Sarbat Khalsa Jathedars Fighting Drug Problems!

[dallysingh101]

From Macauliffe. 

On 8/22/2016 at 8:06 AM, EST1699 said:

 

Source?

 

[dallysingh101]

On 8/22/2016 at 9:55 AM, Thanatos said:

Wasn't Bang used in pain-relief too? to help sleeping and wounds in battle. can't recall properly maybe @dallysingh101 can shed some light on it since Sikh history seems to be his forte. 

I think Bhangu's Panth Prakash sheds most light on its use. This can be supplemented with the early European spy reports on the Sikh raj.

Judging by them, bhang appears to have used as some sort of psychotropic mood elevator in violent times (bhangu mentions its use at the start of the day), and also as a sleeping aid as goray specifically mention the use of bhang after long marches, being taken in the evening (a muscle relaxant and sleep aid perhaps?)

Given recent research on sukha it might be that SInghs were using it to combat ptsd and to counterbalance psychopathy that is not unknown to manifest itself as a consequence of repeated exposure to bloody violence. What our ancestor's faced in the 1700s was about as gruesome and violent as it can get. You have to remember a lot of things get removed from history because it is too painful for a community. Given the enemy and their cultural norms you can bet that female family members being raped or taken away as sex slaves wasn't uncommon. People faced a lot back then.