AMRTA. — The substance, which in the Rgveda (q.v.) is the drink of the gods, capable of conferring immortality, has its rich and strange origin in soma, “the pressed,” the fermented juice of an alpine plant, not well identified, which is thought to have belonged to the family of the sedge-rushes. The soma, offered to the gods pure or mixed with milk or honey, is a drink of exclusively ritual use, of divine origin like amrta. The god Indra draws from soma the strength to confront and destroy the demons, and the myth of the eagle that snatches for him the fiery liquor from the sky where it is guarded belongs to the Rgveda, IX, 77, 2.
In the Mahābhārata, I, 15-17 (Poona 1914), the acquisition of amrta occurs in a quite different manner. The gods and the asuras churn the ocean together to obtain amrta, using as the churning staff the Mount Mandara and as the rope to turn it the serpent Vāsuki. Once the ambrosia is obtained, the gods and asuras contend for its possession. Then Viṣṇu, employing his magic, transforms himself into a woman of wondrous beauty and obtains from the asuras, who are beguiled and astonished, the surrender of the amrta. Realizing the deception, the asuras resume the struggle, but the gods inflict upon them a decisive defeat.