SMOKERS’ CORNER: PROHIBITION OF PLEASURES
Recently a famous cola brand tried to convince Pakistanis that they should replace tea consumption with cola. Many Pakistanis responded on social media by suggesting that this was impossible because drinking tea was an integral part of South Asian culture.
Truth is, drinking tea (or coffee) is part of various cultures across the world because it is an intoxicant, albeit a mild one. It can only be replaced by another intoxicant. But understandably in a largely dry country such as Pakistan, this aspect of the argument never comes up.
South Asians as a whole are usually ambiguous about the use of intoxicants in their respective regions. They have often explained intoxicants were thrust upon them by foreigners. Not entirely true. Because more than 5,000 years ago the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilisation were preparing alcoholic drinks made with sweet and starchy ingredients.
The affinity for intoxicants has been part of the subcontinent’s history
In the Taxila Museum lies one of the oldest known distillers in the world (dating back to 3,500 BCE). It was discovered in the ruins of Mohenjo Daro, a Bronze Age civilisation which was located in what is today Pakistan. Archaeologists believe that it was used to distil oil and alcoholic beverages.
An intriguing book Wine in Ancient India authored by D.K. Bose in 1922 suggests that at the time of the emergence of Hinduism’s earliest sacred text Rigveda, Hindus were drinking alcoholic beverages so much that the Rigveda asked them to desist from the habit. As an alternative, the Rigveda advised them to imbibe a much ‘holier’ drink, the Soma. Soma was made from the extract/juice of an unknown plant which was then fermented.
Dr Jann Gambiner in her 2011 essay in Psychology Today writes that usage of cannabis too was common during the time of the Rigveda. In Hemp for Health, Chris Conrad suggests that cannabis at the time was either eaten or mixed with water or milk as a drink (bhang). Unlike alcohol, this intoxicant was not frowned upon by priests. Another drug which is reported to be common in ancient India is opium. Martin Booth in Opium: A History informs readers that by 1000 BCE opium was being eaten “as a remedy” by a large number of ancient Indians.
S.P. Restivo in his 2005 book Science, Technology & Society wrote that by 500 BCE the wine Soma, Sura (beer made from barley) and Madhu (honey wine) were commonly used in India. D.K. Bose quoted some of the earliest Greek sources written after Alexander’s invasion of the region (in 325 BCE) as saying that after Alexander’s army found large vineyards in the hills (most probably in present-day Swat in Pakistan), they believed that Dionysus, the Greek god of wine had already come to India before Alexander.
Bose also mentions that Buddhists outrightly forbade its adherents to drink alcohol believing that Buddhism’s founder Gautama Buddha (483 BCE-400 BCE) said that “drinking ends in madness.”
When Hsuan Tsang, the 7th Century traveller from China visited India during the reign of the famous Buddhist king Harsha [who ruled over a large part of North India including present-day Peshawar in Pakistan], he noted that people drank “wines made from flowers” and some “strong distilled liquors.”
Till the emergence of Muslim rule in India in the 13th century, alcoholic beverages, bhang and opium were already ubiquitous in the region. One of South Asia’s foremost historians, late Abraham Eraly, in his books on the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526 CE) and Mughal rule (1526-1857 CE) has commented in some detail on the many indulgences of the people of the region under Muslim rule.