Hymn to Soma
Rigveda IX.33 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. The wise Soma-drops go forth, like waves of water, toward the wooden vats, like bulls toward the forest.
2. Brown and bright, in a stream of truth, they have flowed to the vats — toward the prize rich in cattle.
3. Pressed for Indra, for Vāyu, for Varuṇa, for the Maruts — the Soma-drops flow for Viṣṇu.
4. Three voices rise up; the milk-cows low; the tawny one goes on, bellowing.
5. The sacred hymns, young and vigorous, mothers of truth, have sung out to him — they groom the child of heaven.
6. Soma, pour out for us four seas of riches from every side, in their thousands — flow onward in your purifying.
Translator's note: "the tawny one" (v. 4) and "the child of heaven" (v. 5) both refer to Soma himself, described in his own imagery as he is pressed and filtered. "Three voices" (v. 4) is left as it stands in the Sanskrit — likely the three daily pressings or three ritual utterances — since the text does not specify which.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.33 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.33
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.
pra somāso vipaścito 'pāṁ na yanty ūrmayaḥ |
vanāni mahiṣā iva || 1 ||
abhi droṇāni babhravaḥ śukrā ṛtasya dhārayā |
vājaṁ gomantam akṣaran || 2 ||
sutā indrāya vāyave varuṇāya marudbhyaḥ |
somā arṣanti viṣṇave || 3 ||
tisro vāca ud īrate gāvo mimanti dhenavaḥ |
harir eti kanikradat || 4 ||
abhi brahmīr anūṣata yahvīr ṛtasya mātaraḥ |
marmṛjyante divaḥ śiśum || 5 ||
rāyaḥ samudrām̐ś caturo 'smabhyaṁ soma viśvataḥ |
ā pavasva sahasriṇaḥ || 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).