase del debate en una sola frase

«Still the battle raged, if more quietly, over the same ground.» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe la continuación del debate en el cambio de siglo sobre el mismo terreno

«Adalbert Kuhn said that Haoma and Soma were separate plants resembling each other in name and external appearance, the Soma of present-day India being Sarcostemma brevistigma (an identification that he chose to attribute to Roth), which was not however the original or at least the only plant from which Soma was taken.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Adalbert Kuhn la tesis de que Haoma y Soma eran plantas distintas parecidas en nombre y apariencia, y su atribución a Roth de una identificación

«John Firminger Duthie then added an odd piece of information that went unnoticed: The Marwara people call the spiked grass known as Setaria glauca Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty rescata el dato pasado por alto de Duthie, que el pueblo marwara llama Soma a una gramínea

«Monier-Williams’ Dictionary (1891) simply gave Sarcostemma brevistigma for Soma, and J. Bérnmuller mentioned that he had met with a Parsi priest in Yezd carrying huma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty encadena la entrada escueta del diccionario de Monier-Williams con el encuentro de Börnmüller y un sacerdote parsi de Yezd que llevaba huma; el tramo trae un año entre paréntesis y se declara aquí como cita releída entera en el crudo

«At once he recognized it as Ephedra distachya, and thus he had solved at last the problem mentioned to him first by Max» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la certeza con que Börnmüller creyó resolver el problema que Max Müller le había planteado en Oxford; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«Alfred Hillebrandt then produced his extensive summary of the recent Soma theories and introduced his own famous theory that Soma was the moon throughout the RgVeda.» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta el resumen de Hillebrandt y su tesis célebre de que el Soma es la luna a lo largo del RgVeda

«He explained that contemporary Soma plants were probably not the same as the original, that substitutes had been used as soon as the Aryans left their homeland in the Sindh, and that the Vedas themselves were self-contradictory, since they had been compiled in various times and places.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Hillebrandt las razones de su lectura, el sustituto desde la salida del Sindh y la contradicción interna de unos Vedas compilados en tiempos y lugares distintos

«He pointed out that Soma was not a blossoming plant and therefore could not be hops as Max Miiller had suggested;» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la objeción de Hillebrandt al lúpulo de Max Müller, que el Soma no era planta con flor

«that Soma had a red stalk and reddish brown sap; and that the epithet ‘with hanging branches’ (naicasdkhd)> probably referred to the nyagrodha (Ficus religiosa) which was an important substitute.» — Doniger O'Flaherty sigue con los demás argumentos de Hillebrandt, el tallo rojo y la savia pardo rojiza y el epíteto de ramas colgantes referido al nyagrodha

«This word, however, occurs only once in the RgVeda (1m 53!4) and its meaning is uncertain; Grassmann thinks that it may refer to the name of a sage.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota en nota que ese epíteto aparece una sola vez y que su sentido es incierto, con la lectura de Grassmann como nombre de un sabio

«Hermann Oldenberg devised a new theory, suggesting that the original Soma was itself a substitute, not for wine but for the Indo-European honey drink, mead or hydromel.» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta la teoría nueva de Oldenberg, que el Soma mismo fue sustituto de la bebida indoeuropea de miel

«Of course it had long been recognized that the Sanskrit mddhu, the Greek ev, and English mead were cognate, and that mddhu was applied to Soma in the RgVeda (whence all the trouble over the bitterness of Sarcostemma), but mddhu was a general term applied to milk and rain as well as to Soma, and the simple identification of Soma with mddhu had still left open the botanical identification of Soma as a plant whose sap was known as honey.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota lo que ya se sabía del parentesco entre madhu y mead y explica por qué la identificación no resolvía la cuestión botánica

«Oldenberg, however, avoided this difficulty by postulating mead as a forerunner and Soma as a later substitute:» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe cómo Oldenberg esquivó esa dificultad, postulando el hidromiel como precursor y el Soma como sustituto tardío

«this distracted attention from the Soma plant itself (since it was no longer to be regarded as the original, the Ur-plant, that everyone sought) but it did not, of course, add anything at all» — Doniger O'Flaherty mide el efecto de esa maniobra, que desviaba la atención de la planta sin añadir nada a lo sabido

«This theory was to become well known and widely accepted, but it had little immediate impact.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la fortuna posterior de la tesis de Oldenberg y su escaso efecto inmediato

«Edmund Hardy maintained that Soma was neither any form of honey nor surd but most probably Sarcostemma brevistigma after all.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Edmund Hardy la negativa de que el Soma fuera miel o sura y su vuelta al Sarcostemma

«P. Regnaud called Soma ‘une liqueur enivrante, and cautioned against taking the Vedic texts literally when they spoke metaphorically.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de P. Regnaud la definición del Soma como licor embriagante y su advertencia contra leer literalmente los textos védicos cuando hablan en metáfora

«Rustomjee Naserwanyil Khory covered some very old ground by considering a Brahmana substitute to be the original Soma» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Khory volvió a tomar un sustituto brahmánico por el Soma original

«identified Soma (somavalli in Sanskrit, amrtavalli in Bengali) as a climbing shrub called Tinospora cordifolia, the extract of which (called gurjo, gilo, etc.) is used as an aphrodisiac, a cure for gonorrhea, and a treatment for urinary diseases.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la identificación de Khory con la Tinospora cordifolia y los usos médicos que se le daban al extracto

«W.W. Wilson thought Soma was the ofAgrov (Latin laserpitium) mentioned AW We SN \ —EH g ING Fic. 5. ‘Soma’. As pictured in Zenaide A. Ragozin: Vedic India. New York, 1895. in a fragment of Alcman as a plant that has wonderful properties, grows on mountains, is golden, and is plucked by birds.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la propuesta de W. W. Wilson de identificar el Soma con la planta del fragmento de Alcmán, que crece en montañas, es dorada y la arrancan las aves; el troceo devuelve corrompida la voz griega y el verbatim cruza el pie de la figura 5

«He supported this argument with complex Indo-European linguistics but was cautious enough to note: ‘It is not improbable that even at the time of the Vedas, use was made of more than one kind of plant.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la cautela con que Wilson acompañó su argumento lingüístico, que ya en tiempos de los Vedas pudo usarse más de una clase de planta

«Roth in his 1884 essay had suggested that Soma in India had occupied a sacred position similar to that held by the now extinct otAgrov plant of Ancient Greece, but he had not considered the two plants identical.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota en nota que Roth había propuesto un paralelo de posición entre el Soma y el silfio griego sin identificarlos

«Henry maintained that the Indo-Aryans had imported Soma ever since they entered the area of Northwest India, and that the present-day Soma of India did not correspond to the Vedic descriptions of its taste or characteristics.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Victor Henry la importación del Soma desde la entrada al noroeste de la India y la falta de correspondencia entre la planta actual y las descripciones védicas

«Still the old definitions persisted: K. L. Bhishagratna in his 1907 edition of the Susruta defined somalatd as Sarcostemma brevistigma and somardji as Vernonia anthelmintica.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la persistencia de las definiciones viejas en la edición del Susruta de Bhishagratna

«Maurice Bloomfield referred to Soma merely as ‘an intoxicating drink ... regarded as the tipple of the gods,’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Bloomfield la definición mínima del Soma como bebida embriagante tenida por el trago de los dioses

«It is very probable that the plant cannot now be identified.’*» — Macdonell y Keith, citados por Doniger O'Flaherty, declaran inadecuadas las descripciones del RgVeda para identificar la planta y muy probable que ya no pueda identificarse

«Then Hermann Brunnhofer came forward to defend Lagarde’s ‘mountain rue’ (originally Sir William Jones’s theory, though Lagarde did not say so and probably did not know of Jones’s opinion).» — Doniger O'Flaherty sitúa a Brunnhofer defendiendo la ruda de monte de Lagarde y hace notar que la tesis era antes de William Jones, a quien Lagarde probablemente no conocía

«Brunnhofer maintained that Lagarde had already solved the Soma question forty years previously, ‘though the Vedists still ignore him.’’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Brunnhofer la queja de que los vedistas seguían ignorando a Lagarde pese a haber resuelto la cuestión cuarenta años antes

«He elaborated upon Lagarde’s theory by mentioning Pliny’s description of a plant known as &pBpoctx possessing characteristics that suggested a kind of rue to Brunnhofer.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el apoyo que Brunnhofer buscó en la descripción pliniana de una planta llamada ambrosía

«In 1911 Carl Hartwich published Die menschlichen Genussmittel, in which he discussed various forms of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1911 el tratado de Hartwich sobre tabaco, alcohol y drogas

«He included ‘Soma — Haoma’ in his study, but was uneasy about its status as a drug or stimulant (‘Genussmittel’);» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la incomodidad de Hartwich al meter el Soma en su estudio sin saber si era droga o estimulante

«Although all of these have been tested - though not altogether thoroughly - none of them is known to have stimulating or sedative or other characteristics which could mark it as a drug or stimulant.’» — Hartwich, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, declara que ninguna de las plantas candidatas muestra propiedades que la califiquen como droga o estimulante, y acota que la comprobación no fue del todo exhaustiva

«He therefore considered it possible that they might have been used as supplements, perhaps as spices, to the other known ingredients of the Soma drink (meal, milk, and whey) in which alcohol might have been produced.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Hartwich la salida de considerarlas suplementos o especias de una bebida en que pudiera haberse producido alcohol

«The possibility that Soma might have been some other plant which did have ‘stimulating or sedative characteristics’ does not seem to have occurred to him, though he granted that the Persians used» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala la posibilidad que a Hartwich no se le ocurrió, que el Soma fuera otra planta con esas propiedades, y consigna que sí admitía la efedrina del Haoma persa

«One of the plants that Hartwich gave as an alleged Soma was Vitex negundo, whose bitter leaves and root were used against fever.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el Vitex negundo entre los presuntos Somas de Hartwich, de hoja y raíz amargas usadas contra la fiebre

«Since the plant was originally native to tropical America, Hartwich dismissed it as a possible Soma, but observed in conclusion that in India it was known as Indrahasta and Indrasurd (‘the hand of Indra’ and ‘the wine of Indra’).» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica por qué Hartwich descartó esa planta y recoge sus dos nombres indios, mano de Indra y vino de Indra

«It may be that this association with Indra - together with Indra’s fondness for Soma (to which Hartwich refers)- recommended the Vitex negundo to Hartwich, for he gives no Sanskrit names» — Doniger O'Flaherty conjetura que la asociación con Indra recomendara esa planta a Hartwich, y lo apoya en que no da nombre sánscrito de ninguna otra

«Yet in this context it is surprising that he did not mention Indrasana (‘the food of Indra’)* which was a common name for hemp, Cannabis sativa, the leaves of which were dried and chewed, supplying just the Genussmittel that Hartwich seemed to seek.» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala la omisión del nombre indio del cáñamo, alimento de Indra, que habría dado justo lo que Hartwich buscaba

«Indrasura (also known as Indrasurasa and Indrasurisa) is mentioned in the Amarakoga, the Su3ruta Samhita, and the Sabdakalpadruma, but is nowhere associated with Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota en nota que ese nombre aparece en varios léxicos y en ninguno asociado al Soma

«Keith reassembled the old evidence but still considered the Soma problem insoluble,’ and» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Keith reunió la evidencia vieja y siguió teniendo por insoluble el problema

«suggesting that the names might have been retained when substitutes for the plant were used.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la salida de Hopkins, que los nombres se conservaran al pasar a los sustitutos

«Chapman Cohen stated without reference or explanation his belief that the Soma drink ‘is prepared from the flower of the lotus,’ an idea that was bound to occur to someone sooner or later, in view of the Odyssey tradition of the lotus-eaters and the sanctity of the lotus in India, but which seems to have attracted no supporters after this.*» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la creencia sin apoyo de Chapman Cohen de que el Soma se preparaba con la flor de loto y explica por qué la idea tenía que ocurrírsele a alguien, con la tradición de los lotófagos y la sacralidad india del loto

«E. B. Havell then suggested that Soma was Eleusine coracana or ragi, the common millet, an idea that he supported on the basis of Vedic characteristics (shaped like udders, tawny, growing in the mountains) and the Satapatha Brahmana reference to dirva and kuSa as substitutes, both of which resemble rdagi, ‘the common millet still used in the Eastern Himalayas for making the intoxicating drink called Marua.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la propuesta de Havell del mijo común y los apoyos que le dio, los rasgos védicos y los sustitutos del Satapatha Brahmana

«He mentioned that the Brahmans, while preparing Soma, ‘sang a song which reminds one of a good old Aryan sailors’ chantey, with a refrain, “Flow, Indu, flow for Indra”.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Havell la comparación del canto brahmánico del prensado con una tonada marinera aria

«Havell admitted that, ‘whether fermentation took place before or after it was so used is a point which is not very clear,’ but he was clear on its history: ragi had been the Aryans’ principal food and drink until they moved to the Ganges Valley and switched to rice, ‘and, perhaps under the influence of Buddhism, gradually gave up intoxicating liquors, or “went dry”.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la admisión de Havell sobre lo poco claro del momento de la fermentación y su historia del mijo, abandonado al pasar al Ganges y al arroz y quizá bajo influencia budista al dejar los licores; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Then they used substitutes for the ragi-Soma, forgot its name and retained contact with it only as the food of the lowest caste, the S» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra el relato de Havell, con el nombre olvidado y el contacto reducido al alimento de la casta más baja

«He then administered the coup-de-grace: the Indo-European myth of the bringing of Soma from heaven by an eagle is explained by the simple fact that birds lined their nests with» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta con ironía el último argumento de Havell, que explicaba el mito del águila que trae el Soma del cielo por los nidos forrados de mijo; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«One would hardly think that this argument merited rebuttal, but it did in fact stimulate an answer that was to become the last significant theory of Soma: Mukherjee’s theory that Soma was hemp, Cannabis sativa (= Cannabis indica), known to the initiate as bhang (the Hindi term derived from Sanskrit bhafigd, m., or bhaigd, f.), ganja, hashish, marijuana, or pot.» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica que esa tesis endeble provocó la respuesta que sería la última teoría significativa, la del cáñamo de Mukherjee, con la nómina de sus nombres

«Braja Lal Mukherjee? picked unlikely grounds on which to challenge Havell’s flimsy theory, which he said was based upon considerations ‘which may be supplemented by others of a more important character,’ e.g., that there was no reference to cows’ udders in the Rg Veda.’ He then supplied an elaborate 25-point argument to show that Soma was in fact not Eleusine coracana but bhang:» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe el terreno mal elegido por Mukherjee para objetar a Havell y anuncia su argumento de veinticinco puntos a favor del bhang; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«This verse does not refer to Soma at all, but verses 3.4.3.13 and 4.2.5.15 of the Madhyandina recension of the Satapatha Brahmana speak of a plant called usand, from which Soma is made.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta en nota que el verso invocado por Mukherjee no habla del Soma y localiza los que sí hablan de la planta usana

«The final link in the argument is this: “Bhang is sacred to Hindus by tradition.’ In sum, ‘May we not conclude that the weight of evidence is in favour of the identification of Soma with Cannabis (bhang)?’» — Doniger O'Flaherty cita el eslabón final del argumento de Mukherjee y su conclusión en forma de pregunta a favor del cáñamo

«The Durga celebration, the use of bhang, and the tradition that Siva uses bhang, are all late characteristics of Bengal Saivism.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta en nota que la fiesta de Durga y el uso del bhang son rasgos tardíos del saivismo bengalí

«Sir Charles Eliot expressed ‘considerable doubt’ that Soma could be identified. He said it was a plant with ‘yellow juice of a strong smell, fiery taste, and intoxicating properties,’ and that the Parsis of Yezd and Kerman used Asclepiads.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Sir Charles Eliot la duda considerable sobre la identificación y su descripción de la planta de jugo amarillo, olor fuerte y sabor ardiente

«Pavgee rebutted Havell without proposing any alternative, using the argument merely as a foil for his own hypothesis - that Soma was indigenous to the Saptasindhu region (i.e., India proper) and was not ‘brought in’ by ‘Aryans.’ The Indo-Aryans were autochthonous in India, he wrote, and ‘had not immigrated’; the Iranian Soma is, of course, spurious, but kept the old name.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la posición de Pavgee, que objetaba a Havell solo para sostener el origen autóctono del Soma y de los propios indoarios en la India

«Soma could not be any kind of liquor, for liquor is an evil, while Soma — the true Soma - was ‘exhilarating yet slightly intoxicating’ and ‘gave moral elevation’. Pavgee does not explain how this was done, nor does he identify the Soma plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Pavgee la negativa de que el Soma fuera licor y su definición moral de la planta, y hace notar que no explica cómo ni la identifica

«In 1922 Jakob Wilhelm Hauer published a work that lent a kind of peripheral support to the bhang theory, for he referred to the Soma cult as the most highly developed form of the use of narcotics to induce ecstasy, calling particular attention to the late Vedic hymn (x 136) that describes a long-haired sage who drinks poison with Rudra.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1922 la obra de Hauer, que leía el culto del Soma como la forma más desarrollada del uso de narcóticos para inducir éxtasis y llamaba la atención sobre el himno del sabio de pelo largo

«Hauer believed that Soma was the most important toxic means of inducing ecstasy, but not the only such means, and he suggested that the Vedic references might be traces of a primitive ecstatic practice of hallucination caused by certain plants.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Hauer la primacía del Soma entre los medios tóxicos de éxtasis y su conjetura de que las referencias védicas sean huellas de una práctica extática primitiva con plantas

«Whether these ‘plants’ were Sarcostemmas, Afghan grapes, or hemp, Hauer neglects to say, but his final remark is more suggestive of a hallucinogenic plant than of anything else: opium is no longer used in a religious context, but every time we light up a good cigar we experience a faint reflection» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la abstención de Hauer sobre cuáles fueran esas plantas y lee su remate del cigarro como más sugerente de una planta alucinógena que de otra cosa

«Though this ancient Yogic cult is clearly non-Vedic, presumably pre-Vedic, Hauer does not say whether he believes the Soma plant to have been the same as the drug of the ‘primeval ecstatic’, or perhaps a substitute for it. Yet his remarks are provocative in the context of the search for a hallucinogenic Soma plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota lo que Hauer deja sin decir sobre la relación entre el Soma y la droga del extático primigenio, y declara aun así provocadoras sus observaciones

«In 1924, Gilbert Slater advanced a novel hypothesis: that amrta (Soma) was Egyptian beer, a fermentation of date juice or palmyra palm or coconut palm, brought to India from Mesopotamia.”» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1924 la hipótesis de Gilbert Slater, que hacía del amrta cerveza egipcia llegada de Mesopotamia, y consigna que no fue aceptada

«Georges Dumézil maintained that Soma was native to India, and that it was the Indian substitute for the Indo-European ‘sacred barley beer’ rather than for the Indo-European mead that Oldenberg had postulated.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Dumézil la tesis del Soma como sustituto indio de la cerveza sagrada de cebada indoeuropea, frente al hidromiel de Oldenberg

«The beer was replaced by wine in Greece and by Soma in India, and the one word for this beer, or for a beverage with a cereal base which must have preceded it, was the sacred ritual name: ambrosia, the Greek &uBoocfa and the Sanskrit amrta, the elixir of immortality.» — Doniger O'Flaherty sigue la reconstrucción de Dumézil hasta el nombre ritual común, ambrosía y amrta

«Barley itself must have been Indo-European, as the linguistic evidence indicates: Greek yout}, Latin hordeum, Armenian gari, and various Celtic words for beer, e.g., cervesia (Gallic) and cuirm (Irish).» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la evidencia lingüística con que Dumézil hacía indoeuropea la cebada, con las formas griega, latina, armenia y célticas

«As for the sacred position of barley in India, Dumézil referred to the tradition that barley (yava) had stayed with the gods when all the other plants had left them, thus enabling the gods to conquer their enemies.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Dumézil la tradición de la cebada que se quedó con los dioses cuando las demás plantas los dejaron

«The Mahdbhdrata relates that the gods once churned the ocean in order to obtain the amrta, but a terrible poison emerged and would have destroyed them all had Siva not swallowed it and saved them; in the light of Dumézil’s theory that the amrta is barley beer, this myth is an expression of excessive fermentation that must be arrested.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el mito del batido del océano del Mahabharata y la lectura de Dumézil, que lo vuelve figura de una fermentación excesiva que hay que detener

«Louis Lewin’s Phantastica: Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs included Soma in the chapter on alcohol rather than narcotics, mentioning Periploca aphylla, Sarcostemma brevistigma, Setaria glauca, and Ephedra vulgaris as plants that had been identified with Soma, but he added: ‘None of these plants is able to give rise to such effects as have been attributed to Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Louis Lewin la inclusión del Soma en el capítulo del alcohol y su declaración de que ninguna de las plantas candidatas produce los efectos que se le atribuyen; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Elsewhere he suggested that the yogis might have used some sort of narcotic such as Indian hemp or scopolamine, but he did not identify this practice with the cult of Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Lewin apuntó al cáñamo o la escopolamina para los yoguis sin ligar esa práctica al culto del Soma

«The Sarcostemma theory returned yet again, this time in a paper by L. L. Uhl, who maintained that Sarcostemma, and not Ephedra, was the original Soma, saying that he had found Sarcostemma brevistigma frequently at latitude 15° in South India, where it is called Soma and is used in sacrifices.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la vuelta de la tesis del Sarcostemma con el trabajo de L. L. Uhl y el testimonio de campo en que la apoyaba

«Arthur Berriedale Keith expressed the view that the Soma problem, though insoluble, had led to ‘interesting investigations, but to no sure result, and the only thing certain is that the plant, which has been used in modern India as the Soma plant, is one which would not be considered by modern tastes as at all pleasant in the form of pressed juice mixed with water.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Keith el juicio de que el problema, aunque insoluble, produjo investigaciones interesantes y ningún resultado firme, y su reparo sobre el sabor de la planta moderna; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Then, somewhat echoing de Gubernatis’ reasoning, Keith went on to say that although one can’t be sure what was pleasant to a Vedic Indian, nevertheless it is likely that ‘the drink was originally a pleasant one; in the course of time the long distance from which the shoots had to be brought may easily have made it less attractive, as it certainly encouraged the use of various substitutes described in the ritual text books.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Keith la conjetura de que la bebida fuera grata al principio y se volviera menos atractiva con la distancia del acarreo, lo que animó los sustitutos

«Keith agreed with Hauer’s suggestion that RgVeda x 136 might be a reference to the use ‘of some poison to produce exhilaration or hypnosis,» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna el acuerdo de Keith con Hauer sobre el himno del veneno que produce exaltación o hipnosis

«Elsewhere he observed that the Avesta does not call Haoma mead, and suggested that mead was the Indo-European drink and that Soma was identified with it when Soma was discovered, in India, and found to produce ‘a juice pleasant to drink or at least intoxicating.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Keith la observación de que el Avesta no llama hidromiel al Haoma y su conjetura de que el hidromiel fuera la bebida indoeuropea con la que se identificó el Soma al descubrirse en la India

«In 1926 G. Jouveau-Dubreuil wrote an article suggesting that Soma was none other than a species of Asclepias after all.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1926 el artículo de Jouveau-Dubreuil, que volvía a proponer una asclepiadácea

«He had discovered that the Nambudri Brahmans (on the Malabar coast, in Kerala) of Taliparamba, who practiced ‘pure Vedic ceremonies, sent to a Raja in Kollangod at the foot of the high mountains to obtain their Soma plant, a leafless, milky, green creeper that was an Asclepiad.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el dato de campo de Jouveau-Dubreuil, los brahmanes nambudri de Taliparamba que mandaban traer su planta de Soma de un rajá al pie de las montañas

«Yet neither the Sarcostemma theory nor the theory that Sarcostemma was merely a substitute was incompatible with the beer theory of Max Miiller and Mitra (for the beer could be made with the Sarcostemma or the plant for which it was a substitute), nor were these or the wine theory incompatible with Oldenberg’s mead theory (for the mead could have been replaced by any of the above in India), and so the theories continued to live side by side.» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica por qué las teorías podían convivir sin excluirse, porque cerveza, vino e hidromiel admitían cualquiera de las plantas

«Otto Schrader and A. Nehring maintained that the Indo-European honey was replaced by the Soma plant - still called mddhu - in Aryan times, while wine and beer were later substituted for it throughout Europe.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Schrader y Nehring la sustitución de la miel indoeuropea por la planta del Soma en tiempos arios y del vino y la cerveza por ella en Europa

«P. V. Kane was unconvinced by any of the theories, but mentioned that in the Deccan a plant called ransera was used as a substitute for Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que P. V. Kane no se convenció de ninguna teoría y aporta el sustituto que menciona, una planta del Decán

«In 1931 Sir Aurel Stein published a paper entitled, “On the Ephedra, the Hum Plant, and the Soma,” describing a cemetery in Central Asia filled with packets of Ephedra twigs.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1931 el trabajo de Stein sobre la efedra y el cementerio de Asia central lleno de paquetes de ramillas

«he then followed this with the assertion that Ephedra could not have been the original Soma, for it was bitter and Soma sweet, and Ephedra was not mountainous.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la negativa de Stein a la efedra como Soma original, por amarga y por no ser de montaña

«He then concluded: “The only result of these inquiries has been to direct my attention more closely to... the wild rhubarb,’ which grows in the mountains, has a fleshy stalk, and can be made into rhubarb wine, though Stein admits that the Indians do not do so.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la conclusión de Stein a favor del ruibarbo silvestre, con la admisión del propio Stein de que los indios no hacen vino con él

«Stein nevertheless maintained that the descriptions of the Soma juice best applied to rhubarb.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Stein sostuvo el ruibarbo para el jugo aun admitiendo que las descripciones védicas podrían aplicarse a cualquier cosa

«He added that the juice might be mixed with milk to facilitate fermentation, ‘which alone could endow a juice like that obtained from the rhubarb with the exhilarating and exciting effect so clearly indicated in the Vedic hymns.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la salida de Stein por la fermentación con leche, único modo a su juicio de dar al ruibarbo el efecto que los himnos describen

«He referred to a statement by E. Hubers that Soma was merely a decoction of barley or millet, into which the juice of the Soma plant had been added as a catalyst for fermentation (Gdrungserreger), though it was unclear what kind of fermentation took place.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Lindner la posición de Hubers, que hacía del Soma una decocción de cebada o mijo con el jugo de la planta como catalizador

«Lindner’s own studies of the micro-organisms of the Agave in Mexico, particularly of Thermobacterium mobile, had brought him to the conclusion that yeast played only a secondary role in the fermentation, after the fermentation-bacteria had prepared the field.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el trabajo de Lindner sobre los microorganismos del agave mexicano y su conclusión de que la levadura solo cumple un papel secundario

«He went on to say that Thermobacterium mobile can produce alcohol in grapes and in cane sugar, and concluded that since the ‘purity of fermentation’ took precedence over the material fermented, even Sarcostemma brevistigma, Calotropis gigantea, or Ephedra distachya, which had been considered as ‘the holy» — Doniger O'Flaherty sigue el razonamiento de Lindner hasta la primacía de la pureza de la fermentación sobre la materia fermentada; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«Lindner was convinced that Thermobacterium mobile was the most important fermenting agent of the tropics, and that the songs of praise to Soma really must have been ‘dedicated to this Bacterium.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la conclusión de Lindner, que los cantos de alabanza al Soma estaban dedicados en realidad a ese bacterio

«He suggested that the tropical explorers try ‘TM’ in the juice of the Indian butter tree, Bassia latifolia, or the Ceylonese cowtree, Gymnema lactiferum, which have milky saps, the former sweet, the latter bitter.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la propuesta de Lindner a los exploradores tropicales, con las dos plantas de savia lechosa que les señalaba

«When Lindner himself had tried a spoonful of TM it had resulted in ‘undiminished feeling of well-being and almost odourless excrement.» — Doniger O'Flaherty reporta el resultado de la prueba que Lindner se hizo a sí mismo, bienestar sin merma y excremento casi inodoro

«Dr. Leo Kaps had treated patients in the Wilheminenspital in Vienna with TM beer and obtained extraordinary results, and a Swedish firm and a Viennese brewery were about to produce a TM beer with small alcoholic content.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el uso clínico vienés de ese preparado y los planes de una cervecería para producirlo

«I have found no evidence that Soma-TM-beer was in fact manufactured nor any further reference to the Lindner theory after this initial publication.» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara la búsqueda negativa: no halló evidencia de que esa cerveza se fabricara ni referencia posterior a la teoría de Lindner

«An original and, in retrospect, provocative contribution to the argument was made in 1936 by Philippe de F» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1936 la contribución de Philippe de Félice y la califica de original y provocadora en retrospectiva

«He was unable to identify Soma but he described the plant in terms that seem remarkably up-to-date: he would probably have called Soma an ‘hallucinogen’, had the word existed.» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara que De Félice no pudo identificar el Soma y describió la planta en términos que hoy suenan actuales, y que probablemente la habría llamado alucinógeno si la palabra hubiera existido

«He deduced from the record that Sarcostemma brevistigma and similar plants had served to replace Soma toward the end of the Vedic period, when the Indo-Iranians in emigration were forced to use new drugs in place of Soma. Alcoholic drinks such as surd, he thought, might also have come to be used.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la reconstrucción de De Félice, con los sustitutos impuestos por la emigración indoirania

«Instead of indulging in suppositions that no document supports, ought we not rather to ask ourselves whether, to arrive at the drink that plunged them into ecstasy, the ancient Indo-Iranians did not have recourse, like so many other primitive peoples, to some plant whose toxic properties they had discovered? This is what the examination of the texts seems to make clear. The liquor about which they speak is always drawn from a plant.» — pasaje de De Félice en la versión que reproduce el volumen, que propone en forma de pregunta el recurso a una planta tóxica como en tantos pueblos primitivos

«It must be filtered or decanted, to eliminate certain elements that are disturbing or that perhaps risk rendering it too toxic.» — pasaje de De Félice en la versión del volumen sobre el filtrado o decantado que elimina elementos perturbadores o demasiado tóxicos

«Sometimes it has a bad taste or even smacks of carrion; thus it is certainly not for pleasure that one drinks it. The inebriation that it provokes can present grave dangers: the spirit wanders, the drink can lead even to madness.» — pasaje de De Félice en la versión del volumen, que niega que se beba por placer y describe los peligros de la embriaguez

«Men know and fear the baleful effects of the drug, and, though he was a god, Indra himself did not escape them, since one day the Soma came forth from every opening in his body.» — pasaje de De Félice en la versión del volumen, con los efectos temidos de la droga y el caso del propio Indra, de quien el Soma salió por todas las aberturas del cuerpo

«One may conclude from all this, it seems to us, that from the most remote antiquity the Indo-Iranians, when they were still dwelling together in their original home, possessed a special beverage reserved exclusively for the ceremonies of their religion and drawn from a toxic plant.» — conclusión de De Félice en la versión del volumen, que atribuye a los indoiranios de la casa común una bebida reservada al culto y sacada de una planta tóxica

«The information that we possess about this plant unfortunately does not permit us to determine the species; but it is enough for us to classify it as among the toxic plants the use of which is widespread, for reasons of a mystical nature, in all parts of the world.» — cierre de la conclusión de De Félice en la versión del volumen, que declara imposible determinar la especie y suficiente clasificarla entre las plantas tóxicas de uso místico en todo el mundo

«De Félice’s reference to the emeto-cathartic effect of Soma is to the epithet vamani in the Ayurvedic description and to the Brahmana story in which Soma injured Indra and flowed from his mouth and ‘all the openings of his vital airs, and from his urinary tract’.» — Doniger O'Flaherty localiza las dos fuentes del efecto emeto-catártico que menciona De Félice, el epíteto ayurvédico y el relato brahmánico del Soma que hirió a Indra

«The Indo-Aryans, spreading out east and south from the Indus Valley, were finding themselves increasingly remote from the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas. W.D.O'F.» — nota de la propia autora de la Parte Dos, firmada con sus iniciales, que explica el alejamiento creciente de las montañas conforme los indoarios se extendían; es el sitio donde el aparato de esta parte lleva firma

«Meanwhile the more conventional line of Vedic studies continued. L. van Itallie published an article in Dutch investigating the Sarcostemma acidum stalks in the light of the Soma plant; he described acids and alkaloids, carbohydrates and phytosterins, tannic acids and glycosides, but drew no new conclusions.» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el análisis químico de Van Itallie sobre los tallos del Sarcostemma, que no dio conclusión nueva

«Henrik Nyberg referred to Soma-Haoma as an intoxicating drink made from a plant no longer identifiable, but he contributed obliquely to the bhang theory with his suggestion that Zoroaster was a shaman who drugged himself with hemp.”» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Nyberg la definición del Soma como bebida embriagante ya no identificable y su aporte oblicuo a la tesis del cáñamo, que hacía de Zoroastro un chamán drogado

«Nyberg himself, however, distinguished clearly between Haoma and hemp as plants, explaining Zoroaster’s aversion to Haoma in the light of the belief that Haoma-drinking induced a state of intoxication (Rausch) rather than ecstasy.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota que el propio Nyberg separaba el Haoma del cáñamo y explicaba la aversión de Zoroastro por el estado de embriaguez y no de éxtasis que el Haoma inducía

«he considered Nyberg’s theory one to be rejected “without further consideration . . . if one reflects on the effects of hemp, the physical, mental and moral deterioration it brings,’» — Henning, citado en nota por Doniger O'Flaherty, rechaza sin más consideración la tesis de Nyberg apelando al deterioro físico, mental y moral que atribuye al cáñamo

«he maintained that the Avestan citations, ‘if correctly interpreted, can at the most serve to show that they cultivated hemp, possibly for the purpose for which hemp is cultivated all the world over —i.e., to obtain its fibre.» — Henning, citado en nota por Doniger O'Flaherty, acota que las citas avésticas a lo sumo muestran cultivo de cáñamo, quizá para fibra

«Joges Candra Roy then developed Mukherjee's bhang hypothesis, adding to the original argument the facts that Soma is actually called bhang in the RgVeda;» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Joges Candra Roy desarrolló la hipótesis del bhang de Mukherjee y añadió que el RgVeda llama bhanga al Soma

«that Soma is called a creeper nowhere in the RgVeda, but rather an herb (dsadhi), a term which could apply to bhang; and finally that the Soma sacrifice “was a feast and the drink added hilarity; bhang has been in use on similar occasions.» — Doniger O'Flaherty completa los añadidos de Roy, el término de hierba aplicable al bhang y el uso festivo de este

«Bhavigd here seems to be an epithet meaning ‘intoxicating’ (from bhaiij, to break, i.e., to disrupt the senses), but the reading occurs only once and is uncertain.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota en nota que la lectura de ese epíteto aparece una sola vez y es incierta, y lo glosa como embriagante por la raíz de romper

«Macdonell suggests that the word bhajigd first applied to Soma, meaning ‘intoxicating,’ and then ‘came to designate hemp’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge en nota la propuesta de Macdonell de que el término se aplicara primero al Soma y luego pasara a designar el cáñamo

«after the one questionable Vedic occurrence, bhafiga appears in classical Sanskrit several times only to designate the plant, with no reference to any narcotic effects.» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara en nota la búsqueda negativa: tras esa única aparición védica dudosa, el término solo designa la planta en sánscrito clásico, sin efectos narcóticos

«The 8th century A. D. Sariigadhara Samhita (Bombay 1888; 1.4.19) is the first extant source that considers bhangd a drug; it likens it to ‘the saliva of a snake,’ i.e., opium (phenam cahisamudbhavam) and the commentator adds that the effect is like that of inebriating liquor (madyavisayavat).» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en el siglo octavo la fuente más antigua conservada que trata el bhanga como droga y recoge su símil con la saliva de serpiente

«The Bhavaprakasa (Chowkhamba edition, 1.1) refers to bhariga (matulani) as intoxicating and causing hallucination (moha) and slow speech (mandavak);» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge en nota la descripción del Bhavaprakasa, que hace del bhanga embriagante y causante de alucinación y habla lenta

«the Dhanvantariya-nighantu describes bhaiga as intoxicating, bitter, stimulating talk, inducing sleep, and producing hallucinations.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra la nota con la descripción del Dhanvantariyanighantu, que hace del bhanga embriagante y amargo, estimulante del habla, inductor del sueño y causante de alucinaciones

«S Delli Roman Regni repeated the argument that Soma was not a fermented liquor but rather a non-alcoholic ‘syrup-like thing,”» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Delli Roman Regni repitió el argumento del Soma como jarabe no alcohólico

«C. Kunham Raja maintained that, according to both the Vedas and the Avesta, Soma produced happiness (mdda) while stird produced evil intoxication (durmdda) and that Soma was a creeper with leaves, no longer available.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de C. Kunham Raja la oposición entre la felicidad que da el Soma y la embriaguez mala de la sura, y su descripción del Soma como enredadera con hojas ya no disponible

«Soma, he reasoned, had not time to ferment and if it had been an alcoholic drink the Indians would have substituted for it another alcoholic drink when it became unavailable, instead of the known non-alcoholic substitutes that they in fact used.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume el argumento de Kunham Raja contra la tesis alcohólica, que los indios habrían sustituido un alcohol por otro y no por los sustitutos no alcohólicos que de hecho usaron

«Yet the wine hypothesis - dead and killed again so often- reappeared in Ernst Herzfeld’s Zoroaster and his World,? where he remarked that in 1931 he had received a letter from a New York gentleman who believed that a plant growing only in Persepolis — the Salvia persepolitana — was the Haoma, but that nothing had ever come of this communication.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna el regreso de la hipótesis del vino con Herzfeld y la carta neoyorquina sobre una salvia de Persépolis que no llevó a nada

«Herzfeld maintained that Soma must be a fermentation from grapes;» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Herzfeld la tesis del Soma como fermentación de uvas

«that the god Homa is the Aryan Dionysos; and that ‘to thus define homa means to explain how wine [cultivated all over Iran before the advent of the Aryans and after] could remain unknown to the Avesta, and how the cultivation of homa [common in the Avesta] could disappear in Iran long before the Arab conquest. The solution is evident: homa is vine, wine.» — Doniger O'Flaherty reproduce el argumento de Herzfeld, que hace del dios Homa el Dioniso ario y resuelve por ahí el silencio avéstico sobre el vino

«He adds that Haoma could not possibly be bhang because ‘the use of hashish in Zoroaster’s time is an imagination.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la negativa de Herzfeld al bhang, que declaraba imaginación el uso del hachís en tiempos de Zoroastro

«Nothing is known of the use of hemp as a narcotic prior to the Arsacid period.”» — cierre de la posición de Herzfeld citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, que niega noticia alguna del uso del cáñamo como narcótico antes del periodo arsácida

«The first certain European reference to the use of hemp as a drug in India is in Garcia d’Orta’s record of a conversation with the Sultan Badar in Goa in 1563. The Sultan confessed that whenever in the night he had a desire to visit Portugal and Turkey and Arabia, ‘all he had to do was to eat a little bangue» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1563 la primera referencia europea segura al cáñamo como droga en la India, en la conversación de Garcia da Orta con el sultán Badar en Goa

«In 1676 Henrich van Rheede (van Draakenstein), the governor of Malabar, published his Hortus Indicus Malabaricus in Amsterdam (written in Latin and Dutch), in which he called attention to a plant named bangi that was smoked like tobacco and caused inebriation» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1676 el Hortus Indicus Malabaricus de Van Rheede, que describe una planta fumada como el tabaco que embriagaba

«The hemp — with which we used to hang * Our prison pets, yon felon gang — In Eastern climes produces Bang, Esteemed a drug divine.» — copla de Lord Neaves de 1868 que el volumen reproduce en nota, como medida de lo conocido que era ya el bhang

«Still R. N. Chopra held to the Sarcostemma theory,’ mentioning also the possibility of Periploca aphylla;? earlier, Chopra had also done extensive work with the Ephedras.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que R. N. Chopra siguió con la tesis del Sarcostemma y trabajó también las efedras

«Karl Geldner in his translation of the RgVeda maintained that Soma could only be a species of Ephedra, probably Ephedra intermedia or E. pachyclada, the fruit of which is red and eaten by children and the stem of which is dried and taken in water as a treatment for fever.*» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Karl Geldner la tesis de que el Soma solo podía ser una especie de Ephedra, con su fruto rojo comido por los niños y su tallo secado contra la fiebre

«Though he himself admitted that the juice was described as red, he nevertheless reiterated the old tradition that the ‘milk’ of the plant must be white, citing as support for this the verses that he had translated as Soma juice mixed with milk (x 9173-‘nicht ganz klar’) or Soma delighting us with the ‘milk’ (i.e., the expressed fluid) of the stem (1x 107”).» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala la contradicción interna de Geldner, que admitía el jugo rojo y repetía la tradición de la leche blanca de la planta; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«Chinnaswami Sastri published, in 1953, an article demonstrating that Soma was not wine, reviewing the Brahmana substitutes, and concluding that the Soma juice was neither an intoxicant nor a stimulant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1953 el artículo de Chinnaswami Sastri, que concluía que el jugo del Soma no era embriagante ni estimulante

«The orthodoxy of Sri Chinnaswami’s position may be indicated by the fact that his article is written in Sanskrit.» — Doniger O'Flaherty mide la ortodoxia de esa posición por el hecho de que el artículo esté escrito en sánscrito

«Reinhold F. G. Miiller pointed out the references to Soma in the Hindu medical books and concluded that fermented drinks, surd, and brandy could have been used as substitutes, but he remarked that evidence of the process of distillation in India before Islam had not been proven.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Reinhold Müller las referencias médicas hindúes al Soma y su reserva sobre la destilación en la India antes del islam

«Mircea Eliade expresses the view that ritual intoxication by means of hemp, opium, drunkenness but we call inanity, which is usually followed by mania or a stupid condition.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Mircea Eliade la tesis de que la embriaguez ritual con cáñamo y opio es propia de un periodo decadente del chamanismo y que se admitió a regañadientes en el yoga clásico

«He remarks, however, upon Patafijali’s reference to herbs as a source of meditative powers and on the RgVedic description of the sage drinking poison.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Eliade sí repara en la mención de Patañjali a las hierbas como fuente de poderes y en el sabio rgvédico que bebe veneno

«He points to the use of opium and hashish in ecstatic and orgiastic sects in India, but he does not comment on Soma’s possible status as such a drug, nor indeed upon the nature of the ecstasy induced by Soma, though he treats of the Vedas — and of ecstasy - at great length.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala la abstención de Eliade sobre el estatuto del Soma como droga y sobre la naturaleza del éxtasis que induce, pese a tratar largamente los Vedas y el éxtasis

«A.L. Basham says that Soma is not what the Parsis now call Haoma (for the latter has no inebriating qualities),» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de A. L. Basham la doble negativa, que el Soma no es el Haoma actual de los parsis ni es alcohólico porque se consumía el mismo día

«Soma may well have been hemp... from which modern Indians produce a narcotic drink called bhang.”*» — Basham, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, compara los efectos del Soma con los del hachís y propone que bien pudo ser cáñamo

«Several Indian works were then published which investigated certain previously ignored plants as possible Soma plants: Nadkarni and Nadkarni identified the ‘moon-creeper’ with Peederia feetida, a plant used for the treatment of rheumatism;* P. V. Sharma called Crinum latifolium, a plant whose leaves and roots are emetic and purgative, the som-vel.» — Doniger O'Flaherty inventaría las candidaturas indias tardías, la enredadera de la luna de los Nadkarni y el Crinum latifolium de P. V. Sharma

«V. G. Rahurkar arose to combat the alcohol theory, insisting that the Vedic references to rjisd and tirdahnya® show that Soma did not have time to ferment; he supported Oldenberg’s mead hypothesis and concluded: ‘Soma juice, thus, seems to be an orgiastic . . . non-alcoholic syrup-like . . . enervating drink. It was not even a fermented» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Rahurkar los argumentos contra la tesis alcohólica y su conclusión de que el Soma era un jarabe orgiástico no alcohólico; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«B. H. Kapadia says that Soma’s ‘fruit’ is red and fleshy and liked by children;? that it seems to have been a creeper (he cites atasd and vdna);3 and that it is an inflexible bush with dense, upright, leafless stalks.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de B. H. Kapadia el fruto rojo y carnoso, la enredadera y a la vez el arbusto rígido de tallos erectos y sin hojas, y no armoniza la contradicción

«Pentii Aalto states that Soma fermented for one to nine days; ‘the alcohol percentage cannot have been high.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Pentti Aalto la fermentación de uno a nueve días y su conjetura de ingredientes narcóticos ante el bajo grado alcohólico

«The possible nature of these ‘narcotic ingredients’ was the subject of an article by Karl Hummel, who gave Vedic citations to establish that the Soma plant must be mountainous, yielding copious sap, and golden red in color.» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta el artículo de Karl Hummel y los tres requisitos védicos que este fijaba

«Hummel maintained that rhubarb best satisfied the requirements, for rhubarb is known to grow in the mountains of inner Asia, to yield a copious green-gold sap which turns reddish brown after standing for a while, and, of course, to be bright red, or, in some species, golden.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Hummel el ruibarbo como candidato que mejor satisface esos requisitos, con su savia verde dorada que vira a pardo rojizo

«the problem of the supposed sweetness of the Soma juice, a quality absent from rhubarb juice, is easily solved by the assumption that the Indo-Aryans mixed Soma with honey, as well as with barley and milk.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge la salida de Hummel para el dulzor ausente del ruibarbo, la mezcla con miel, cebada y leche

«And as for intoxicating properties, also absent from the rhubarb juice, Hummel maintained that these were sufficiently supplied by the mere sight of the glorious red stalks in the eyes of ‘the naive people.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el último recurso de Hummel, que hacía bastar la mera vista de los tallos rojos para embriagar al pueblo ingenuo

«A more conventional source of intoxication —i.e., fermentation - was cited by N. A. Qazilbash to support his choice for Soma — Ephedra pachyclada.» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta la candidatura de Qazilbash con la fermentación como fuente de embriaguez

«Qazilbash maintained that the absence of latex in the Ephedra did not disqualify it, for only the later Sanskrit writers, and never the RgVeda, attributed the presence of latex to the Soma plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge el argumento de Qazilbash de que la falta de látex no descalifica a la efedra, porque solo los autores sánscritos tardíos y nunca el RgVeda se lo atribuyen al Soma

«pachyclada grows abundantly all along the Hindu Kush and Suleman ranges and yields a number of alkaloids, including L-ephedrine, Ephedra, and Pseudo-ephedrine, which act similarly to the hormone adrenalin and are used (in the form of crushed green twigs of Ephedra pachyclada) in Khyber and parts of Afghanistan as aphrodisiacs; it was Qazilbash’s belief that at the time of the RgVeda the Ephedra plant was allowed to ferment, yielding a liquor that contained alcohol and ephedra alkaloids; ‘the liquor, therefore, was intoxicating and possessed invigorating and stimulating effects ..» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume la propuesta de Qazilbash, con la distribución de la efedra por el Hindu Kush, sus alcaloides y su uso afrodisiaco, y su creencia de que en tiempos del RgVeda se dejaba fermentar; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«G. M. Patil remarks upon Soma’s unparalleled intoxicating and invigorating nature.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de G. M. Patil el carácter sin par que atribuye a la embriaguez del Soma

«It made them forget their mental and physical agonies, and therefore, it was a wonderful herb...?» — Patil, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, describe el efecto del embriagante sobre el pueblo védico, que lo volvía locuaz, lo animaba a pelear y le hacía olvidar sus penas

«Jan Gonda reiterated the hydromel theory,’ and Alain Daniélou at first supported the theory of Soma as the creeper Sarcostemma brevistigma,* but later he seems to have amended his views in favor of Indian hemp (‘le chanvre Indien’) as the plant from which the ancient Soma drink was made.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la reiteración del hidromiel por Jan Gonda y el cambio de posición de Daniélou, del Sarcostemma al cáñamo indio

«Yet the growing dissatisfaction with conventional theories of Soma and increasing familiarity with drug-induced religious experiences have led many modern scholars to venture onto new territory; Leopold Fischer suggests that the state of mind evinced by the Soma texts ‘comes much closer to alkaloid drug experiences than to alcoholic intoxication.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enlaza el descontento con las teorías convencionales y la familiaridad con las experiencias religiosas por droga, y recoge de Leopold Fischer que el estado que los textos describen se parece más a los alcaloides que al alcohol

«Varro E. Tyler discards Periploca aphylla as a possibility because it ‘occurs only at low altitudes in the mountains, contains a gummy latex not utilizable as a beverage, and lacks fleshy fruits attractive to birds... [Soma’s] fruits are eaten by birds» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Varro Tyler el descarte de la Periploca aphylla por altitud, látex gomoso y falta de frutos carnosos atractivos para las aves

«He also discards the Ephedra theory because ‘it is very difficult to express much juice from these xeromorphic plants,’ though he adds that Ephedra pachyclada when boiled in milk is used as an aphrodisiac» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Tyler el descarte de la efedra por lo difícil de exprimirle jugo, con el dato del uso afrodisiaco hervida en leche

«Either the ancient hymns of the Rigveda and the Avesta are gross exaggerations of fact or there grows in the vast mountain ranges of north-west India a plant whose CNS-stimulating properties, so well-known to the old inhabitants, still remain hidden from modern man.» — Tyler, citado por Doniger O'Flaherty, deja la alternativa abierta entre exageración de los himnos y una planta estimulante del sistema nervioso todavía oculta al hombre moderno en el noroeste de la India

«A far more thorough article was published in the same year by J. G. Srivastava, but he too held fast to the importance of the agency of the bird, and to another long-disputed criterion: the ReVedic verse that some have misinterpreted as attributing to the Soma plant a thousand boughs.» — Doniger O'Flaherty presenta el artículo de Srivastava y señala que se aferra al ave y a un verso mal interpretado sobre las mil ramas; el troceo imprime ReVedic

«Sahdsravalsam, the adjective in question, modifies vdnaspdtim, which refers to the tree of sacrifice, not to the Soma plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta en nota que el adjetivo de ese verso modifica al árbol del sacrificio y no a la planta del Soma

«He supports the latter implication with a verse from the Rajanighantu which according to him describes the climber as having ‘several stems from the root-stock’,t and with a verse from the Suiruta Samhita which gives the Soma plant ‘a tuberous root’.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge los dos apoyos textuales de Srivastava y los localiza

«Srivastava goes on to mention several other plants with which the Soma has been identified, including the Centella asiatica, Cocculus hirsutus (used as a laxative and a cure for venereal» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que Srivastava admitía que el RgVeda nunca atribuye a la planta ni condición de trepadora ni látex, y aun así seguía la lista de candidatos

«He disqualifies the genus Sarcostemma and the Periploca aphylla because birds do not disperse their fruits;» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge los descartes de Srivastava por el criterio del ave, el Sarcostemma y la Periploca aphylla

«he disqualifies Vitis vinifera because it does not have the ‘twigs and stalks’ that ‘the Rig-veda clearly states’ to have been used; and finally he settles back upon the Ephedra, whose ‘seeds are covered by red, succulent, edible bracts, and are dispersed by birds,’ and whose medical properties — which he describes at length — are commensurate with the fame of the Soma plant.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra la posición de Srivastava, que descarta la vid y vuelve a la efedra por sus brácteas rojas dispersadas por aves

«Most recently an article by J. P. Kooger appeared to summarize briefly the major Soma theories, including Wasson’s Amanita muscaria thesis, based on the note presented by Wasson in 1966 at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data el artículo de Kooger que resume las teorías e incluye ya la tesis de Wasson, presentada en 1966 en el Peabody Museum de Yale

«Referring to Wasson’s theory as ‘sensational’ (opzienbarende) and likely to deal a great blow to extant theories, he nevertheless concluded that the mystery surrounding the identity of the Soma plant was by no means solved.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Kooger el calificativo de sensacional para la tesis de Wasson y su conclusión de que el misterio no estaba resuelto en modo alguno

«Some years ago, R. C. Zaehner revived the rhubarb suggestion by referring to Haoma in these rather qualified terms: “The Haoma plant (from its description as yellow and glowing probably something very like our rhubarb, which is found in the Iranian mountains to this day)» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de Zaehner la vuelta al ruibarbo en términos muy matizados a partir de la descripción amarilla y brillante del Haoma

«More recently, he mentioned to me the possibility that Haoma might be the wild chicory, which grows in the mountains of Persia, though he considers this suggestion merely a shot in the dark.» — Doniger O'Flaherty reporta en primera persona una comunicación de Zaehner sobre la achicoria silvestre, que él mismo tenía por un tiro a ciegas

«But in actual fact, what else have all the other theories been but just that?» — Doniger O'Flaherty devuelve la expresión a todo el campo con una pregunta, que ninguna de las demás teorías fue otra cosa

«Some ingenious, some thoughtful, some obviously silly, some plausible, some vague, some stubbornly wrong-headed, some Procrustean, some groping toward the truth — but all shots in the dark.» — Doniger O'Flaherty clasifica en una sola frase las teorías recorridas y las declara todas tiros a ciegas

«Not knowing what plant the poets of the RgVeda had in mind, modern scholars have often jumped to the conclusion that the hymns are vague and obscure in speaking of Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty objeta el salto de no saber qué planta a declarar vagos y oscuros los himnos

«Handicapped by a rudimentary knowledge of the vernacular and ancient languages of India and by inadequate communication in the academic world, scholars covered the same ground over and over again.» — Doniger O'Flaherty adjudica la repetición del debate al conocimiento rudimentario de las lenguas y a la mala comunicación académica

«Time and time again the same ideas appear, are disproved, and reappear as if they were proven theories; scholars draw upon the work of their colleagues and occasionally upon newly discovered primary materials, but there is remarkably little attention to the RgVeda itself. (Hillebrandt, Roth, and Geldner are notable exceptions.» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe el ciclo de ideas que reaparecen como probadas y señala la poca atención al RgVeda mismo, con tres excepciones que nombra

«Even within these limits, there seems to have been little contact between botanists and Vedists, Indian scholars and Europeans.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna la falta de contacto entre botánicos y vedistas y entre eruditos indios y europeos

«Fairly convincing evidence that Soma was not an alcoholic beverage was established quite early, yet Europeans continued to identify it with various forms of alcohol, and Indians continued to put pen to paper in order to assure the world that wine — which is of course anathema to an orthodox Hindu - was not Soma.» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala que la evidencia contra la tesis alcohólica quedó fijada temprano y que unos y otros siguieron escribiendo como si no, cada bando por su motivo; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«The word for intoxication is ambiguous both in Sanskrit (mdda) and in European languages; it denotes drunkenness or inebriation resulting from alcohol, but it may also apply to a mental state similar to that produced by alcohol.» — Doniger O'Flaherty localiza en la ambigüedad del término de embriaguez, en sánscrito y en las lenguas europeas, una de las causas del enredo

«Thus the statement that Soma was ‘intoxicating’ as it appears in various discussions and in the RgVeda itself does not really exclude any plant capable of producing a state of exhilaration, including narcotic or psychotropic plants.» — Doniger O'Flaherty saca la consecuencia de esa ambigüedad: llamar embriagante al Soma no excluye ninguna planta capaz de producir exaltación, incluidas las narcóticas y psicotrópicas

«The further vagueness of such terms as ‘liquor’ and ‘strong spirits’ blurred the distinction between fermentation and distillation, as does the uncertain connotation of the term stra.» — Doniger O'Flaherty añade la vaguedad de licor y aguardiente, que borró la distinción entre fermentación y destilación, y la connotación incierta de sura

«All of this served to mask the inappropriateness of the identification of Soma with alcohol.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra el diagnóstico léxico: esa vaguedad enmascaró lo impropio de identificar el Soma con el alcohol

«Often scholars tended to confuse the question of the identity of the plant with the nature of the process by which the drink was made from it, overlooking the fact that the beer theory, the mead theory, and the Sarcostemma theory are complementary rather than opposed, while only such theories as those postulating wine or bhang exclude all» — Doniger O'Flaherty separa la pregunta por la planta de la pregunta por el procedimiento y señala cuáles teorías son complementarias y cuáles excluyentes; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«And, on the other hand, this failure to distinguish substance from method led several scholars to attempt a combination of various theories that are in fact incompatible.» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala el efecto contrario de esa confusión, las combinaciones de teorías incompatibles

«It was difficult to resist the temptation to identify the Vedic plant with the plant actually used by the descendants of the authors of the Vedas, no matter how many facts argued against this identification; and in fact one is inclined to believe that there must be some relationship between the original and the substitutes, some quality in the substitute which resembled a quality of Soma enough for it to have been chosen in the absence of Soma, but the question remains as to which quality — taste or colour or effect or shape - this might conceivably be.» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe la tentación de identificar la planta védica con la usada por los descendientes y deja abierta la pregunta por qué cualidad del sustituto la eligió; el tramo pasa de setecientos caracteres y se declara aquí como cita larga releída entera en el crudo

«B. H. Kapadia remarked, ‘Many Latin names are given for this plant like Ephedra, etc., but we do not know exactly about it,’» — Doniger O'Flaherty cita a Kapadia sobre los muchos nombres latinos dados a la planta sin saber a ciencia cierta cuál es

«this could surely stand as the epitaph for the greater part of the research done in those halcyon days of science - the nineteenth century, particularly the nineteenth century in Germany - when one still felt that by giving a categorizing Latin name to an unknown quantity one had somehow settled something.» — Doniger O'Flaherty propone esa frase como epitafio de la investigación decimonónica, cuando bautizar en latín una incógnita parecía resolver algo

«To argue whether Soma was Sarcostemma brevistigma, or Ephedra pachyclada, or Periploca aphylla was to assure oneself that the Soma plant had been found and that there only remained a few messy details to be cleared up; this led to smugness and a general disinclination to delve further that might not have existed had one been forced to call the plant ‘milkweed’ or ‘some sort of rue’.» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe el efecto de esas disputas nominales, la autocomplacencia y el desgano de seguir indagando

«Only in the last few generations have the anthropologists, botanists, and pharmacologists of the West entered fully into the problems presented by psychotropic plants and their role in the history of human cultures.» — Doniger O'Flaherty fecha en las últimas generaciones la entrada plena de antropólogos, botánicos y farmacólogos occidentales en el problema de las plantas psicotrópicas y su papel en la historia de las culturas

«Aldous Huxley, one of the leading writers on this subject in recent times, gave the name ‘Soma’ to an unspecified marvellous drug in his novel Brave New World, in 1932.» — Doniger O'Flaherty data en 1932 el uso del nombre Soma por Aldous Huxley para una droga maravillosa sin especificar en Un mundo feliz

«In his last novel, Island (1962), he depicted a Utopia that is clearly Indian throughout - Sanskrit is the language of the cult, Siva is worshipped, and Yoga is essential to the philosophy of the islanders. And the drug upon which the cult of the Island is based is an hallucinogenic mushroom.» — Doniger O'Flaherty describe la utopía india de la última novela de Huxley y el hongo alucinógeno en que se funda su culto; el tramo trae un año entre paréntesis y se declara aquí como cita releída entera en el crudo

«That the mushroom is yellow and traditionally collected high in the mountains might suggest that Huxley had Amanita muscaria in mind - even that he was thinking of the Soma of the RgVeda, although he says expressly that the ‘moksha-medicine’ (as it is called) is not one of ‘those lovely red toadstools that gnomes used to sit on.’» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala los rasgos que apuntarían a la Amanita muscaria en esa novela y a la vez la negativa expresa de Huxley, que descarta los hongos rojos de los gnomos

«Later in “Culture and the Individual’? Huxley, discussing the genesis of Island, says that he had been thinking of ‘a substance akin to psilocybin’, the active agent in the divine mushrooms of Mexico.» — Doniger O'Flaherty recoge de un ensayo posterior de Huxley que al escribir esa novela pensaba en una sustancia afín a la psilocibina

«The Wassons played a major part in the re-discovery of the Mexican psilocybin cult and Wasson himself had discussed his Mexican mushrooms and the Soma problem with Huxley in the late 1950’s.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna el papel de los Wasson en el redescubrimiento del culto mexicano de la psilocibina y las conversaciones de Wasson con Huxley a finales de los años cincuenta

«Certainly as soon as one rids oneself of the assumption that anything ‘intoxicating’ must be alcoholic, an hallucinogen of some kind seems the likely candidate for Soma, far more likely than millet or Afghan grapes or rhubarb or any other of the many plants that have been suggested.» — Doniger O'Flaherty enuncia su propia conclusión: quitado el supuesto de que lo embriagante ha de ser alcohólico, un alucinógeno parece el candidato más probable, muy por encima del mijo, la uva afgana o el ruibarbo

«Few Vedic scholars knew any botany and some of them may not have realized that they were dealing with a problem primarily botanical.» — Doniger O'Flaherty adjudica parte del atasco a que pocos vedistas sabían botánica y algunos no advirtieron que el problema era botánico

«The botanists on the other hand could not read the RgVeda, by far the most important source about Soma, and so they permitted themselves to enter upon speculations that often seem ludicrous in the light of the Vedic hymns.» — Doniger O'Flaherty devuelve el reproche al otro lado: los botánicos no podían leer el RgVeda y especularon de un modo que a la luz de los himnos resulta ridículo

«Though the identification of Soma remained a desideratum of Indian studies, no outstanding figure applied himself directly and fully to the solution of this enigma. The historians of religion seem likewise to have given it only glancing attention.» — Doniger O'Flaherty consigna que ninguna figura de primer orden se aplicó de lleno al enigma y que los historiadores de las religiones apenas lo miraron de paso

«Philippe de Félice in 1936 offered a significant description of Soma but, as he was not a member of the academic establishment, little notice was taken of it.» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica el poco eco de la descripción de De Félice por su posición fuera del establecimiento académico

«If professional scholars attached small importance to the theories of these ‘outsiders’, it must be said that they offered no satisfactory alternative.» — Doniger O'Flaherty acota el reproche a los profesionales con la observación de que esos ajenos tampoco ofrecieron alternativa satisfactoria

«Although the effort to identify the Soma plant has produced one of the most spirited and imaginative chapters in Vedic studies, it has also resulted in considerably more confusion than clarification.» — Doniger O'Flaherty balancea el saldo del esfuerzo, uno de los capítulos más animados de los estudios védicos y a la vez más confusión que claridad

«Wasson’s novel solution of this old question revivifies a body of speculation that has become increasingly sterile and repetitive, and throws important problems of Indo-European and even Eurasian cultural history into a new perspective.» — Doniger O'Flaherty declara que la solución nueva de Wasson revive un cuerpo de especulación cada vez más estéril y repetitivo y pone en perspectiva nueva problemas de historia cultural indoeuropea y euroasiática

«This is indeed a welcome contribution, and it is to be hoped that its implications will be exploited in wide-ranging debate and fresh syntheses.» — Doniger O'Flaherty cierra su ensayo llamando bienvenida esa contribución y deseando que sus implicaciones se exploten en debate amplio y síntesis nuevas

«N the Exurpits we have assembled all the basic sources that we could find on the use of the fly-agaric for inebriating purposes in Siberia. They include a miscellany of travelers (a few of them Innocents Abroad), explorers and scientists on governmental mission, and anthropologists; also some linguists who discuss a fascinating word cluster that relates to our theme. We have added three secondary sources for particular reasons.» — Wasson abre la Parte Tres declarando el criterio de los exhibits, todas las fuentes básicas halladas sobre el uso embriagante del agárico en Siberia; la capitular I se imprime suelta y el troceo devuelve N por In y Exurpits por EXHIBITS

«The earliest of our authors [1] is a poor Polish lad, not endowed with much education, who kept a diary of his stay in Siberia as a prisoner of the Tsar. An entry in that diary records the fact that in 1658 he saw the Ob-Ugrian Ostyaks getting drunk on the fly-agaric.» — Wasson presenta al testigo del exhibit [1], el muchacho polaco preso del zar que anotó en 1658 a los ostiacos ob-ugrios embriagados con el agárico

«Our latest paper is by two Soviet scientists [42] living in Vladivostok who in the fall of 1966 contributed an epitaph to the ancient practice:» — Wasson presenta el exhibit [42], de dos científicos soviéticos de Vladivostok, como epitafio de la práctica antigua

«The minor nationalities of Siberia and the Far East now do not use any psychoactive drugs.... After the October Socialist Revolution and the establishment of Soviet Power these not numerous peoples have embarked on a new way of historical development.» — informe soviético del exhibit [42] en la versión que reproduce el volumen: las nacionalidades menores de Siberia y del Lejano Oriente ya no usan drogas psicoactivas, y su desarrollo se adjudica al poder soviético

«The Soviet Union has never allowed foreigners to visit these ‘minor nationalities’.» — Wasson consigna en una frase la limitación de acceso: la Unión Soviética nunca permitió a extranjeros visitar a esas nacionalidades menores

«The testimony of our writers is of course worth only as much as the writers are worth.» — Wasson fija la regla de lectura de los exhibits, que el testimonio vale lo que valga el testigo

«A few of them-notably the English-speaking contingent [14, 15,20] and the one Frenchman [7] —lack understanding.» — Wasson nombra por su número a los testigos que a su juicio no entienden lo que ven, el contingente de lengua inglesa y el francés

«They are superficial and disdainful, and most of their information seems to come from local Russian informants of dubious reliability, or from earlier writers whom we have also quoted, or else read and discarded as worthless.» — Wasson describe el defecto de esos testigos, superficiales y desdeñosos y con información de informantes rusos dudosos o de autores anteriores

«Vide, e.g., Kennan [14] citing Oliver Goldsmith, who in turn paraphrased von Strahlenberg [3].» — Wasson documenta la cadena de repetición entre testigos, con Kennan citando a Goldsmith que parafraseaba a Strahlenberg

«When Erman [11] informs us that Toyon’s wife transplanted a number of baby fly-agarics from the forest to her garden where he saw them some days later flourishing in their big scarlet caps, the mycologist raises his eyebrows.» — Wasson somete a crítica micológica el relato de Erman sobre agáricos trasplantados a un jardín

«When he says that a native pays a reindeer for one fly-agaric in the off-season, we accept this, as other witnesses testify to the high value placed on the marvelous plant by those who used it.» — Wasson acepta en cambio el dato del reno pagado por un agárico fuera de temporada, porque otros testigos dicen lo mismo del valor de la planta

«Some of the Siberian tribesmen live in filth and indulge in practices that shock and revolt those Europeans whose sense of scientific detachment is not phenomenally developed. Ifin addition the observer is a mycophobe, taught from childhood to turn away with a shudder from a ‘toadstool’, his impulses will surely overpower his objectivity.» — Wasson explica el sesgo de los observadores por la repugnancia y por la micofobia aprendida desde la infancia

«Europeans have long held the fly-agaric to be lethal. The testimony of our writers on this will certainly be found surprising.» — Wasson consigna la creencia europea de que el agárico es letal y anuncia que el testimonio de sus testigos sorprenderá

«Many of them and among the most trustworthy expressly acquit the fly-agaric of causing death; in fact, they testify that, properly dried, it has no bad effects.» — Wasson resume el saldo del dossier sobre la letalidad: muchos de los testigos más fiables absuelven al agárico y declaran que bien secado no tiene malos efectos

«When a few of the writers mention deaths from the fly-agaric each of those deaths should be weighed carefully. Is there a single witness (some of whom spent not months but years and even a decade among the natives) who saw a man die from fly-agaric eating, or who was present in a settlement at the time of such a death? I think not.» — Wasson somete cada muerte reportada a una prueba de testigo presencial y responde él mismo que no la hay

«Does the reported death come from a native informant or from a fellow European, probably a mycophobe? If the latter, is it only hearsay in the foreign community, perhaps the very same death that was reported by Krasheninnikov [4] in his book published in the middle of the 18th century, a death that he himself reported as hearsay?» — Wasson sigue la pista de los rumores de muerte hasta el de Krasheninnikov, que él mismo daba como de oídas

«If the source is native, is it of the kind — highly significant — that is accepted as veridical, according to Kai Donner [28], in the upper Yenisei among the Ket and the Selkup; viz., that only shamans and those who are to become shamans can eat the fly-agaric with impunity; all others will surely die.» — Wasson consigna la creencia que Donner recoge entre los ket y los selkup del alto Yenisei, que solo los chamanes y los llamados a serlo pueden comer el agárico impunemente y los demás morirán; Lehtisalo registra creencias semejantes

«Donner is not discussing vital statistics: he translates us to a different realm.» — Wasson advierte que ese dato no es estadística vital sino otro registro, y con eso separa la creencia del hecho

«Death will come if the layman presumes to eat the forbidden fruit, the Fruit of Knowledge, the Divine Mushroom of immortality that the Taoists talk about and that the poets of the RgVeda celebrated.» — Wasson enlaza en una sola frase el fruto prohibido, el hongo divino de los taoístas y el Soma de los poetas del RgVeda

«The fear of this ‘death’ has lived on as an emotional residue, long after the shaman and his religion have faded from memory, and here is the explanation for the mycophobia that has prevailed throughout northern Europe, in the Germanic and Celtic worlds, in particular for the macropsia with which the north Europeans — and not least the mycologists and toxicologists - have viewed the poisonous properties of the fly-agaric.» — Wasson explica por ese residuo emocional la micofobia del norte de Europa y la desproporción con que se miraron las propiedades venenosas del agárico

«There is a consensus among our writers that the natives of Siberia consumed the fly-agaric only after drying it.» — Wasson consigna el consenso de sus testigos sobre que los nativos solo consumían el agárico seco

«Von Strahlenberg [3] says that water is poured on it, then the water and mushrooms are boiled and the liquor is drunk.» — Wasson recoge del exhibit [3] de Von Strahlenberg el procedimiento del agua vertida, el hervor y el licor bebido

«He does not mention dried mushrooms, but as he is speaking of winter they must have been dried.» — Wasson repone el dato que Strahlenberg no da, el secado, deduciéndolo de que hablaba del invierno

«He and von Langsdorf [10] are the only ones who mention cooking the fly-agaric.» — Wasson acota que solo dos de sus testigos mencionan cocer el agárico

«Krasheninnikov [4] says that the dried mushrooms are steeped in the must of an Epilobium, which later writers have identified as the Russian kiprei, Epilobium angustifolium.» — Wasson recoge del exhibit [4] de Krasheninnikov el remojo de los hongos secos en el mosto de un Epilobium identificado después como el kiprei ruso

«Krasheninnikov is the only source to mention Epilobium, but there seems no reason to doubt his word. It is natural, given the scattered population in Siberia and the poor communications, that customs vary from settlement to settlement, and even within the same settlement, from shaman to shaman.» — Wasson declara único ese testimonio y explica la variación de costumbres por la dispersión de la población y las malas comunicaciones

«Steller [5] says that ‘the fly-agarics are dried, then eaten in large pieces without chewing, being washed down with cold water.’» — testimonio del exhibit [5] de Steller en la versión del volumen, que describe los agáricos secos comidos en trozos grandes sin masticar y pasados con agua fría

«Georgi [6], on the other hand, is responsible for the statement that in the Narym region the natives either eat one fresh mushroom or drink a decoction of three; but he is suspect as a witness.» — Wasson recoge del exhibit [6] de Georgi la práctica de Narym y a la vez declara sospechoso al testigo

«According to von Langsdorf [10], the Kamchadal prefer to leave the mushrooms to dry in the ground, exposed to the natural air and the sun.» — Wasson recoge del exhibit [10] de Von Langsdorf la preferencia kamchadal por secar los hongos en el suelo al aire y al sol

«Erman [11] and von Maydell [12] mention that they are taken dry, von Maydell adding that they are smoked and shrivelled up.» — Wasson recoge de los exhibits [11] y [12] la toma en seco, con el detalle de Von Maydell de que se ahúman y se arrugan

«At the man’s order, the woman dug into an old leather sack, in which all sorts of things were heaped one on top of another, and brought out a small package wrapped in dirty leather, from which she took a few old and dry fly-agarics. She then sat down next to the two men and began chewing the mushrooms thoroughly.» — testimonio del exhibit [19] de Enderli en la versión del volumen, con la mujer que saca los agáricos viejos y secos del saco de cuero y los masca

«The reason for this is that the mushroom has a highly unpleasant and nauseating taste, so that even a man who intends to eat it always gives it to someone else to chew and then swallows the little sausage whole, like a pill.» — continuación del testimonio de Enderli en la versión del volumen, que explica el mascado por lo nauseabundo del sabor y describe la salchicha de hongo tragada como píldora; el mismo pasaje se reimprime en el exhibit [19] de la plana 324 y aquí se cita la aparición del cuerpo

«When the mushroom sausage was ready, one of the men immediately swallowed it greedily by shoving it deep into his throat with his indescribably filthy fingers (for the Koryaks never wash in all their lives).» — cierre del testimonio de Enderli en la versión del volumen, con el hombre que traga la salchicha y el juicio del propio testigo sobre los koryak

«The Koryak told Sljunin [18] that the fresh fly-agarics are highly poisonous and hence they do not eat them.» — Wasson recoge del exhibit [18] de Sljunin el dicho koryak de que los agáricos frescos son muy venenosos y por eso no se comen

«They are dried, either in the sun or over the fire, and then consumed with fresh water to wash them down.» — Wasson completa el testimonio de Sljunin con el secado al sol o al fuego y el agua fresca para pasarlos

«Karjalainen [26], speaking of the shaman’s ways among the Irtysh Ostyak, says that they swallow whole either three or seven mushroom caps, which may be fresh or dried: the Irtysh usage runs counter to the trend among our witnesses in that the shaman may take fresh mushrooms.» — Wasson recoge del exhibit [26] de Karjalainen la práctica de los chamanes ostiacos del Irtish, que tragan tres o siete sombreros frescos o secos, y señala que ese uso va contra la tendencia de los demás testigos

«It is ironic that one of the earliest Vedic beliefs about Soma — that it was brought by a bird? - appears as a scientific criterion in two of the 1. R. Hegnauer, in his Chemotaxonomie der Pflanzen (Basel, 1962, Vol.1, pp. 451-460), discusses in detail the toxic effects of various Ephedras, identifying several of them with the Soma plant on the basis of Qazilbash’s work. 2. G. M. Patil: ‘Soma the Vedic Deity,’ Oriental Thought, No. 4, 1960, Pp. 69-79. 3. Jan Gonda: Die Religionen Indiens, Stuttgart, 1960, Vol. 1, p. 64. 4. Alain Daniélou: Le Polythéisme Hindou, Paris, 1960, p. III. 5. Alain Daniélou: L’Erotisme Divinisé, Paris, 1962, p. 53. 6. Agehananda Bharati (Leopold Fischer): The Tantric Tradition, London, 1965, p. 287. 7. Vide supra, p.96. The belief that the Soma was brought from heaven by a falcon appears frequently throughout the RgVeda and other Indo-European sources. cf. A.Kuhn, Mythologische Studien, I: Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Géttertranks, Giitersloh, 1886. Also cf. RgVeda 1 802, mI 437, IV 1813, 1v 269, v 459, 1x 68°, 1x 772, Ix 8674, x 114, x 998, x 1444, etc. I4I» — Doniger O'Flaherty señala la ironía de que la creencia védica del ave que trae el Soma reaparezca como criterio científico en dos estudios recientes; tramo largo releído entero en el crudo; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«The Brahmanas, dealing as they do with involved chains of substitutes, add to the confusion in almost 1. Srivastava, op. cit., p. 816. 2. J. P. Kooger, ‘Het Raadsel van de Heilige Soma-Plant der Indo-Iraniers,’ Pharmaceutisch Tijdschrift voor Belgié, 44th year, No. 7, 1967, Pp. 137-143. 3. R. C. Zaehner: The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, London, 1961, p. 88. 143» — Doniger O'Flaherty resume las capas que enturbian la cuestión, empezando por los Brahmanas y sus cadenas de sustitutos; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«It is at first striking that bhang was not considered as a possibility until 1921, but it is more understandable when one takes into consideration the greater attention that the psycho-physiological effects of drug-» — Doniger O'Flaherty explica por qué el bhang tardó hasta 1921 en entrar como candidato, por la atención reciente a los efectos psicofisiológicos de las drogas; el verbatim se corta en el límite de chunk

«The use of hashish in the Middle East has, of course, 1. In this context, it is interesting to note that by 1884 Regel had rejected bhang (Cannabis indica) as a possibility for the Soma plant. Vide supra, p. 114. 145» — Doniger O'Flaherty data el conocimiento occidental del hachís como curiosidad hasta veinte años antes; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«But on behalf of both Vedists and botanists it is only fair to recall that for the most part the 1. Aldous Huxley: Island, Penguin ed., 1964, p. 140. 2. An essay published in The Book of Grass, an anthology edited by George Andrews and Simon Vinkenoog, Grove Press Inc., New York, 1967, pp. 192-201. The passage cited is on p. 200. 146» — Doniger O'Flaherty exculpa en parte a vedistas y botánicos; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«The ignorance about mushrooms of these writers in English and French seems to have been I51» — Wasson declara completa la ignorancia micológica de los testigos en inglés y en francés; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«We are in the presence of fossil survivals of remote 152» — Wasson lee esas creencias como supervivencias fósiles de creencias remotas; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«Small ones with many warts, he says, are the best and the most 153» — Von Langsdorf, citado por Wasson en el exhibit [10], declara mejores los hongos pequeños y verrugosos; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«They are swallowed whole, being swallowed with the juice of bilberries (Vaccinium uliginosum), either one large mushroom or two small.» — cierre del testimonio de Von Langsdorf en el exhibit [10], con la deglución entera acompañada de jugo de arándano; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«We reprint what they had to say because they are often quoted as sources but they are worthless.» — Wasson declara por qué reimprime a esos testigos y a la vez los llama sin valor; la frase arranca en la plana anterior

«Thus it seems that drying is of the essence.» — Wasson resume en una frase el saldo del capítulo sobre el secado

«The natives think that the fresh ones are dangerous, or at least not satisfactorily inebriating.» — Wasson reporta la creencia nativa de que los hongos frescos son peligrosos o al menos no embriagan bien

«Some say that eating many fresh mushrooms will kill you, but how do we know?» — Wasson consigna el dicho de que comer muchos frescos mata y a la vez lo pone en duda con una pregunta

«I did not realise this when I went to Japan in the fall of 1965 and 1966, and with Japanese friends tried the fresh fly-agarics.» — Wasson declara su propio error de método en Japón, donde probó los agáricos frescos sin saber lo del secado

«I had known of course that the Soma plants were mixed with water before being pounded with the pressing stones, but I had supposed that this was to freshen up the plants so that they would be capable of yielding juice when pressed.» — Wasson explica qué había leído en el RgVeda sobre el agua añadida al Soma y qué supuso mal de ello

«The desiccation, I thought, was an inevitable consequence of bringing the mushrooms from afar and keeping them on hand.» — Wasson consigna su suposición previa de que la desecación fuera consecuencia del acarreo y no condición del rito

«There was nothing to tell me that desiccation was a sine qua non of the Soma rite.» — Wasson declara que nada le indicaba que la desecación fuera condición sine qua non del rito del Soma

«The reader may think that I should have familiarized myself with the Siberian practice before going to Japan. I agree.» — Wasson admite el reproche que se anticipa a sí mismo por no haber estudiado antes la práctica siberiana

«Imazeki, who by chance toasted his caps on one occasion before eating them, alone had satisfactory results, insistently declaring that this was nothing like alcohol, that this was far superior, in fact in a different world. Alone among us all, he has known amrta, the ambrosia of the Immortals.» — Wasson atribuye a Imazeki, único con resultado satisfactorio por haber tostado los sombreros, el haber conocido el amrta

«Georgi [6] says that the natives feel much less head after this method of intoxication than is produced by spirituous liquors; nor is the use of it followed by any dangerous consequences.» — Wasson recoge del exhibit [6] de Georgi que los nativos sienten menos pesadez de cabeza con este método que con licores espirituosos

«Von Langsdorf [10] says that although he made great efforts to find out something about the harmful or possibly deadly effects of the fly-agaric, he could obtain no satisfactory information on the subject.» — Wasson consigna la búsqueda negativa de Von Langsdorf en el exhibit [10], que no obtuvo información satisfactoria sobre efectos dañinos o mortales

«The Koryaks [he goes on] greatly prefer fly-agarics to the Russians’ vodka and maintain that after eating fly-agarics a man never suffers from headaches or other ill effects.» — Von Langsdorf, en el exhibit [10], reporta que los koryak prefieren con mucho los agáricos al vodka ruso y sostienen que no dejan dolor de cabeza

«It is true that in extremely rare cases (of which no one could recall any specific example) persons who consumed an extraordinarily large quantity of the mushrooms are 155» — Von Langsdorf, en el exhibit [10], reporta las muertes por consumo extraordinario y acota en la misma frase que nadie recordaba un caso concreto; el verbatim se corta en el límite de plana

«However, it is not reported that moderate consumption ever produced any harmful after-effects.» — Von Langsdorf, en el exhibit [10], declara que no se reporta que el consumo moderado deje malos efectos; el mismo pasaje se reimprime en la plana 313 y aquí se cita la aparición del cuerpo