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Soma is a complex god in Hinduism, taking various forms including a plant that can be made into a drink, which gods and mortals drank for power and inspiration. Soma was also personified as a deity and associated with the moon. The plant’s identity is uncertain, but it was believed to be psychotropic. Soma’s prominence declined as Hinduism evolved, and it became simply a moon god.
Soma is one of the more complicated gods in the Hindu pantheon, in part because it takes such disparate forms. In its most basic form, it can be seen simply as a plant. This plant, in turn, can be made into a drink, which is the drink of the gods. Indeed, in many ways it is the drinking of this plant that makes the gods divine. Finally, Soma is a personified deity, in the same way as Indra or Agni.
The plant to which “soma” refers is uncertain. There are a number of hypotheses. Many believe it represented a psychotropic substance, such as Amanita muscaria or cannabis. Others believe it represented a fruit plant, such as the pomegranate. Still others believe it was the plant ephedra vulgaris, which was often used in rituals to experience the divine.
A drink made from soma was drunk as a liquid by many gods. It gave them their great abundance of power, and it was through it that many gods were able to perform their mighty feats. Both Indra and Agni were known to drink huge quantities of it, with Indra having drunk rivers of the liquid before his battle with Vritra.
It is also said to have been drunk by mortals to give them some of the powers of the gods. Poets and artists drank it to find their inspiration, religious men drank it to better see the gods, and warriors drank it before going into battle, to imbue themselves with the power of the divine.
As a god, Soma is said to have appeared as a beautiful bird or a mighty bull. Sometimes he was even portrayed as a human embryo. It’s rare to find illustrations of him as a human, however, that reflect his somewhat odd place in the Hindu pantheon.
Soon enough, it began to be associated with the moon. He has in many ways supplanted the earlier moon god Chandra, who rode the moon across the heavens on ten white horses. The moon itself was often seen as the cup of soma, filled to the brim when full, then drunk until there was nothing left, and slowly replenished. He is said to have married the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha, the Nakshatras, who were associated with the stars.
A myth about him says that he didn’t pay enough attention to each of his twenty-seven wives. Upset, they went to their father and complained. Daksha, furious at the offense, placed a curse on Soma that he would slowly die over the course of a month. His wives, not wanting so severe a punishment, intervened, and so Daksha enabled him to survive the slow withering and reformation.
As Hinduism progressed, both the liquid and the god became less and less prominent in the pantheon. Priests stopped drinking the liquid as a way to worship the gods and instead focused on making sacrifices. The secrets of the drink were lost, with some later prayers apologizing for using a substitute, and gradually Soma became simply a moon god.
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