Hymn to Soma
Rigveda IX.12 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 by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
The soma-drops have swelled and surged—sweetly pressed where truth doth sit, most honeyed of draughts for great Indra.
The seers, filled with breath divine, have cried aloud— even as mother kine low unto their young— to Indra, that he might drink of soma.
He stirreth delight, he heedeth the poet’s breath; he abideth in his seat, where the river’s wave flows strong:
Soma is set upon the she-buffalo.
In the navel of the heavens he showeth his might, his far-seeing gaze cast down upon the fleece of sheep—
Soma, the wise bard, whose aim is good.
That soma which resteth in the tubs, that passeth through the woolen veil, doth clasp the holy drop.
The drop lifteth his voice upon the face of the deep, making glad the cask with honey’s own weeping.
He, the lord of woodland, whose praise is his own, bringeth forth the pressed wisdom through the mesh, driving the race of man onward.
And as he is driven, so Soma doth run—
the beloved path of the heavens he seeketh, wise bard, borne upon the stream of song.
O self-cleansing one, O drop, be thou near, thou who holdest riches shining in a thousand beams.
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 IX.12
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.
somā asṛgram indavaḥ sutā ṛtasya sādane |
indrāya madhumattamāḥ || 1 ||
abhi viprā anūṣata gāvo vatsaṁ na mātaraḥ |
indraṁ somasya pītaye || 2 ||
madacyut kṣeti sādane sindhor ūrmā vipaścit |
somo gaurī adhi śritaḥ || 3 ||
divo nābhā vicakṣaṇo 'vyo vāre mahīyate |
somo yaḥ sukratuḥ kaviḥ || 4 ||
yaḥ somaḥ kalaśeṣv ām̐ antaḥ pavitra āhitaḥ |
tam induḥ pari ṣasvaje || 5 ||
pra vācam indur iṣyati samudrasyādhi viṣṭapi |
jinvan kośam madhuścutam || 6 ||
nityastotro vanaspatir dhīnām antaḥ sabardughaḥ |
hinvāno mānuṣā yugā || 7 ||
abhi priyā divas padā somo hinvāno arṣati |
viprasya dhārayā kaviḥ || 8 ||
ā pavamāna dhāraya rayiṁ sahasravarcasam |
asme indo svābhuvam || 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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