NOTE BY MR. G. A. GRIERSON, C.I.E.                             249

bhang plant from the Himalayas and gave it to mankind. Jōgis are well-known consumers
of bhang and ganja, and they are worshippers of Çiva.

In folk-songs, ganja or bhang (with or without opium) is the invariable drink of heroes
before performing any great feat. At the village of Bauri in Gaya there is a huge hollow
stone, which is said to be the bowl in which the famous hero Lōrik mixed his ganja. Lōrik
was a very valiant general, and is the hero of numerous folk-songs. The epic poem of Alhā
and Rūdal, of uncertain date, but undoubtedly based on very old materials (the heroes lived
in the twelfth century A.D.), contains numerous references to ganja as a drink of warriors.
For instance, the commencement of the canto dealing with Alhā's marriage, describes the
pestle and mortar with which the ganja was prepared, the amount of the intoxicating drink
prepared from it (it is called sabzī) and the amount of opium (an absurdly exaggerated quan-
tity) given to each warrior in his court.

That the consumption of bhang is not considered disreputable among Rajputs may be
gathered from the fact that Ajabēs, who was court poet to the well-known Maharaja Bishwa-
nath Singh of Riwa, wrote a poem praising bhang and comparing siddhi to the "success"
which attends the worshipper of "Hari." Here there is an elaborate series of puns. The
word siddhi means literally 'success,' and hari means not only the god Hari, but also
bhang.

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