i. In Ancient Iran
In the Middle Persian texts bang (mang) is described sometimes as a lethal and sometimes as a hallucinogenic drug. Thus, when Ahriman attacked the creation, Ohrmazd gave the primordial bull a “medicinal” mang (mang bēšaz) to lessen its injury. The bull immediately became feeble and sick and passed away (Bundahišn , tr. chap. 4.20). However, bang was also an ingredient of the “illuminating drink” (rōšngar xwarišn) that allowed Wištāsp to see the “great xwarrah” and the “great mystery.” This mang ī wištāspān (Pahlavi Vd. 15.14; Ardā Wirāz-nāmag 2.15) was mixed with hōm (Dēnkard 7.4.85) or wine (Pahlavi Rivayat 47.27). It was an integral part of the ecstatic practice aimed at opening the “eye of the soul” (gyān čašm; Gnoli, pp. 414ff., 435ff.) and was therefore drunk by Ardā Wirāz (Ardā Wirāz-nāmag 1.20, 2.9, 15, 16) before his journey into the other world (Gignoux, p. 152 n. 4; cf. Vahman, p. 14 n. 9).
The word must be etymologically related to Avestan baṇha/bangha (AirWb., col. 925, in compounds: abaŋha, Pouru, baŋha, vībaŋha, see AirWb., cols. 87, 901, 1447) and further to OInd. (Atharvavedic) bhaṅga. This etymological connection was challenged by Henning (pp. 33f.), but unconvincingly (see Widengren, 1955, pp. 66ff.; Boyce, Zoroastrianism I, pp. 231 n. 11, 280 with n. 14; Belardi, p. 117).
Bibliography
H. W. Bailey, “Ambages Indo-iranicae,” AION-L 1, 1959, pp. 113-46.
W. Belardi, The Pahlavi Book of the Righteous Viraz, Rome, 1979.
Ph. Gignoux, Le livre d’Ardā Vīrāz, Paris, 1984. G. Gnoli, “Ašavan,” in Iranica, ed. G. Gnoli, Naples, 1979, pp. 387-452.
W. B. Henning, Zoroaster, Politician or Witch-doctor?, London, 1951.
H. S. Nyberg, Die Religionen des alten Iran, Germ. tr. H. H. Schaeder, Leipzig, 1938, pp. 177f., 290f., 341f.
Idem, A Manual of Pahlavi II, Wiesbaden, 1974, p. 125.
F. Vahman, Ardā Wirāz Nāmag, London and Malmö, 1986.
G. Widengren, “Stand und Aufgaben der iranischen Religionsgeschichte,” Numen 2, 1955, pp. 47-132.
Idem, Die Religionen Irans, Stuttgart, 1965, pp. 70ff.
Idem, “Révélation et prédication dans les Gāthās,” in Iranica, ed. G. Gnoli, Naples, 1979, pp. 339-64.
Idem, Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen 231, 1/2, 1979, pp. 56ff. (review of B. Schlerath, ed., Zarathustra, Darmstadt, 1970, with reference to K. Rudolph, “Zarathuštra-Priester und Prophet,” ibid., pp. 270-313, reprinted from Numen 8, 1961, pp. 81-116).