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'''Tantric cannabis use in India''' refers to the ceremonial role of cannabis, particularly in the form of a beverage called ''vijaya'', within the rituals of Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism. The tradition arose in approximately the seventh century AD from a convergence of Shaivite Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism, reaching its peak in medieval Bengal and the Himalayan kingdoms.<ref name="aldrich1977">{{cite journal |last=Aldrich |first=Michael R. |title=Tantric Cannabis Use in India |journal=Journal of Psychedelic Drugs |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=227–233 |year=1977 |doi=10.1080/02791072.1977.10472053}}</ref> Three strands of earlier Vedic tradition, the magical use of ''bhang'', the mythology of divine poison-drinking, and the practice of drug yoga, were woven together in Tantric ritual into a systematic methodology for achieving liberation (''mahanirvana'').<ref name="aldrich1977" />

== Vedic antecedents ==

=== Bhang in the Atharva Veda ===

The earliest references to cannabis in Indian religious texts appear in the ''Atharva Veda'', composed in the second millennium BC. Verse 11.6.15 names ''bhang'' alongside ''Soma'' as one of five sacred plants used "for freedom from distress," while verse 8.8.3 prescribes the burning of hemp boughs during a magical rite intended to overcome enemies and evil forces.<ref name="aldrich1977" /><ref name="whitney1905">{{cite book |last1=Whitney |first1=W.D. |last2=Lanman |first2=C.R. |title=Atharva Veda Samhita |series=Harvard Oriental Series 7 & 8 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1905}}</ref> While ''Soma'' served as the primary Vedic sacrament, cannabis occupied a distinct role as the plant of the ''Atharvan'' magicians and shamans. Its earliest documented uses in India were both medical and religious, consistent with shamanistic traditions across ancient Asia.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

As Vedic culture developed, ''bhang'' became established in folk medicine. Hindu physicians first prescribed it as an antiphlegmatic agent,<ref name="grierson1894">{{cite book |last=Grierson |first=G.A. |title=Note on References to the Hemp Plant Occurring in Sanskrit and Hindi Literature |work=Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report |volume=3 |year=1894 |publisher=Appendices}}</ref> and Buddhist monks used it to treat rheumatism.<ref name="davids1882">{{cite book |last1=Davids |first1=T.W.R. |last2=Oldenberg |first2=H. |title=Vinaya Texts |series=Mahavagga 6.14.3 |edition=Part 2 |location=Delhi |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1882 |orig-year=Reprint 1965}}</ref> From this period onward, cannabis appears regularly in both medical and religious texts, where it became particularly associated with Shiva.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

=== The Churning of the Milk Ocean ===

The mythology surrounding cannabis as a sacred substance is most fully expressed in the story of the Churning of the Milk Ocean (''Samudra Manthana''), one of the central drug myths of ancient India. According to this narrative, the gods had lost ''amrita'' (the nectar of immortality) and enlisted the aid of demons to recover it through a cosmic churning. The process produced various beings and substances, including the goddess of fortune (Shri) and the goddess of wine (Surya). A terrible poison also emerged, threatening the universe, which Shiva caught in his throat, earning him the epithet Nilakantha ("Blue-throated"). The churning continued until Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods, emerged with a bowl of ''amrita''. The demons attempted to seize it, but the gods prevailed and carried the nectar back to heaven.<ref name="oflaherty1975">{{cite book |last=O'Flaherty |first=Wendy Doniger |title=Hindu Myths |location=Baltimore |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1975 |pages=273–280}}</ref>

Shaivites cite this legend to explain Shiva's blue neck as a symbol of the divine act of poison-drinking that saved the universe. The Tantric tradition specifically identifies the ''amrita'' produced by the churning as the cannabis beverage used in their ceremonies, called ''vijaya'' (meaning "victory") because it gave the gods their triumph. This interpretation links the new sacred intoxicants that replaced Vedic ''Soma'' with the Tantric practice of employing dangerous or forbidden substances in the pursuit of liberation.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

=== Soma substitution ===

The connection between ''Soma'' and cannabis in Indian religious history reflects a practical crisis. During the late Vedic period, as the Aryans moved deeper into the Indo-Gangetic plains, they were separated from their supply of ''Soma'', which grew only in the mountains. Substitutes had to be found, and many plants were tested, some so potent that they were classified as ''visha'' (poison). A late hymn of the ''Rig Veda'' (10.136) depicts an unorthodox sage sharing a cup of such "poison" with Rudra, the Vedic forerunner of Shiva.<ref name="staal1975">{{cite book |last=Staal |first=J.F. |title=Exploring Mysticism |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1975 |pages=197–198}}</ref>

The landmark study by Wasson and O'Flaherty (1971) argued that the original ''Soma'' was probably ''Amanita muscaria'', the fly agaric mushroom.<ref name="wasson1971">{{cite book |last1=Wasson |first1=R.G. |last2=O'Flaherty |first2=W.D. |title=SOMA: Divine Mushroom of Immortality |location=New York |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |year=1971}}</ref> If this identification is correct, it suggests that the religious traditions from which Tantrism emerged may have had psychoactive plant use as a foundational element, and that the later adoption of cannabis represented a continuation rather than an innovation.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

== Drug yoga ==

The use of plants to achieve altered states of consciousness has an established place within the classical Indian yoga tradition. The ''Yoga Sutras'' of Patanjali state that ''siddhis'' (magical or occult powers) may be obtained by birth, by herbal drugs (''oshadhi''), by incantation of mantras, by austerities, and by concentration.<ref name="taimini1975">{{cite book |last=Taimini |first=I.K. |title=The Science of Yoga (Patanjali's Yoga Sutras) |location=Wheaton, IL |publisher=Theosophical Publication House |year=1975 |page=377}}</ref> Similarly, an ancient Buddhist text enumerates five kinds of powers (''riddhi''), including those attained by use of herbs (''oshadhikrita'').<ref name="staal1975" />

In Bengal, where Tantric yoga reached its height, cannabis itself came to be called ''siddhi'', a pun on "occult powers."<ref name="aldrich1977" /> Shiva, as the great consumer of ''bhang'', is simultaneously the Lord of Asceticism, making him the master of drug yoga in the Hindu Tantric tradition. A Mahayana Buddhist tradition further holds that the Gautama Buddha subsisted on one hemp seed per day during the six years of asceticism that preceded his enlightenment.<ref name="beal1883">{{cite book |last=Beal |first=S. |title=The Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King |location=Delhi |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1883 |orig-year=Reprinted 1966 |page=143}}</ref> In Vajrayana Buddhist iconography, the Buddha is sometimes depicted with serrated "Soma leaves" in his begging bowl, linking his asceticism with cannabis in Tantric belief.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

Hemp fibre itself is regarded as sacred in Tibet, and Tibetan monastic histories are often written on hemp paper due to its durability.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

== The Tantric synthesis ==

=== Texts and doctrine ===

Tantric cannabis use arose in approximately the seventh century AD through a convergence of Shaivite Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist practices. The most important Hindu Tantric text available in English, the ''Mahanirvana Tantra'', was composed around the eleventh century AD. Its title is Buddhist in origin (''mahanirvana'' meaning "the greatest liberation"), but the text takes the form of a dialogue between the Hindu god Shiva and his ''shakti'' (female power), Kali.<ref name="avalon1913">{{cite book |last=Avalon |first=A. (Sir John Woodroffe) |title=Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahanirvana Tantra) |location=New York |publisher=Dover Publications |year=1913 |orig-year=Reprint 1972}}</ref><ref name="bharati1970">{{cite book |last=Bharati |first=Agehananda |title=The Tantric Tradition |location=Garden City, NY |publisher=Doubleday |year=1970}}</ref>

The Tantrics refer to their texts as the "Fifth Veda" after the ''Atharva Veda'' and consider them the appropriate scriptures for the present age.<ref name="avalon1913" /> The word ''tantra'' itself means "that which is woven together," reflecting the synthesis of earlier traditions into a unified practice.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

=== Left-handed and right-handed practice ===

Tantric practice is categorized as either "left-handed" (literal, material) or "right-handed" (metaphorical, symbolic). Left-handed practice involves the actual use of five elements known as the ''panchamakara'' or "five M's," each beginning with the letter M in Sanskrit: liquor (''madya''), fish (''matsya''), meat (''mamsa''), parched grain (''mudra''), and sexual intercourse (''maithuna''). In right-handed practice, substitutes are employed, such as milk instead of wine.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

The choice of path is determined jointly by the practitioner and their guru, based on the practitioner's level of preparation. An inexperienced or unprepared practitioner is considered ''pashu'' ("animal-like"), while a ''vira'' ("hero") is fit for literal left-handed practice, and a ''divya'' ("god-like") adept is one whose entire life constitutes their spiritual practice.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

Both Hindus and Buddhists may become students of Tantric practice once initiated by a Tantric guru. Unlike conventional Hinduism, caste rules are set aside in Tantric practice. Women practitioners (''sadhakis'') are welcome and may be required in advanced ceremonies.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

== Vijaya in ritual ==

=== Preparation ===

The cannabis beverage ''vijaya'' is prepared in advance of the ceremony. The Tantric texts do not give recipes, assuming that adepts already know the preparation method. In its simplest form it is a small round ball of moistened ''bhang'' in milk or water; more commonly, at least in contemporary India, it is a milkshake flavoured with almonds, pepper, cardamom, poppy seeds, and other spices.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

=== The consecration ritual ===

The ''Mahanirvana Tantra'' provides the most complete surviving description of the cannabis consecration ritual. The ceremony begins just before dawn. The practitioner (''sadhaka'') awakens and immediately meditates on his guru in the thousand-petalled lotus (''sahasrara chakra'') at the top of his head. He then performs an extended sequence of purifications: ritual bathing with chanting and meditation, early morning prayers invoking sacred rivers as channels within his own body, and libations to the Sun.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

After these preparations, the practitioner proceeds to the place of worship, which may be a temple, a private house, or even a graveyard. He draws a protective diagram, worships the gods of the entrance beginning with Ganesha as the Remover of Obstacles, and enters the space left foot forward while meditating on the Goddess.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

The practitioner then places a bowl of ''vijaya'' on an equilateral triangle drawn on the ground as a protective ''mandala''. To purify and consecrate the cannabis to his chosen deity (in this case Kali), he recites the ''vijaya'' consecration mantra and performs a series of specified hand gestures (''mudras'') over the bowl: the cow-mudra, yoni-mudra, calling-in mudra, fixing-mudra, hypostasizing-mudra, obstructing-mudra, and confronting-mudra. These gestures are understood to bring the power of the Goddess into the cannabis.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

The practitioner then raises the bowl to his forehead three times, offers it to the Devi in his heart, and chants a mantra to Sarasvati, the goddess of speech. He then drinks the ''vijaya''. By doing so, he draws the energy of ''Kundalini'', the goddess in the form of a coiled serpent at the base of his body, upward to the tip of his tongue to receive the offering. The act of drinking is understood as a sacrifice of the particular offering back into the cosmic source from which it came.<ref name="aldrich1977" /><ref name="bharati1970" />

=== The role of cannabis in the ceremony ===

Bharati (1970) was the first scholar to observe the significance of the timing within the ritual: approximately an hour and a half elapses between the drinking of ''vijaya'' in the first half of the ceremony and its climax in the second half, corresponding to the time required for orally consumed cannabis to reach full effect.<ref name="bharati1970" />

During this interval, the practitioner performs ''Bhuta-shuddhi'', a mental cleansing of the bodily elements through guided ''Kundalini'' yoga, progressively dissolving each energy centre (''chakra'') into the next higher one. Aldrich (1977) argues that this ritual corresponds to the practitioner's growing awareness of the onset of the cannabis effect, and that the ''bhang'' facilitates the meditation while the meditation simultaneously structures the experience.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

The practitioner then performs ''Nyasa'', placing fingertips and palm on various parts of his body to infuse it with divine energy, while pronouncing the ''So'ham'' mantra ("I am He"), signifying the beginning of felt unity with the divine.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

At high oral doses, cannabis produces time and space distortion, heightened suggestibility, and, in some cases, visual hallucinations. Within the carefully controlled setting of the Tantric ritual, these effects are directed: specific deities are visualised during prescribed portions of the ceremony. The ''set and setting'' of incense, flowers, temple lamps, and the intent focus of the participants create optimal conditions for the ritual's purpose.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

Aldrich argues that cannabis serves two distinct functions in the ceremony. First, it acts as a disinhibitor, helping the practitioner overcome the cultural taboos that left-handed Tantric practice deliberately transgresses. Second, and more importantly, it functions as a "sense-heightener, a euphoric booster of awareness" that is essential to the specific character of the ritual. The ceremony could be performed without it, but would then constitute a different ritual entirely, "like performing a peyote ceremony without the cactus."<ref name="aldrich1977" />

== The second half: panchamakara and maithuna ==

Following the cannabis consecration and the practitioner's transformation through ''Bhuta-shuddhi'' and ''Nyasa'', the ceremony proceeds to its "superior" portion. Male and female practitioners form a ''chakra'' (circle), each woman seated to the left of her male partner. The five M's are consecrated and consumed one by one, with power invoked into each through ceremonies similar to the ''vijaya'' consecration.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

The final element is ''maithuna'' (ritual intercourse). The male practitioner views his partner as Gauri (the spouse of Shiva) and himself as Shiva. During the act, he recites mantras and meditates continuously on the unity of Shiva and Shakti. Texts differ on whether the male should ejaculate: Buddhist Tantric instructions call for retention, while some Hindu texts prescribe ejaculation. In either case, the purpose is to prolong the act and build sexual energy until, according to the tradition, both partners experience a transcendence of the sense of self, which constitutes the experience of liberation.<ref name="aldrich1977" /><ref name="bharati1970" />

== Sex yoga and cannabis ==

The connection between cannabis and sexuality in Tantric practice has roots in Hindu folk medicine, where cannabis has long been regarded as an aphrodisiac. Shiva embodies both asceticism and eroticism, a paradox extensively discussed in the scholarly literature.<ref name="oflaherty1973">{{cite book |last=O'Flaherty |first=Wendy Doniger |title=Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Shiva |location=Delhi |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1973}}</ref> In Tantric doctrine this paradox is resolved through the unity in practice (''sadhana'') of yoga with ''bhoga'' (sensual pleasure). The ''Kularnava Tantra'' states that in Shaivite Tantric (Kaula) doctrine, ''bhoga'' becomes yoga directly, and worldly involvement (''samsara'') becomes release (''moksha'').<ref name="aldrich1977" />

== Hindu and Buddhist differences ==

While both Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism employ cannabis and the five M's, they differ in their understanding of the roles of male and female energy. In Hindu Tantrism, the female energy (''shakti'') is dynamic and paramount; the male is passive and draws all vitality from the ''shakti''. In Shaivite iconography, Shiva is depicted as ''shava'' (a corpse) who can be brought to life only through unity with the Goddess. In Buddhist Tantra the relationship is reversed: the male assumes the active role of compassion while the female represents the passive embodiment of wisdom. In both traditions, however, the purpose of the ritual is to unite worldly involvement with the extinction of worldly desires, achieving liberation through the unity of the phenomenal and the absolute.<ref name="aldrich1977" /><ref name="blofeld1970">{{cite book |last=Blofeld |first=John |title=The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet |location=New York |publisher=Dutton |year=1970 |page=81}}</ref>

== Contemporary practice ==

Aldrich reported in 1977 that several poets and writers in Calcutta told him in 1965-1966 that they were involved in Tantric rituals, though he noted they may have been deceiving him. Professor Agehananda Bharati informed Aldrich that, at the time, no one performed the traditional Tantric ceremonies in full: "they only write and talk about it."<ref name="aldrich1977" /> The extent to which full Tantric cannabis ceremonies continue to be practiced in the present day remains uncertain.{{cn}}

Cannabis continues to occupy a prominent place in Shaivite devotional practice outside the Tantric context. ''Bhang'' is poured over Shiva's stone phallus (the ''lingam'') and is consecrated to Kali in temples across India.<ref name="campbell1894">{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=J.M. |title=Note on the Religion of Hemp |work=Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report |year=1894 |orig-year=Reprinted 1969 in Marijuana: Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1893–1894 |publisher=Thos. Jefferson Publishing Co. |location=Silver Spring, MD}}</ref> The annual festival of Maha Shivaratri and the festival of Holi both involve widespread consumption of ''bhang'' preparations, particularly in northern India and the [[Western Himalayas]].<ref name="sharma_manjul2024">{{cite journal |last1=Sharma Manjul |first1=Anshul |last2=Sharma |first2=Parveen Prabha |last3=Lata |first3=Charu |title=Cannabis Chronicles: Unveiling Himachal Pradesh's Green Secret |journal=Just Agriculture |volume=5 |issue=2 |year=2024 |issn=2582-8223}}</ref>

== Terminology ==

Several Sanskrit terms for cannabis carry specifically religious connotations:

* '''''Vijaya''''' ("victory"): The cannabis beverage used in Tantric ceremonies, identified in the tradition with the ''amrita'' produced by the Churning of the Milk Ocean. The name commemorates the gods' victory over the demons in securing the nectar.<ref name="aldrich1977" />
* '''''Siddhi''''' ("occult powers"): A name for cannabis used particularly in Bengal, punning on the yogic concept of supernatural attainments.<ref name="aldrich1977" />
* '''''Bhang''''': The most common Hindi term for cannabis preparations, traceable to the ''Atharva Veda''. In Tantric usage it refers specifically to the plant material before its ritual consecration as ''vijaya''.<ref name="aldrich1977" />
* '''''Amrita''''' ("nectar of immortality"): The Vedic term for the divine nectar, applied in Tantric tradition to the cannabis preparation as a replacement for ''Soma''.<ref name="aldrich1977" />

== See also ==

* [[Western Himalayas]]
* [[Cannabis in Khmer culture]]

== References ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:History]]