Hymn to Soma
Rigveda X.41 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 10 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 by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
This, your three-wheeled car, well known to men, so oft-invoked and praiseworthy, that rideth again and again to the pressings of soma, that circlest the broad earth and deserveth the rite— we call it forth with tightly woven songs in the hush of dawning light.
O Nāsatyas, ye twain who mount the car that is yoked early, driven at first light, bringing honey in its wake, ye ride it forth to the clans who sacrifice— ye come, ye gods, even unto the hearth of the lowly, where the Hotar chants your name—O Aśvins, well-beloved.
Whether your course be drawn to an Adhvaryu with clean hands, with sweetness cupped in his palms, or to an Agnidh, steady in his craft, the keeper of hearth and home, or to the soma-flow of a poet touched by fire— from each of these, hasten ye hither to taste the honey, O Aśvins, swift of wheel and kind of heart.
Colophon
This hymn is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation are to be documented during audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.41
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.
samānam u tyam puruhūtam ukthya1ṁ rathaṁ tricakraṁ savanā ganigmatam |
parijmānaṁ vidathyaṁ suvṛktibhir vayaṁ vyuṣṭā uṣaso havāmahe || 1 ||
prātaryujaṁ nāsatyādhi tiṣṭhathaḥ prātaryāvāṇam madhuvāhanaṁ ratham |
viśo yena gacchatho yajvarīr narā kīreś cid yajñaṁ hotṛmantam aśvinā || 2 ||
adhvaryuṁ vā madhupāṇiṁ suhastyam agnidhaṁ vā dhṛtadakṣaṁ damūnasam |
viprasya vā yat savanāni gacchatho 'ta ā yātam madhupeyam aśvinā || 3 ||
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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