Somaras is an Indian beverage made as a part of a sacrificial ritual, by pressing the plant between stones, mixing the juice with milk and filtering it through sheepskin. Somaras was not an alcoholic drink, since there was less time between manufacture and consumption. Soma was related with the moon, but in the Rig-veda, it is simply described as the king of plants, as it bestowed immortality through its miraculous beverage. The plant is believed to have been delivered to the earth from heaven by an eagle.
Somaras is said to cause hallucinations and therefore the consumption of soma was permitted only during sacrifices. Somaras gave a sense of growing to gigantic size and possessing superhuman strength or experiencing visions of the gods coming down to join the worshippers on the sacrificial site. Even in the present days, a few Brahmanic families who try to keep up the very ancient Vedic rituals make a rather bitter drink from a kind of wild rhubarb which they call soma. The modern Somaras is not injurious, because the powerful hallucinogenic property of the original soma plant was replaced by the ineffectual substitute that is used now. It is said that Somaras is similar to the agarics mushroom widespread in central Asia and the Himalayan forests.
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