AMRTA. - The a., which in the Rgveda (v.) is the drink of the gods, able to confer immortality, has its earthly counterpart in soma, "the pressed one," the fermented juice of an alpine plant, not well identified, which is supposed to have belonged to the family of the Asclepiadaceae. The soma, offered to the gods pure or mixed with milk or honey, is a drink of exclusively ritual use, of divine origin like the a. The god Indra draws from the soma the strength to confront and destroy the demons, and the myth of the eagle that seizes for him the burning 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 the a. takes place in a completely different way. The gods and the asuras churn the ocean together to extract the a. from it, using Mount Mandara as a churning stick and the serpent Vasuki as a rope to move it around. Once the ambrosia is obtained, gods and asuras contend for its possession. Then Viṣṇu, availing himself of his magic, transforms himself into a woman of wondrous beauty and obtains from the asuras, sick and astonished, the surrender of the a. Having understood the deception, the asuras resume the struggle, but the gods inflict a decisive defeat upon them.
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Ferdinando Belloni Filippi