In the Northern Circars, some earn a living as petty dealers in opium and ganja (Indian hemp).
When there are dogs about a house, they are soon kept quiet with powdered gajjakai or ganjaleaves mixed with cooked rice, which they eat greedily.
Similarly when cholera visits a village and various articles of dress with food and liquor are offered to the cholera goddess, Marhai Mata, smokers of ganja and madak [289] will offer a little of their drugs.
Many cultivators buy a little ganja at the weekly bazar and have one pipeful each as a treat.
Dhimars or fishermen consume opium and ganjalargely under the impression that these drugs prevent them from taking cold.
Ganja is smoked and is usually mixed with tobacco.
Ganja and bhang are now considered sacred as being consumed by Mahadeo, and are offered to him.
Hindu ascetics who smoke ganja are accustomed to mix with it some seeds of the dhatura (Datura alba), which have a powerful stupefying effect.
On the contrary ganja is regularly consumed by Hindu ascetics, whether devotees of Siva or Vishnu, though it is more favoured by the Sivite Jogis.
The abstinence from liquor enjoined by modern Hinduism to the higher castes of Hindus has unfortunately not extended to the harmful drugs, opium, and ganja [284] or Indian hemp with its preparations.
Buchanan notes that "No more blame follows the use of opium and ganja than in Europe that of wine; yet smoking tobacco is considered impure by the highest castes.
Ganja is the hashish of the Old Man of the Mountain and of Monte Cristo.
Next morning he feels intoxicated, as if he had taken ganja (Cannabis sativa), and remains in that condition all day.
Apart from spirits, excise duties are levied upon the sale of a number of intoxicating or stimulant drugs, of which the most important are opium, bhang, ganja and charas.
The plant grows wild in many parts of India; but the cultivation of it for ganja is practically confined to a limited area in the Rajshahi district of eastern Bengal, and charas is mainly imported from Central Asia.
Bhang, ganja and charas are three different narcotic drugs prepared from the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa, var.
The use of bhang in moderation is comparatively harmless; ganja and charas when taken in excess are undoubtedly injurious, leading to crime and sometimes to insanity.
How could I, a poor seller of ganja and bhung, have dreamed such things of Tannajee and Sivaji?
But swear on my neck, Bulwunt, no more ganja to-night.
Ganja is met with in the Indian bazaars in dense bundles of 24 plants or heads apiece.
Hemp as a drug or intoxicant for smoking and chewing occurs in the three forms of bhang, ganja and charas.
