Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

Plants play a key role in Hindu mythology. Plants are seen as sacred, sometimes deities by themselves, and sometimes as key offerings in a ritual. It all starts with the veneration of Soma, a mysterious hallucinogenic herb, referred to in the Rig Veda that is simultaneously a plant and a god. The herb is crushed and its juice filtered in an elaborate ritual designed to invoke and appease Indra, the chief Vedic god, via Agni, or fire. In the Atharva Veda, additionally, we find a veneration of darba grass, bhang and yava, which could mean barley or rice. Today, 3,000 years later, rice and darba grass are still part of Hindu ritual, revealing continuity. We don't know still what Soma was, and why Bhang (or Cannabis Indica), offered to Shiva and Balarama in temple rituals and during certain festivals, is shunned in mainstream.