Hymn to Soma Pavamāna

Rigveda IX.56 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. Soma, the swift one, flows around the great truth, through the filter, striking down the demons, seeking the gods.

2. When Soma flows toward the prize, a hundred streams hard at work, entering into friendship with Indra.

3. The ten maidens have cried out to you, as a young woman calls to her lover. You are purified, Soma, for the winning.

4. Flow forth, sweet one, O Indu — for Indra, and for Vishnu too. Protect the men who praise you from distress.

Translator's note: "the ten maidens" (yoṣaṇo daśa) in verse 3 is a standard Pavamāna-Soma image for the ten fingers of the priest pressing the Soma stalks; the Sanskrit itself gives no gloss, so the literal image is kept rather than explained in the verse. "Indu" in verse 4 is a name for Soma itself ("the bright drop"), not a separate deity.

Colophon

Rigveda IX.56 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.56

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.

pari soma ṛtam bṛhad āśuḥ pavitre arṣati |
vighnan rakṣāṁsi devayuḥ || 1 ||

yat somo vājam arṣati śataṁ dhārā apasyuvaḥ |
indrasya sakhyam āviśan || 2 ||

abhi tvā yoṣaṇo daśa jāraṁ na kanyānūṣata |
mṛjyase soma sātaye || 3 ||

tvam indrāya viṣṇave svādur indo pari srava |
nṝn stotṝn pāhy aṁhasaḥ || 4 ||

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).