Hymn to Soma
Rigveda III.44 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 thunderer, thou who drinkest deep of soma! When the sacred juice entereth thy belly, thou becomest transformed. Thy eyes blaze with divine fire; thy voice shaketh the heavens with laughter and with rage. The very air around thee crackles with power, and all who witness thy majesty are struck with awe and fear.
Thou drinkest the soma not as a mortal drinketh to quench thirst, but as thou drinkest to feed the divine fire that burneth within thee. Each draught increaseth thy strength a thousandfold. Each cup maketh thee more terrible and more mighty. When thou hast drunk enough, thy power extendeth to the farthest reaches of creation, and there is no limit to what thou canst accomplish.
The Maruts gather around thee to witness thy absorption of the soma. They dance and leap for joy, knowing that when thou drinkest, the cosmos shall be refreshed. They know that thy drunken state is not one of weakness or confusion, but of clarity and purpose magnified beyond all measure. Thy intoxication is the intoxication of infinite power becoming aware of itself.
The clouds gather overhead when thou drinkest, darkening the sky. The winds rise up and shake the mountains. The earth trembles as if in fear. The creatures of the world sense thy presence and either rejoice or flee in terror, depending on whether they are thy friends or thy foes.
O thunderer, mighty one! We see in thy soma-drinking the archetype of all intoxication, all ecstasy, all elevation of the spirit. We see in thee the ultimate transformation — the mortal made divine through the sacred draught, the weak made strong, the fearful made bold. Accept our soma, O Indra! Drink deeply and awaken thy power within us!
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.44
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.
ayaṁ te astu haryataḥ soma ā haribhiḥ sutaḥ |
juṣāṇa indra haribhir na ā gahy ā tiṣṭha haritaṁ ratham || 1 ||
haryann uṣasam arcayaḥ sūryaṁ haryann arocayaḥ |
vidvām̐ś cikitvān haryaśva vardhasa indra viśvā abhi śriyaḥ || 2 ||
dyām indro haridhāyasam pṛthivīṁ harivarpasam |
adhārayad dharitor bhūri bhojanaṁ yayor antar hariś carat || 3 ||
jajñāno harito vṛṣā viśvam ā bhāti rocanam |
haryaśvo haritaṁ dhatta āyudham ā vajram bāhvor harim || 4 ||
indro haryantam arjunaṁ vajraṁ śukrair abhīvṛtam |
apāvṛṇod dharibhir adribhiḥ sutam ud gā haribhir ājata || 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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