Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.104 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 9 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. Friends, sit down together; sing out to him as he is being purified. Attend him with sacrifices as one tends a child, for his splendor.
2. Send him forth together with the waters, like a calf to its mothers — him who brings prosperity to the house; send forth the god-inviting, doubly-strong exhilarating drink.
3. Purify him, the accomplisher of strength, so that he may go to the mighty host for their feast, so that he may be most gracious to Mitra and Varuṇa.
4. Our voices have sung out to you, finder of wealth, for our sake; with streams of milk we clothe your color.
5. You, O drop, lord of the exhilarating draughts, have a godlike radiance. Be to us as a friend to a friend — the best finder of the way.
6. Drive away from us entirely any demon, any devourer; keep from us the godless double-dealer, and harm.
Translator's note: verse 3's śardhāya ("for the host/troop") likely refers to the Maruts as a body; rendered conservatively as "the mighty host." Verse 6's atrinam ("devourer") and dvayum ("double-dealer, deceiver") are stock terms for hostile demonic beings in the Soma Pavamana hymns.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.104 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 IX.104
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.
sakhāya ā ni ṣīdata punānāya pra gāyata |
śiśuṁ na yajñaiḥ pari bhūṣata śriye || 1 ||
sam ī vatsaṁ na mātṛbhiḥ sṛjatā gayasādhanam |
devāvya1m madam abhi dviśavasam || 2 ||
punātā dakṣasādhanaṁ yathā śardhāya vītaye |
yathā mitrāya varuṇāya śaṁtamaḥ || 3 ||
asmabhyaṁ tvā vasuvidam abhi vāṇīr anūṣata |
gobhiṣ ṭe varṇam abhi vāsayāmasi || 4 ||
sa no madānām pata indo devapsarā asi |
sakheva sakhye gātuvittamo bhava || 5 ||
sanemi kṛdhy a1smad ā rakṣasaṁ kaṁ cid atriṇam |
apādevaṁ dvayum aṁho yuyodhi naḥ || 6 ||
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).