Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.39 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 swiftly, O high-minded one, through your own dear domain, to where they say, "The gods are here!"
2. Perfecting what was left unshaped, sending out the food-offerings for the people — flow forth the rain of heaven.
3. Pressed, he goes into the filter, taking on brilliance through his own strength; seeing all around, he makes everything shine.
4. This is he who, swift in his course, comes from heaven into the filter; with the wave of the river he has streamed forth.
5. Winning favor from far off and from near, the pressed one, the honeyed drink, is poured out for Indra.
6. United, they have roared out; with the pressing stones they drive on the tawny one: "Now settle in the seat of truth."
Translator's note: verse 6's closing words are an imperative addressed to the Soma drop itself, telling it to take its seat in the "womb/seat of truth" (the filter or the vessel prepared for it) — rendered here as "seat" for clarity.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.39 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.39
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.
āśur arṣa bṛhanmate pari priyeṇa dhāmnā |
yatra devā iti bravan || 1 ||
pariṣkṛṇvann aniṣkṛtaṁ janāya yātayann iṣaḥ |
vṛṣṭiṁ divaḥ pari srava || 2 ||
suta eti pavitra ā tviṣiṁ dadhāna ojasā |
vicakṣāṇo virocayan || 3 ||
ayaṁ sa yo divas pari raghuyāmā pavitra ā |
sindhor ūrmā vy akṣarat || 4 ||
āvivāsan parāvato atho arvāvataḥ sutaḥ |
indrāya sicyate madhu || 5 ||
samīcīnā anūṣata hariṁ hinvanty adribhiḥ |
yonāv ṛtasya sīdata || 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).