Hymn to Soma Pavamana

Rigveda IX.85 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. O Soma, well-pressed for Indra, flow forth all around. Let sickness depart, together with the demon. Let not the deceitful ones delight in your sap; let the wealth-bringing drops be here.

2. Impel us onward in the contest, O purifying one — you are the strength of the gods, their dear exhilarating drink. Slay the enemies who advance boasting; drink the soma, Indra — strike down those who scorn us.

3. Unbeguiled, O drop, you purify yourself, most exhilarating; you become the highest nourishment, the very self of Indra. Many wise singers cry out to you; they reach toward the king of this world.

4. With a thousand courses, hundred-streamed, wondrous, the drop flows pure for Indra — the desired honey. Winning the field, stream toward it; winning the waters, make for us a wide path, O bountiful Soma.

5. Roaring in the vat, you are mixed with milk; you flow evenly through the woolen filter. Being groomed, like a prize-winning steed, O Soma, you have streamed together into Indra's belly.

6. Sweet, purify yourself for the divine race; sweet for Indra, whose name means well-invoked. Sweet for Mitra, for Varuṇa, for Vāyu, for Bṛhaspati — honeyed, unassailable.

7. The ten fingers groom the steed in the vat; the thoughts and words of the inspired poets go forth. Purified, the drops flow to meet the fine praise-hymn; the intoxicating drops enter Indra.

8. O purifying one, flow toward heroic strength, toward wide pastureland, toward great and spreading shelter. Let no attack have power over us; O drop, through you may we win wealth upon wealth.

9. The far-seeing bull has mounted up to the sky; the poet-seer has made the luminous realms of heaven shine. The king passes through the filter, bellowing; those with the eye of men milk heaven's rich cream.

10. In the vault of heaven, the honey-tongued, unfailing seers milk the bull that dwells on the mountain — the drop grown strong in the waters, in the sea, the honeyed one borne by the river's wave onto the filter.

11. In heaven's vault the songs of the seers have long yearned for the well-winged one who has flown up. The hymns lick the wondrous child, the golden bird standing on the earth.

12. The Gandharva has stood erect in the vault above, beholding all forms of it. The radiance has blazed forth with bright flame; the pure one has made the two mother-worlds shine.

Translator's note: several phrases in this hymn are compressed and mythologically dense — "the king of this world" (v.3), "the well-winged one" and "the golden bird" (v.11), and "the Gandharva" (v.12) are traditional epithets for Soma itself in its ascent to heaven and its identification with the sun-bird; they are rendered literally rather than expanded. "Bhandanāyataḥ" in verse 2 (rendered "who advance boasting") is a genuinely obscure form and is translated conservatively.

Colophon

Rigveda IX.85 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.85

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.

indrāya soma suṣutaḥ pari sravāpāmīvā bhavatu rakṣasā saha |
mā te rasasya matsata dvayāvino draviṇasvanta iha santv indavaḥ || 1 ||

asmān samarye pavamāna codaya dakṣo devānām asi hi priyo madaḥ |
jahi śatrūm̐r abhy ā bhandanāyataḥ pibendra somam ava no mṛdho jahi || 2 ||

adabdha indo pavase madintama ātmendrasya bhavasi dhāsir uttamaḥ |
abhi svaranti bahavo manīṣiṇo rājānam asya bhuvanasya niṁsate || 3 ||

sahasraṇīthaḥ śatadhāro adbhuta indrāyenduḥ pavate kāmyam madhu |
jayan kṣetram abhy arṣā jayann apa uruṁ no gātuṁ kṛṇu soma mīḍhvaḥ || 4 ||

kanikradat kalaśe gobhir ajyase vy a1vyayaṁ samayā vāram arṣasi |
marmṛjyamāno atyo na sānasir indrasya soma jaṭhare sam akṣaraḥ || 5 ||

svāduḥ pavasva divyāya janmane svādur indrāya suhavītunāmne |
svādur mitrāya varuṇāya vāyave bṛhaspataye madhumām̐ adābhyaḥ || 6 ||

atyam mṛjanti kalaśe daśa kṣipaḥ pra viprāṇām matayo vāca īrate |
pavamānā abhy arṣanti suṣṭutim endraṁ viśanti madirāsa indavaḥ || 7 ||

pavamāno abhy arṣā suvīryam urvīṁ gavyūtim mahi śarma saprathaḥ |
mākir no asya pariṣūtir īśatendo jayema tvayā dhanaṁ-dhanam || 8 ||

adhi dyām asthād vṛṣabho vicakṣaṇo 'rūrucad vi divo rocanā kaviḥ |
rājā pavitram aty eti roruvad divaḥ pīyūṣaṁ duhate nṛcakṣasaḥ || 9 ||

divo nāke madhujihvā asaścato venā duhanty ukṣaṇaṁ giriṣṭhām |
apsu drapsaṁ vāvṛdhānaṁ samudra ā sindhor ūrmā madhumantam pavitra ā || 10 ||

nāke suparṇam upapaptivāṁsaṁ giro venānām akṛpanta pūrvīḥ |
śiśuṁ rihanti matayaḥ panipnataṁ hiraṇyayaṁ śakunaṁ kṣāmaṇi sthām || 11 ||

ūrdhvo gandharvo adhi nāke asthād viśvā rūpā praticakṣāṇo asya |
bhānuḥ śukreṇa śociṣā vy adyaut prārūrucad rodasī mātarā śuciḥ || 12 ||

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).