The history of research on psychotropic substances and hallucinogens has often been influenced by socio-economic trends, politics, fashion, and pop culture rather than pure science. This work traces that history, focusing on South Asia, from the unresolved mystery of Soma/Amṛta to early archaeological evidence of wine in Gandhāra. It also presents an ethnographic study comparing the production of alcoholic fermented products and traditional fermentation starters, along with their ritual uses, among the indigenous ādivāsī communities of India.
The debate on the interaction between religions and psychoactive substances has been shaped more by prejudice, policy, and fashion than by scientific research, with entheogens alternately stigmatized and exalted in studies of shamanic phenomena worldwide. This article provides new epistemological insights from ethnographic fieldwork among Indigenous peoples of India, where producing alcoholic beverages—fermented and distilled, sometimes combined with other psychoactives—is a fundamental cultural trait. The discourse around these sacred substances, subject to political instrumentalization in both colonial and contemporary eras, now offers a key to understanding Indigenous ontology and traditional sustainability, extending beyond altered states of consciousness to local pharmacopeias and principles of fermentation and food preservation.