Hymn to the Pressing Stones
Rigveda X.175 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension. Its four verses address the grāvāṇaḥ — the stones used to press soma — asking the god Savitṛ to set them in their proper motion.
1. May the god Savitṛ impel you onward, O pressing-stones, according to his ordinance. Yoke yourselves to the shafts — press out the soma.
2. O pressing-stones, drive away misfortune, drive away ill will. Make the bright drops a remedy for us.
3. The pressing-stones, working together in accord, are exalted upon the lower stone, granting bull-strength to the bull.
4. Now may the god Savitṛ impel you, O pressing-stones, according to his ordinance, for the sacrificer who presses the soma.
Translator's note: "usrāḥ" in verse 2 (rendered "bright drops") can denote either the ruddy soma-juice or the bright rays/mornings; the pressing-stone context favors the soma reading, kept here conservatively. "vṛṣṇe...vṛṣṇyam" in verse 3 ("bull-strength to the bull") is an idiom for imparting virile potency, likely to Soma or Indra, left literal rather than resolved to a specific addressee the Sanskrit does not name.
Colophon
Rigveda X.175 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.175
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
pra vo grāvāṇaḥ savitā devaḥ suvatu dharmaṇā |
dhūrṣu yujyadhvaṁ sunuta || 1 ||
grāvāṇo apa ducchunām apa sedhata durmatim |
usrāḥ kartana bheṣajam || 2 ||
grāvāṇa upareṣv ā mahīyante sajoṣasaḥ |
vṛṣṇe dadhato vṛṣṇyam || 3 ||
grāvāṇaḥ savitā nu vo devaḥ suvatu dharmaṇā |
yajamānāya sunvate || 4 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).