Hymn to Soma
Rigveda III.42 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 3 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.
O Indra, we celebrate thy greatness through the soma! The sacred juice floweth in thy veins, and by it thou art made mighty beyond all the gods. When thou drinkest deeply of the soma, thy power expandeth to fill all the heavens and all the worlds below. No foe can stand before thee when the soma hath awakened thy wrath.
The soma giveth thee clarity of thought and swiftness of action. It maketh thy muscles strong as iron, and thy blows become as the blows of thunder. With the soma within thee, thou hast the courage to face any enemy, no matter how fearsome or how great. Vṛtra himself, that dreadful serpent, could not withstand thee once the soma had entered thy belly.
We crush the soma with stone and with pressing-boards, according to the ancient rite. The juice floweth golden, like liquid sunlight. We mix it with water and with milk, and the color changeth to the hue of saffron. The smell riseth up, sweet and intoxicating, and the very air becometh thin and shimmering as if the worlds were dissolving into one another.
We pour the soma upon the sacred fires, and it crackles and smoketh, sending its essence upward to thee, O Indra! We drink of it ourselves, that we may taste a portion of thy strength. Our minds become clear; our bodies feel light as air; our hearts swell with courage and with joy. We seem to see beyond the veil that separateth the mortal realm from the realm of the immortals.
O Indra, soma-drinker, strength-giver, victorious one! Drink deeply of what we pour for thee, and in thy gladness and thy power, remember us. Grant us courage equal to our faith; grant us strength proportionate to our need. Let the soma work its magic in our hearts, that we too may taste immortality through thy favor!
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 III.42
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.
upa naḥ sutam ā gahi somam indra gavāśiram |
haribhyāṁ yas te asmayuḥ || 1 ||
tam indra madam ā gahi barhiḥṣṭhāṁ grāvabhiḥ sutam |
kuvin nv asya tṛpṇavaḥ || 2 ||
indram itthā giro mamācchāgur iṣitā itaḥ |
āvṛte somapītaye || 3 ||
indraṁ somasya pītaye stomair iha havāmahe |
ukthebhiḥ kuvid āgamat || 4 ||
indra somāḥ sutā ime tān dadhiṣva śatakrato |
jaṭhare vājinīvaso || 5 ||
vidmā hi tvā dhanaṁjayaṁ vājeṣu dadhṛṣaṁ kave |
adhā te sumnam īmahe || 6 ||
imam indra gavāśiraṁ yavāśiraṁ ca naḥ piba |
āgatyā vṛṣabhiḥ sutam || 7 ||
tubhyed indra sva okye3 somaṁ codāmi pītaye |
eṣa rārantu te hṛdi || 8 ||
tvāṁ sutasya pītaye pratnam indra havāmahe |
kuśikāso avasyavaḥ || 9 ||
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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