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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 637 of 1027

Mandala 8: HYMN XVII. Indra.

1.COME, we have pressed the juice for thee; O Indra, drink this Soma here Sit thou on this my sacred grass.

2.O Indra, let thy long-maned Bays, yoked by prayer, bring thee hitherward Give car and listen to our prayers.

3.We Soma-bearing Brahmans call thee Soma-drinker with thy friend, We, Indra, bringing Soma juice.

4.Come unto us who bring the juice, come unto this our eulogy, Fair-visored! drink thou of the juice.

5.I pour it down within thee, so through all thy members let it spread: Take with. thy tongue the pleasant drink.

6.Sweet to thy body let it be, delicious be the savoury juice: Sweet be the Soma to thine heart.

7.Like women, let this Soma-draught, invested with its robe, approach, O active Indra, close to thee.

8.Indra, transported with the juice, vast in his bulk, strong in his neck And stout arms, smites the Vṛtras down.

9.O Indra, go thou forward, thou who rulest over all by might: Thou Vṛtra-slayer slay the fiends,

10.Long be thy grasping-hook wherewith thou givest ample wealth to him Who sheds the juice and worships thee.

11.Here, Indra, is thy Soma-draught, made pure upon the sacred grass: Run hither, come and drink thereof.

12.Famed for thy radiance, worshipped well this juice is shed for thy delight Thou art invoked, Akhandala!

13.To Kundapayya, grandson’s son, grandson of Srngavrs! to thee, To him have I addressed my thought.

14.Strong pillar thou, Lord of the home armour of Soma-offerers: The drop of Soma breaketh all the strongholds down, and Indra is the Ṛṣis’ Friend.

15.Holy Prdikusanu, winner of the spoil, one eminent o’er many men, Lead on the wild horse Indra with his vigorous grasp forward to drink the Soma juice.

Asked of Guide

Why does the hymn keep urging Indra to drink the Soma so insistently?

The hymn stages the Soma-drinking as the ritual moment that empowers Indra: repeated invitations—“Come… drink this Soma” and “I pour it down within thee”—make the god present, strengthened, and capable of heroic action like smiting the Vṛtras. Drinking binds the divine guest to the worshippers, so their sacrificial juice becomes the source of his radiance and victorious might.

This poem treats Soma as a mediator of exchange: offering produces bounty and protection for those who pour it (“give ample wealth to him / Who sheds the juice and worships thee”). For a parallel on ritual reciprocity and divine empowerment see Mircea Eliade’s discussions of Vedic sacrifice in The Sacred and the Profane.

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