Hymn to Soma Pavamana

Rigveda IX.58 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. He runs across, the exhilarating one — the stream of the pressed plant's juice. He runs across, the exhilarating one.

2. The bright goddess knows the treasures, knows the help there is for mortals. He runs across, the exhilarating one.

3. From Dhvasra and Puruṣantī we receive thousands. He runs across, the exhilarating one.

4. From those two we receive thirty in a row, and thousands more besides. He runs across, the exhilarating one.

Translator's note: verses 3–4 shift from praising the flowing Soma to praising two named patrons, Dhvasra and Puruṣantī, who are credited with giving thousands of gifts — a short dāna-stuti (gift-praise) embedded within the Pavamana hymn, a pattern found elsewhere in Maṇḍala 9. "Tanā" in verse 4, rendered here as "in a row," marks the gift as a continuous or repeated bestowal rather than a single count.

Colophon

Rigveda IX.58 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.58

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.

tarat sa mandī dhāvati dhārā sutasyāndhasaḥ |
tarat sa mandī dhāvati || 1 ||

usrā veda vasūnām martasya devy avasaḥ |
tarat sa mandī dhāvati || 2 ||

dhvasrayoḥ puruṣantyor ā sahasrāṇi dadmahe |
tarat sa mandī dhāvati || 3 ||

ā yayos triṁśataṁ tanā sahasrāṇi ca dadmahe |
tarat sa mandī dhāvati || 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).