Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.5 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. Kindled, lord of all, the purifying one shines out on every side, gladdening, a bull, bellowing.
2. Tanūnapāt, the purifying one, sharpening his horns, streams on; he shines through the mid-air.
3. Worthy of praise, the purifying one shines out, brilliant wealth, with streams of sweetness, with power.
4. The tawny purifying one strews the sacred grass eastward with power; a god, he goes among the gods.
5. The divine golden doors, well-praised by the purifying one, swing wide open on their frames.
6. The purifying one shows himself a bull toward the two well-formed, great, mighty ones — Night and Dawn — fair to see.
7. I call the two gods who watch over men, the two divine priests: the purifying one and Indra the bull.
8. May Bhāratī of the purifying one, Sarasvatī, and great Iḍā — the three beautifully adorned goddesses — come to this our sacrifice.
9. I call Tvaṣṭar, the firstborn guardian, who goes before. The drop is Indra, the bull, the tawny one, the purifying one, lord of creatures.
10. O purifying one, anoint the lord of the forest with a stream of sweetness — the thousand-branched, golden, shining, gold one.
11. All gods, come to the svāhā-offering of the purifying one: Vāyu, Bṛhaspati, Sūrya, Agni, Indra, all of one accord.
Translator's note: "pavamānaḥ" ("the purifying one") is the recurring epithet of Soma throughout Maṇḍala 9 and is rendered consistently rather than varied, to keep the refrain visible as it stands in the Sanskrit. Verse 6's "suśilpe... na darśate" is a compressed comparison (the purifying one is "bull-like" toward Night and Dawn, "fair to see" like them); the rendering keeps the ambiguity rather than resolving it.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.5 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.5
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.
samiddho viśvatas patiḥ pavamāno vi rājati |
prīṇan vṛṣā kanikradat || 1 ||
tanūnapāt pavamānaḥ śṛṅge śiśāno arṣati |
antarikṣeṇa rārajat || 2 ||
īḻenyaḥ pavamāno rayir vi rājati dyumān |
madhor dhārābhir ojasā || 3 ||
barhiḥ prācīnam ojasā pavamānaḥ stṛṇan hariḥ |
deveṣu deva īyate || 4 ||
ud ātair jihate bṛhad dvāro devīr hiraṇyayīḥ |
pavamānena suṣṭutāḥ || 5 ||
suśilpe bṛhatī mahī pavamāno vṛṣaṇyati |
naktoṣāsā na darśate || 6 ||
ubhā devā nṛcakṣasā hotārā daivyā huve |
pavamāna indro vṛṣā || 7 ||
bhāratī pavamānasya sarasvatīḻā mahī |
imaṁ no yajñam ā gaman tisro devīḥ supeśasaḥ || 8 ||
tvaṣṭāram agrajāṁ gopām puroyāvānam ā huve |
indur indro vṛṣā hariḥ pavamānaḥ prajāpatiḥ || 9 ||
vanaspatim pavamāna madhvā sam aṅgdhi dhārayā |
sahasravalśaṁ haritam bhrājamānaṁ hiraṇyayam || 10 ||
viśve devāḥ svāhākṛtim pavamānasyā gata |
vāyur bṛhaspatiḥ sūryo 'gnir indraḥ sajoṣasaḥ || 11 ||
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).