Hymn to Soma Pavamana

Rigveda IX.57 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. Your unfailing streams go forth, like rains from the sky, toward the thousandfold prize.

2. Beholding all his dear works of wisdom, he streams onward — the tawny one, brandishing his weapons as he comes.

3. Cleansed by the living men, like a lordly elephant, a king true to his vows, he settles like a falcon among the wooden vessels.

4. Bring us, O purifying drop, all the good things of heaven and of earth.

Translator's note: "vaṁsu" in verse 3 (locative plural) is read here as the wooden Soma-vessels, following its most natural sense in this Pavamana context; the word is otherwise rare and the rendering is offered conservatively. "kāvyā" in verse 2 ("works of wisdom/poetic works") is likewise a compressed term with a range of connotation — poetic insight, seer-craft, and the poems themselves — kept broad rather than narrowed.

Colophon

Rigveda IX.57 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.57

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 te dhārā asaścato divo na yanti vṛṣṭayaḥ |
acchā vājaṁ sahasriṇam || 1 ||

abhi priyāṇi kāvyā viśvā cakṣāṇo arṣati |
haris tuñjāna āyudhā || 2 ||

sa marmṛjāna āyubhir ibho rājeva suvrataḥ |
śyeno na vaṁsu ṣīdati || 3 ||

sa no viśvā divo vasūto pṛthivyā adhi |
punāna indav ā bhara || 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).