Hymn to Soma
Rigveda IX.41 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.
Those who strode forth as cattle in frenzy—wild, unruled, and storming, they smote and cast down the black-skinned foe.
We shall recall the smoothest path of Soma, that passeth clean beyond the woven snare— for we have o’erthrown the lawless Dasyu.
A sound ariseth, like the roar of rain—
'tis the voice of the tempest that cleanseth itself.
Bright bolts of flame do wander through the heavens.
O drop, in thy cleansing draw unto thyself great refreshment— riches in kine, in gold, in steeds and well-won gain, when thou art pressed.
Cleanse thyself, thou boundless one;
fill the wide world-halves, as Dawn herself doth fill them,
as doth the sun with beams outspread.
O Soma, pour for us thy guarding stream on every side, as Rasā in the heights, flowing over the fair-borne rim.
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.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.
pra ye gāvo na bhūrṇayas tveṣā ayāso akramuḥ |
ghnantaḥ kṛṣṇām apa tvacam || 1 ||
suvitasya manāmahe 'ti setuṁ durāvyam |
sāhvāṁso dasyum avratam || 2 ||
śṛṇve vṛṣṭer iva svanaḥ pavamānasya śuṣmiṇaḥ |
caranti vidyuto divi || 3 ||
ā pavasva mahīm iṣaṁ gomad indo hiraṇyavat |
aśvāvad vājavat sutaḥ || 4 ||
sa pavasva vicarṣaṇa ā mahī rodasī pṛṇa |
uṣāḥ sūryo na raśmibhiḥ || 5 ||
pari ṇaḥ śarmayantyā dhārayā soma viśvataḥ |
sarā raseva viṣṭapam || 6 ||
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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