Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.21 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. Maṇḍala 9 is devoted entirely to Soma Pavamana — soma in the act of being pressed and purified — and this hymn addresses the flowing drops themselves as they race toward Indra. 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. These drops run swift, the soma juices, eager for Indra — exhilarating, finding the light.
2. Overpowering their attackers, finding wide room for the one who presses them, they themselves, for the singer, build up vital strength.
3. Playing freely, the drops move toward that one gathering place; on the waves of the river they have poured forth.
4. These purifying drops have won all things worth having, like horses harnessed to a chariot.
5. O drops, set within this man the tawny, far-seeing one, for guidance — against him who gives nothing to us.
6. Like Ṛbhu fitting a new wheel to a chariot, set your sign for guidance; flow pure, bright ones, in your flood.
7. These have roared aloud; like prize-winning steeds they have reached the turning point, and have quickened the mind of the one who truly is.
Translator's note: "venam" in verse 5 (rendered "the far-seeing one") is an epithet whose exact force is debated — it names a longing or seeing quality associated with the tawny soma-drop itself; the line is rendered conservatively. "sataḥ" in verse 7 ("the one who truly is") likely denotes the sacrificer or worshiper present at the rite, but the phrase is terse enough to admit some doubt.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.21 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.21
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.
ete dhāvantīndavaḥ somā indrāya ghṛṣvayaḥ |
matsarāsaḥ svarvidaḥ || 1 ||
pravṛṇvanto abhiyujaḥ suṣvaye varivovidaḥ |
svayaṁ stotre vayaskṛtaḥ || 2 ||
vṛthā krīḻanta indavaḥ sadhastham abhy ekam it |
sindhor ūrmā vy akṣaran || 3 ||
ete viśvāni vāryā pavamānāsa āśata |
hitā na saptayo rathe || 4 ||
āsmin piśaṅgam indavo dadhātā venam ādiśe |
yo asmabhyam arāvā || 5 ||
ṛbhur na rathyaṁ navaṁ dadhātā ketam ādiśe |
śukrāḥ pavadhvam arṇasā || 6 ||
eta u tye avīvaśan kāṣṭhāṁ vājino akrata |
sataḥ prāsāviṣur matim || 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).