Hymn to the Pressing Stones
Rigveda X.94 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.
1. Let these speak forth; let us also speak forth. Speak a word to the pressing-stones, the speaking ones, who speak of themselves — when the stones, the mountains, swift together and full of soma, carry their resounding cry to Indra.
2. These speak by hundreds, by thousands; they roar with tawny mouths. Having labored, the skillful pressing-stones, by their own good work, have tasted the offering even before the priest.
3. These speak; they have found sweetness in this. They sway over the cooked flesh. Gnawing the branch of the ruddy tree, these well-fed bulls have bellowed forth in their eagerness.
4. Loud they speak with the intoxicating draught; calling out to Indra, they have found sweetness in this. Grasping one another, the steadfast ones, with their sisters, have danced, making the earth resound with their trampling.
5. The eagles have raised their cry up to the sky; in their den the swift black ones have danced. Downward they go to the appointed meeting-place of the lower stone; sun-bright, they have poured out abundant seed.
6. Like mighty ones hauling a load, they have strained together, yoked as one, bulls bearing the pole. When, panting and devouring, they have roared, their snorting is heard like that of racehorses.
7. Sing to those with ten tracks, ten girths, ten traces, ten yokings, ten reins — sing to the ageless ones — to the ten poles, the ten yoked ones that bear the load.
8. Those swift stones, bound with ten fastenings — their lovely harness encircles them. And they have partaken of the first milk, the beestings, of the pressed soma-stalk's juice.
9. These soma-eaters kiss Indra's two bay steeds; milking the stalk, they sit upon the cowhide. Having drunk, through them, the milked soma-honey, Indra grows strong, spreads wide, and acts the bull.
10. Your stalk is a bull; you shall surely come to no harm. Full of nourishment, you are ever well-fed. Fair are you in your greatness, like riches — O stones, you who have delighted in this rite.
11. Bored or unbored, the stones are untiring, unslackening, undying, unailing, ageless, firm in their strength, well-fed, unthirsting, never parched.
12. Your fathers stand firm, age after age; desiring rest, they do not stir from their seat. Ageless, companions of the tawny draught, running with the tawny drink, they have made heaven and earth hear their roar.
13. This is what the stones say at their unyoking, on their course, like drinkers of the offering, with their tramplings — sowing seed like grain-growers, they mingle the soma, and though they gnaw it, they do not diminish it.
14. At the pressed-soma rite they raised their voice, like playful children jostling their mother. Release fully the inspired thought of him who has pressed the soma; let the stones, now honored, turn away.
Translator's note: this hymn addresses the grāvāṇaḥ, the stones used to press the soma plant, treating them as living beings — bulls, eagles, dancers, singers — rather than addressing Soma or Indra directly, though both are invoked within it. Verse 7's string of "ten" attributes (tracks, girths, traces, yokings, reins) is an obscure catalogue whose exact referents are uncertain; it is rendered here literally. In verse 10, "raivatyeva" (here "like riches") is likewise an uncertain term, rendered conservatively.
Colophon
Rigveda X.94 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.94
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.
praite vadantu pra vayaṁ vadāma grāvabhyo vācaṁ vadatā vadadbhyaḥ |
yad adrayaḥ parvatāḥ sākam āśavaḥ ślokaṁ ghoṣam bharathendrāya sominaḥ || 1 ||
ete vadanti śatavat sahasravad abhi krandanti haritebhir āsabhiḥ |
viṣṭvī grāvāṇaḥ sukṛtaḥ sukṛtyayā hotuś cit pūrve haviradyam āśata || 2 ||
ete vadanty avidann anā madhu ny ūṅkhayante adhi pakva āmiṣi |
vṛkṣasya śākhām aruṇasya bapsatas te sūbharvā vṛṣabhāḥ prem arāviṣuḥ || 3 ||
bṛhad vadanti madireṇa mandinendraṁ krośanto 'vidann anā madhu |
saṁrabhyā dhīrāḥ svasṛbhir anartiṣur āghoṣayantaḥ pṛthivīm upabdibhiḥ || 4 ||
suparṇā vācam akratopa dyavy ākhare kṛṣṇā iṣirā anartiṣuḥ |
nya1ṅ ni yanty uparasya niṣkṛtam purū reto dadhire sūryaśvitaḥ || 5 ||
ugrā iva pravahantaḥ samāyamuḥ sākaṁ yuktā vṛṣaṇo bibhrato dhuraḥ |
yac chvasanto jagrasānā arāviṣuḥ śṛṇva eṣām prothatho arvatām iva || 6 ||
daśāvanibhyo daśakakṣyebhyo daśayoktrebhyo daśayojanebhyaḥ |
daśābhīśubhyo arcatājarebhyo daśa dhuro daśa yuktā vahadbhyaḥ || 7 ||
te adrayo daśayantrāsa āśavas teṣām ādhānam pary eti haryatam |
ta ū sutasya somyasyāndhaso 'ṁśoḥ pīyūṣam prathamasya bhejire || 8 ||
te somādo harī indrasya niṁsate 'ṁśuṁ duhanto adhy āsate gavi |
tebhir dugdham papivān somyam madhv indro vardhate prathate vṛṣāyate || 9 ||
vṛṣā vo aṁśur na kilā riṣāthaneḻāvantaḥ sadam it sthanāśitāḥ |
raivatyeva mahasā cāravaḥ sthana yasya grāvāṇo ajuṣadhvam adhvaram || 10 ||
tṛdilā atṛdilāso adrayo 'śramaṇā aśṛthitā amṛtyavaḥ |
anāturā ajarāḥ sthāmaviṣṇavaḥ supīvaso atṛṣitā atṛṣṇajaḥ || 11 ||
dhruvā eva vaḥ pitaro yuge-yuge kṣemakāmāsaḥ sadaso na yuñjate |
ajuryāso hariṣāco haridrava ā dyāṁ raveṇa pṛthivīm aśuśravuḥ || 12 ||
tad id vadanty adrayo vimocane yāmann añjaspā iva ghed upabdibhiḥ |
vapanto bījam iva dhānyākṛtaḥ pṛñcanti somaṁ na minanti bapsataḥ || 13 ||
sute adhvare adhi vācam akratā krīḻayo na mātaraṁ tudantaḥ |
vi ṣū muñcā suṣuvuṣo manīṣāṁ vi vartantām adrayaś cāyamānāḥ || 14 ||
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).