Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.83 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. The filter is spread out for you, lord of the sacred formula; being mighty, you move around its limbs from every side. One whose body is unheated, the raw one, does not reach it; only the cooked ones, bearing it along, have attained it fully.
2. The glowing filter is spread out in heaven's seat; its blazing threads have spread apart. The swift ones aid its purifier; with awareness they stand upon the ridge of heaven.
3. The dappled firstborn has made the dawns shine; the bull, seeking the prize, sustains the worlds. The craftsmen fashioned by his craft; the fathers, watching over men, placed the seed.
4. Thus the Gandharva guards his place; the wondrous one protects the births of the gods. The lord of the hidden place seizes the deceiver with a snare; those who act best have received a portion of the honey.
5. Oblation of the oblation-bearer, you go around the great divine seat, the sacrifice, clothed in cloud. As king with the filter for your chariot, you have mounted the prize; with a thousand points you win great fame.
Translator's note: "brahmaṇas pate" (v.1) and "gandharva" (v.4) are epithets applied here to Soma himself, not to the separate deity Bṛhaspati/Brahmaṇaspati — standard for Maṇḍala 9's Soma Pavamana hymns. "Nidhāpatiḥ" (v.4, "lord of the hidden place/treasure") is rendered conservatively; its exact referent is debated.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.83 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda IX.83
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.
pavitraṁ te vitatam brahmaṇas pate prabhur gātrāṇi pary eṣi viśvataḥ |
ataptatanūr na tad āmo aśnute śṛtāsa id vahantas tat sam āśata || 1 ||
tapoṣ pavitraṁ vitataṁ divas pade śocanto asya tantavo vy asthiran |
avanty asya pavītāram āśavo divas pṛṣṭham adhi tiṣṭhanti cetasā || 2 ||
arūrucad uṣasaḥ pṛśnir agriya ukṣā bibharti bhuvanāni vājayuḥ |
māyāvino mamire asya māyayā nṛcakṣasaḥ pitaro garbham ā dadhuḥ || 3 ||
gandharva itthā padam asya rakṣati pāti devānāṁ janimāny adbhutaḥ |
gṛbhṇāti ripuṁ nidhayā nidhāpatiḥ sukṛttamā madhuno bhakṣam āśata || 4 ||
havir haviṣmo mahi sadma daivyaṁ nabho vasānaḥ pari yāsy adhvaram |
rājā pavitraratho vājam āruhaḥ sahasrabhṛṣṭir jayasi śravo bṛhat || 5 ||
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).