Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.25 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. Flow clear, you who perfect strength, tawny one, for the gods to drink — an intoxicating draught for the Maruts and for Vāyu.
2. O Purifying one, impelled by devotion, roaring toward your own seat — enter Vāyu according to the established order.
3. The bull, the seer, shines out together with the gods, beloved in his own seat — the Vṛtra-slayer, most eager to feast the gods.
4. Entering into all forms, being purified, the desired one goes forth to where the immortals sit.
5. The ruddy one, begetting songs of praise, Soma flows clear together with the Āyus, going to Indra, possessed of a seer's wisdom.
6. Flow clear, most exhilarating one, O seer, with your stream through the filter, to take your seat in the womb of the sacred chant.
Translator's note: verses 1–2 name Vāyu and the Maruts as recipients of the pressed draught, but the hymn as a whole — like all of Maṇḍala 9 — addresses Soma Pavamana himself as he is purified through the filter; the subtitle reflects the hymn's actual addressee rather than the deities named as recipients within it. "Āyus" (v.5) is left untranslated as a proper term for a class of ancient men/priestly ancestors rather than rendered by a shaky English gloss.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.25 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.25
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.
pavasva dakṣasādhano devebhyaḥ pītaye hare |
marudbhyo vāyave madaḥ || 1 ||
pavamāna dhiyā hito3 'bhi yoniṁ kanikradat |
dharmaṇā vāyum ā viśa || 2 ||
saṁ devaiḥ śobhate vṛṣā kavir yonāv adhi priyaḥ |
vṛtrahā devavītamaḥ || 3 ||
viśvā rūpāṇy āviśan punāno yāti haryataḥ |
yatrāmṛtāsa āsate || 4 ||
aruṣo janayan giraḥ somaḥ pavata āyuṣak |
indraṁ gacchan kavikratuḥ || 5 ||
ā pavasva madintama pavitraṁ dhārayā kave |
arkasya yonim āsadam || 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).