Hymn to Soma Pavamāna
Rigveda IX.18 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. Pressed out, mountain-dwelling, Soma has flowed around onto the filter. In the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining.
2. You are the inspired sage, you are the poet, the honey born forth from the stalk. In the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining.
3. All the gods together, of one accord, have received your drink. In the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining.
4. He who holds all desirable treasures in his two hands — in the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining.
5. He who milks these two great world-halves together like two mothers — in the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining.
6. He who courses around both world-halves in a single day with his mighty gifts — in the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining.
7. He, full of fury, being purified in the vats, has roared out. In the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining.
Translator's note: "madeṣu sarvadhā asi" (the refrain closing every verse) is rendered "in the exhilarations, you are all-sustaining" — mada denotes the exhilarating/intoxicating states induced by Soma, and sarvadhā ("all-supporting/all-sustaining") is kept literal rather than expanded. In verse 4–7 the Sanskrit shifts to third person ("he who...") before the refrain returns to direct second-person address ("you are"); this shift is preserved as in the source rather than smoothed over.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.18 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.18
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.
pari suvāno giriṣṭhāḥ pavitre somo akṣāḥ |
madeṣu sarvadhā asi || 1 ||
tvaṁ vipras tvaṁ kavir madhu pra jātam andhasaḥ |
madeṣu sarvadhā asi || 2 ||
tava viśve sajoṣaso devāsaḥ pītim āśata |
madeṣu sarvadhā asi || 3 ||
ā yo viśvāni vāryā vasūni hastayor dadhe |
madeṣu sarvadhā asi || 4 ||
ya ime rodasī mahī sam mātareva dohate |
madeṣu sarvadhā asi || 5 ||
pari yo rodasī ubhe sadyo vājebhir arṣati |
madeṣu sarvadhā asi || 6 ||
sa śuṣmī kalaśeṣv ā punāno acikradat |
madeṣu sarvadhā asi || 7 ||
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).