History of alcoholic drinks had previously thought beer was invented. The earliest evidence of wine was found in what is now China, where jars from Jiahu which date to about 7000 BC. This early rice wine was produced by fermenting rice, honey, and fruit. What later developed into Chinese civilization grew up along the more northerly Yellow River and fermented a kind of huangjiu from millet. The Zhou attached great importance to alcohol and ascribed the loss of the mandate of Heaven by the earlier Xia and Shang as largely due to their dissolute and alcoholic emperors. An edict ascribed to BC makes it
Sura (alcoholic drink) Sura (alcoholic drink) Surāh (Sanskrit and Pāli; Devanāgarī: सुरा) is a strong distilled alcoholic drink. It is referred to as an anaesthetic by Suśruta (a surgeon in India circa 400 BCE). Other ancient medical authorities also mention it; Charaka referred to making a woman with a miscarriage senseless to pain by administering alcoholic drinks like "surā", "sīdhu", "ariṣṭa", "madhu", "madirā" or "āsava". The method for preparation appears in the Atharvaveda in the Kandas 5 and 8. In Buddhist texts "surāh" is mentioned as one of intoxicating drinks, along with (Pali) "meraya" (Sanskrit "maireya", a drink made with sugar cane and