Firewater and Corpse-Reviver

Chapter 9 contains some very brief observations on what happened to the drinks, ideas, narratives, and rituals discussed in this book over the later second millennium CE. Although limited to certain narrow sectarian and professional contexts, many of these ancient intellectual resources still formed a repertoire of materials with which to think about drink and drugs in very changed historical circumstances. The chapter first examines what happened to traditional methods of surā brewing, and how distillation was incorporated, practically and conceptually. Then the chapter briefly considers how tobacco was described and classified within the world of Sanskrit texts. Although this period witnessed new technologies and substances, the Sanskritic tradition continued to adapt to these new situations, often by having recourse to ancient ideas and motifs.