Charas Hash
Charas Hash Produced by carefully rubbing the female buds between the hands. The resin is rolled in Hash-Balls, before shipment it’s pressed in the usual slabs. Color: Black on the outside, dark greenish/brown inside. Smell: Spicy to very spicy. Distinctive aroma. Taste: Very spicy, somewhat harsh on the throat but definitively less so than Afghani. Consistency: Very soft, can be kneaded easily like Afghani. Sometimes quite powdery though always dense. Effect: Very stony and physical high. Cerebral. Potency: Potent to very potent. Like Nepali, Charas is almost always good smoke. (10-26% THC) Availability: Very rare, from time to time very small quantities become available. Most Hash of this kind is imported by private travellers to India. As expected the price is very high, in the range of Nepali. Charas is usually sold as a ‘finger’, which is a sausage shaped piece of hash.
Cannabis, also known as ganja, grows wild throughout Northern India, with particular prevalence along the foothills of the Himalayas. Although it is considered illegal in most parts of the world, certain forms of cannabis, most notably bhang, a cannabis and milk mixture, are sold in government-sanctioned shops with great popularity.
Another popular form of cannabis, known as “charas,” plays an important cultural role in India. In the Hindu religion, the god Shiva is known for his love of cannabis, and cannabis is widely used during the Hindu festival of Holi. Shaivs, a sect of Hinduism devoted to worship of the Lord Shiva, smoke charas freely as part of their religious practice.
In modern practice, young professionals and sadhus, or religious ascetics, continue to use charas regularly, usually by smoking it out of a small clay pipe called a chillum. Before lighting the pipe, they will often chant the many names of Shiva. The Shiva sahasranama is a “list of a thousand names” exalting Shiva in his many forms.
