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Rig Veda · 818 of 1027
Mandala 9: HYMN XCV. Soma Pavamana.
1.Loud neighs the Tawny Steed when started, settling deep in the wooden vessel while they cleanse him. Led by the men he takes the milk for raiment: then shall he, through his powers, engender praise-songs.
2.As one who rows drives on his boat, he, Gold-hued, sends forth his voice, loosed on the path of Order. As God, the secret names of Gods he utters, to be declared on sacred grass more widely.
3.Hastening onward like the waves of waters, our holy hymns are pressing nigh to Soma. To him they come with lowly adoration, and, longing, enter him who longs to meet them.
4.They drain the stalk, the Steer who dwells on mountains, even as a Bull who decks him on the upland. Hymns follow and attend him as he bellows: Trita bears Varuṇa aloft in ocean.
5.Sending thy voice out as Director, loosen the Invoker’s thought, O Indu, as they cleanse thee. While thou and Indra rule for our advantage, may we be masters of heroic vigour.
Asked of Guide
Why does the hymn call Soma a steed and a bull and describe him being cleansed in a wooden vessel?
The hymn personifies Soma as animals — a Tawny Steed and a Bull — to make his ritual journey vivid: he is led, cleansed, and settled in the wooden vessel so the drink becomes a living, powerful presence that can “engender praise-songs.” The metaphors show how extraction and offering transform plant-stalk into a deity who “sends forth his voice” and “bellows,” linking the liquid’s ritual purification to its ability to inspire hymns.
Calling Soma by animal images also stresses his role as intermediary between worshippers and gods; he carries prayer and secret names, and his voice is “loosed on the path of Order.” This chapter echoes themes in the Brihadaranyaka and later ritual manuals that treat sacrificial substances as animate conveyors of sacred speech.
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