Hymn to Soma
Rigveda I.111 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Soma, the sacred plant-king whose pressed juice is both oblation and deity. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
Sing, O my soul, to the Ṛbhus three, whose mortal birth doth fill my heart with glee! They were as men who walked upon the earth, yet rose to godhood through their sacred worth.
In days of old they labored and they toiled; their hands were clever, their intent unspoiled. They fashioned wonders, wrought the goods that bless, and showed the path to godly righteousness.
They drank the soma, sacred and divine, and felt immortal essence intertwine. With every draught they grew in power and might, their mortal nature transformed into light.
The Devas saw their works and saw their worth, and called them upward from the dusty earth. "Rise now," they said, "and join us in the sky, ye mortals bold who dared to climb so high."
And so the Ṛbhus rose on golden wings, and took their place among the immortal things. No longer bound by flesh and blood and bone, they found themselves upon the eternal throne.
O what a marvel that the mortal frame can rise to godhood, burning bright with flame! O what a lesson for the men below, that we too might achieve such glorious glow!
If we do labor with devoted heart, if we do perfect every sacred art, if we do drink the soma pure and true, then we like them might break our mortal brew.
O Ṛbhus blessed, ye who rose so high, grant us the courage and the will to try. Help us to labor with thy same true fire, and lift us upward toward thy same desire.
Show us the pathway that ye came to know, that we might follow thee and upward go, that we might leave behind the mortal sphere, and dwell with thee forevermore up here.
Colophon
Rigveda I.111 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, the version that has been transmitted and is considered canonical in the mainstream tradition. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE; this hymn addresses Soma, the sacred plant-king whose pressed juice is both oblation and deity. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation session to be documented during Kshatriya Blood Rule audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda I.111
takṣan rathaṁ suvṛtaṁ vidmanāpasas takṣan harī indravāhā vṛṣaṇvasū |
takṣan pitṛbhyām ṛbhavo yuvad vayas takṣan vatsāya mātaraṁ sacābhuvam || 1 ||
ā no yajñāya takṣata ṛbhumad vayaḥ kratve dakṣāya suprajāvatīm iṣam |
yathā kṣayāma sarvavīrayā viśā tan naḥ śardhāya dhāsathā sv indriyam || 2 ||
ā takṣata sātim asmabhyam ṛbhavaḥ sātiṁ rathāya sātim arvate naraḥ |
sātiṁ no jaitrīṁ sam maheta viśvahā jāmim ajāmim pṛtanāsu sakṣaṇim || 3 ||
ṛbhukṣaṇam indram ā huva ūtaya ṛbhūn vājān marutaḥ somapītaye |
ubhā mitrāvaruṇā nūnam aśvinā te no hinvantu sātaye dhiye jiṣe || 4 ||
ṛbhur bharāya saṁ śiśātu sātiṁ samaryajid vājo asmām̐ aviṣṭu |
tan no mitro varuṇo māmahantām aditiḥ sindhuḥ pṛthivī uta dyauḥ || 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).
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