Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.73 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. In the jaw of the streaming drop they sounded out together; in the womb of truth the kinships joined as one. The mighty lord made himself three heads, ready to seize; the ships of truth have carried the doer of good deeds across.
2. Rightly, moving together, the mighty bulls rushed forward; upon the wave of the river the eager singers made him tremble. Generating the song with streams of sweetness, they made Indra's own dear body grow strong.
3. Wearing their filters, they sit around the voice; their ancient father watches over their ordinance. Varuṇa has hidden himself across the great sea; only the wise were able to grasp the supports that hold it.
4. In the thousand-channeled strainer they sounded out together, down there, honey-tongued and unceasing, as in heaven's vault. His watchers, restless, do not blink; at every step there are snares set with cords.
5. They who sounded out together from father and mother — Heaven and Earth — blazing with the hymn, burning up the lawless: by their power they blow the black skin, hated by Indra, away from earth and sky alike.
6. They who sounded out together from their ancient abode, tuners of the chant, thinkers full of force — the eyeless, the deaf, have been left behind; the evildoers do not cross the path of truth.
7. In the thousand-channeled, outstretched strainer the wise seers purify the voice. Their watchers are like the Rudras — keen, unwearying, never treacherous, moving well, clear-sighted, with an eye on every man.
8. The guardian of truth, of good purpose, cannot be deceived; he has set three filters deep within his heart. Knowing all, he looks over every creature, and strikes down into the pit those lawless ones who are unloved.
9. The thread of truth is stretched out in the strainer, at the tip of the tongue, by Varuṇa's power. Even the wise, striving together, have reached it — but here the powerless one falls down into the pit.
Translator's note: this hymn belongs to the Soma Pavamana cycle that fills Maṇḍala 9, addressed to Soma as he is pressed and strained through the woolen filter. Several phrases are compressed and ambiguous in the Sanskrit: "trīn mūrdhnaḥ" (verse 1, "three heads") and "trī pavitrā" (verse 8, "three filters") likely refer to ritual features of the pressing whose exact referents are debated; they are rendered here literally rather than interpreted. "Asuraḥ" (verse 1) is rendered "the mighty lord," a title applied to Soma and other high powers in this period before the word narrowed to its later, adversarial sense.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.73 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.73
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.
srakve drapsasya dhamataḥ sam asvarann ṛtasya yonā sam aranta nābhayaḥ |
trīn sa mūrdhno asuraś cakra ārabhe satyasya nāvaḥ sukṛtam apīparan || 1 ||
samyak samyañco mahiṣā aheṣata sindhor ūrmāv adhi venā avīvipan |
madhor dhārābhir janayanto arkam it priyām indrasya tanvam avīvṛdhan || 2 ||
pavitravantaḥ pari vācam āsate pitaiṣām pratno abhi rakṣati vratam |
mahaḥ samudraṁ varuṇas tiro dadhe dhīrā ic chekur dharuṇeṣv ārabham || 3 ||
sahasradhāre 'va te sam asvaran divo nāke madhujihvā asaścataḥ |
asya spaśo na ni miṣanti bhūrṇayaḥ pade-pade pāśinaḥ santi setavaḥ || 4 ||
pitur mātur adhy ā ye samasvarann ṛcā śocantaḥ saṁdahanto avratān |
indradviṣṭām apa dhamanti māyayā tvacam asiknīm bhūmano divas pari || 5 ||
pratnān mānād adhy ā ye samasvarañ chlokayantrāso rabhasasya mantavaḥ |
apānakṣāso badhirā ahāsata ṛtasya panthāṁ na taranti duṣkṛtaḥ || 6 ||
sahasradhāre vitate pavitra ā vācam punanti kavayo manīṣiṇaḥ |
rudrāsa eṣām iṣirāso adruhaḥ spaśaḥ svañcaḥ sudṛśo nṛcakṣasaḥ || 7 ||
ṛtasya gopā na dabhāya sukratus trī ṣa pavitrā hṛdy a1ntar ā dadhe |
vidvān sa viśvā bhuvanābhi paśyaty avājuṣṭān vidhyati karte avratān || 8 ||
ṛtasya tantur vitataḥ pavitra ā jihvāyā agre varuṇasya māyayā |
dhīrāś cit tat saminakṣanta āśatātrā kartam ava padāty aprabhuḥ || 9 ||
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).