Hymn to Soma
Rigveda IX.44 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. O drop, you flow forth for us toward great expanse, bearing a wave, tireless one, on toward the gods.
2. Loved by prayer, set in place by insight, Soma is stirred in the far region — the seer-poet, borne on the inspired singer's stream.
3. This one, wakeful among the gods, once pressed, goes into the filter. Soma proceeds, the all-seeing one.
4. Flow pure for us, seeking the prize, shaping the sacrifice into something fair. Furnished with the sacred grass, he wins the gods over.
5. May he, hero among the inspired, ever growing — Soma — guide us to the gods, for Bhaga, for Vāyu.
6. Today, for our winning of goods, knowing the sacred rite, best finder of the way — win the prize, the great renown!
Translator's note: "ayāsyaḥ" (v.1) and "vicarṣaṇiḥ" (v.3) are stock epithets of uncertain precise sense, rendered here conservatively as "tireless one" and "all-seeing one." "Barhiṣmān" (v.4) is read as describing Soma himself, furnished with the ritual grass, rather than the priest.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.44 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.44
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 ṇa indo mahe tana ūrmiṁ na bibhrad arṣasi |
abhi devām̐ ayāsyaḥ || 1 ||
matī juṣṭo dhiyā hitaḥ somo hinve parāvati |
viprasya dhārayā kaviḥ || 2 ||
ayaṁ deveṣu jāgṛviḥ suta eti pavitra ā |
somo yāti vicarṣaṇiḥ || 3 ||
sa naḥ pavasva vājayuś cakrāṇaś cārum adhvaram |
barhiṣmām̐ ā vivāsati || 4 ||
sa no bhagāya vāyave vipravīraḥ sadāvṛdhaḥ |
somo deveṣv ā yamat || 5 ||
sa no adya vasuttaye kratuvid gātuvittamaḥ |
vājaṁ jeṣi śravo bṛhat || 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).