Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.113 is a Soma Pavamana hymn from Maṇḍala 9 that turns, midway, from the rite to the deepest personal prayer in the Rigveda: five verses each ending "there make me immortal," asking the purified drop for the world where the light is unfading, where the ever-young waters flow, where desire itself is fulfilled. It is the Veda's clearest early vision of a blessed deathless world, and the seed of a thousand later paradises.
This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. At Śaryaṇāvat let Indra, slayer of Vṛtra, drink the soma, gathering strength into himself, about to do a great deed of might. O drop, flow round for Indra.
2. Purify yourself, lord of the quarters, flowing from the land of Ārjīka, O bounteous Soma — pressed with truthful speech, with truth, with faith, with fervor. O drop, flow round for Indra.
3. That buffalo grown strong on Parjanya's rain — the daughter of the Sun brought him, the Gandharvas received him, they set his sap within the soma. O drop, flow round for Indra.
4. Speaking truth, O you whose splendor is truth, speaking the real, O you of true deeds, speaking faith, O King Soma — made ready by the Ordainer, O Soma. O drop, flow round for Indra.
5. The streams of the truly mighty, vast one flow together; the sap-rich juices merge, as you purify yourself by the sacred word, O tawny one. O drop, flow round for Indra.
6. Where the priest, speaking metrical speech, is exalted by the pressing-stone at the soma-rite, O purifying one, engendering bliss through the soma — O drop, flow round for Indra.
7. Where the light is unceasing, in the world where the sun's brightness is set — place me there, O purifying one, in that undying, unfailing world. O drop, flow round for Indra.
8. Where the king, son of Vivasvant, reigns, where heaven's inmost chamber lies, where those ever-young waters flow — there make me immortal. O drop, flow round for Indra.
9. Where one moves at will, in the threefold vault, the triple heaven of the sky, where the worlds are filled with light — there make me immortal. O drop, flow round for Indra.
10. Where desires and longings are, where the tawny sun's high dome stands, where self-nourishment and full contentment are — there make me immortal. O drop, flow round for Indra.
11. Where joys and delights are, where gladness and rapture dwell, where the wishes of desire itself are fulfilled — there make me immortal. O drop, flow round for Indra.
Translator's note: "bradhnasya viṣṭapam" (10) is rendered conservatively as "the tawny sun's high dome" — bradhna ("tawny, ruddy") is a solar epithet and viṣṭapa a summit or vault, but the exact image is uncertain. "avarodhanaṁ divaḥ" (8), heaven's enclosed or inmost chamber, is likewise a spatial image whose precise sense is debated.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.113 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda IX.113
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.
śaryaṇāvati somam indraḥ pibatu vṛtrahā |
balaṁ dadhāna ātmani kariṣyan vīryam mahad indrāyendo pari srava || 1 ||
ā pavasva diśām pata ārjīkāt soma mīḍhvaḥ |
ṛtavākena satyena śraddhayā tapasā suta indrāyendo pari srava || 2 ||
parjanyavṛddham mahiṣaṁ taṁ sūryasya duhitābharat |
taṁ gandharvāḥ praty agṛbhṇan taṁ some rasam ādadhur indrāyendo pari srava || 3 ||
ṛtaṁ vadann ṛtadyumna satyaṁ vadan satyakarman |
śraddhāṁ vadan soma rājan dhātrā soma pariṣkṛta indrāyendo pari srava || 4 ||
satyamugrasya bṛhataḥ saṁ sravanti saṁsravāḥ |
saṁ yanti rasino rasāḥ punāno brahmaṇā hara indrāyendo pari srava || 5 ||
yatra brahmā pavamāna chandasyā3ṁ vācaṁ vadan |
grāvṇā some mahīyate somenānandaṁ janayann indrāyendo pari srava || 6 ||
yatra jyotir ajasraṁ yasmim̐l loke svar hitam |
tasmin māṁ dhehi pavamānāmṛte loke akṣita indrāyendo pari srava || 7 ||
yatra rājā vaivasvato yatrāvarodhanaṁ divaḥ |
yatrāmūr yahvatīr āpas tatra mām amṛtaṁ kṛdhīndrāyendo pari srava || 8 ||
yatrānukāmaṁ caraṇaṁ trināke tridive divaḥ |
lokā yatra jyotiṣmantas tatra mām amṛtaṁ kṛdhīndrāyendo pari srava || 9 ||
yatra kāmā nikāmāś ca yatra bradhnasya viṣṭapam |
svadhā ca yatra tṛptiś ca tatra mām amṛtaṁ kṛdhīndrāyendo pari srava || 10 ||
yatrānandāś ca modāś ca mudaḥ pramuda āsate |
kāmasya yatrāptāḥ kāmās tatra mām amṛtaṁ kṛdhīndrāyendo pari srava || 11 ||
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).