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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
240 SING-IRANICA
ported from Pa-lai I (*Bwat-lai) in southern India. Haan Tsafil
enumerates grapes together with pears, crab-apples, peaches, and apricots,2 as the fruits which, from Kashmir on, are planted here and there in India. The grape, accordingly, was by no means common in India in his time (seventh century) .
The grape is not mentioned in Vedic literature, and Sanskrit drdksd
I regard with SPIEGEL3 as a loan-word. Viticulture never was extensive or of any importance in Indian agriculture. Prior to the Mohammedan conquest, we have little precise knowledge of the cultivation of the vine, which was much fostered by Akbar. In modern times it is only in Kashmir that it has been received with some measure of success.
Hüan Tsarn4 states that there are several brands of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in India, differing according to the castes. The Ksatriya indulge in grape and sugar-cane wine. The Vaiçya take rich wines fermented with yeast. The Buddhists and Brahmans partake of a syrup of grapes or sugar-cane, which does not share the nature of any wine.5 In Jataka No. 183, grape-juice (muddikd pdnam) of intoxicating properties is mentioned.
Hüan Yins gives three Sanskrit words for various kinds of wine:—
(I) su-la, *suô-la, Sanskrit surd, explained as rice-wine
iP4.7
1 Ta raft si yn ki, Ch. 2, p. 8.
2 Not almond-tree, as erroneously translated by JULIEN (Mémoires, Vol. I, p. 92). Regarding peach and apricot, see below, p. 539.
3 Arische Periode, p. 41.
4Ta raft siyi ki,Ch.2,p.8b.
5 S. JULIEN (Mémoires, Vol. I, p. 93) translates wrongly, " qui diffèrent tout à fait du vin distillé." Distilled wine was then unknown both to the Chinese and in India, and the term is not in the text. " Distillation of wines " is surely not spoken of in the Çukraniti, as conceived by B. K. SARKAR (The Sukraniti, p. 157; and Hindu Sociology, p. 166).
6 Yi ts`ie kin yin i, Ch. 24, p. 8 b.
7 This definition is of some importance, for in BOEHTLINGK'S Sanskrit Dictionary the word is explained as meaning "a kind of beer in ancient times, subsequently, however, in most cases brandy," which is certainly wrong. Thus also O. SCHRADER'S speculation (Sprachvergleichung, Vol. II, p. 256), connecting Finno-Ugrian sara, sur, etc. ("beer ") with this word, necessarily falls to the ground. MACDONELL and KEITH (Vedic Index, Vol. II, p. 458) admit that "the exact nature of surd is not certain, it may have been a strong spirit prepared from fermented grains and plants, as Eggeling holds, or, as Whitney thought, a kind of beer or ale." It follows also from Jataka No. 512 that surd was prepared from rice. In Cosmas' Christian Topography (p. 362, ed. of Hakluyt Society) we have boyXoo o(pa (" coconut-wine "); here sura means "wine," while the first element may be connected with Arabic ranej or ranj (" coco-nut ").
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