Rig Veda · 774 of 1027
Mandala 9: HYMN LI. Soma Pavamana.
1.ADHVARYU, on the filter pour the Soma juice expressed with stones, And make it pure for Indra’s drink.
2.Pour out for Indra, Thunder-armed, the milk of heaven,, the Soma’s juice, Most excellent, most rich in sweets.
3.These Gods and all the Marut host, Indu enjoy this juice of thine, This Pavamana’s flowing meath.
4.For, Soma, thou hast been effused, strengthening for the wild carouse, O Steer, the singer, for our help.
5.Flow with thy stream, Far-sighted One, effused, into the cleansing sieve: Flow on to give us strength and fame.
Asked of Guide
Why is Soma called both 'Pavamana' and addressed as a Steer here?
The hymn treats Soma as the purified, flowing drink — Pavamana means “purifying” or “one who goes forth in purity” — so the poem celebrates Soma’s effusion through the filter and its arrival as a cleansed power for the gods. Calling Soma a “Steer” names its life-giving, vigorous quality: the Steer images strength, abundance, and the ritual animal whose milk or energy sustains the community.
The ritual voice directs Adhvaryu to pour the pressed juice “on the filter” so the rite itself makes Soma Pavamana; that act links purification to divine efficacy. This pragmatic pairing of ritual detail and metaphor matches other Vedic hymns where physical rites transform substances into gods, as in later discussions in the Brhadaranyaka and Taittiriya traditions about sacrificial transformation.
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