Hymn to Soma Pavamana
Rigveda IX.95 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. Roaring as he is poured out, settling in the belly of the wooden vessel, being purified — guided by the hands of men, he puts on the milk as a bright garment. From this, by his own inherent powers, generate inspired thoughts.
2. The tawny one, streaming forth on the path of truth, drives his voice onward as an oarsman steers a boat. A god himself, he makes manifest the hidden names of the gods, for proclamation upon the sacred grass.
3. Like waves of water surging over one another, the inspired thoughts press forward toward Soma. Paying homage, they draw near; and desiring, they enter him, the desiring one, together.
4. Him they groom like a buffalo on a mountain ridge; they milk the stalk, the bull who stands upon the mountain. The bellowing one is attended by the hymns; Trita sustains Varuṇa in the sea.
5. Impelling speech, like the prompter who urges on the voice of the Hotar — O purifying drop, release the inspired thought. Since you and Indra rule together for good fortune, may we become masters of heroic strength.
Translator's note: "svadhābhiḥ" (v. 1) and "trito bibharti varuṇaṁ samudre" (v. 4) are terse, allusive phrases whose precise ritual reference is debated; they are rendered conservatively, keeping the literal sense of "own inherent power" and "Trita sustains/bears Varuṇa in the sea/ocean" rather than resolving the allusion.
Colophon
Rigveda IX.95 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.95
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.
kanikranti harir ā sṛjyamānaḥ sīdan vanasya jaṭhare punānaḥ |
nṛbhir yataḥ kṛṇute nirṇijaṁ gā ato matīr janayata svadhābhiḥ || 1 ||
hariḥ sṛjānaḥ pathyām ṛtasyeyarti vācam ariteva nāvam |
devo devānāṁ guhyāni nāmāviṣ kṛṇoti barhiṣi pravāce || 2 ||
apām ived ūrmayas tarturāṇāḥ pra manīṣā īrate somam accha |
namasyantīr upa ca yanti saṁ cā ca viśanty uśatīr uśantam || 3 ||
tam marmṛjānam mahiṣaṁ na sānāv aṁśuṁ duhanty ukṣaṇaṁ giriṣṭhām |
taṁ vāvaśānam matayaḥ sacante trito bibharti varuṇaṁ samudre || 4 ||
iṣyan vācam upavakteva hotuḥ punāna indo vi ṣyā manīṣām |
indraś ca yat kṣayathaḥ saubhagāya suvīryasya patayaḥ syāma || 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).