Soma

The Divine Nectar

Domain: Moon, Ecstasy & Immortality
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Cup of Soma

Speak with Soma

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Hindu peoples

Region

Indian subcontinent

Period

c. 1500 BC – present

The Hindu deities have been worshipped for over three thousand years across the Indian subcontinent, from the Vedic hymns to the living Hinduism of today. Billions of devotees dedicate to them temples, festivals such as Diwali and Holi, and daily rituals in the home. It is one of the largest religious traditions still practiced in the world.

Diwali lights up India with oil lamps in honor of Lakshmi, and Holi celebrates spring with clouds of colored powder. At the Kumbh Mela, the largest pilgrimage on Earth, tens of millions bathe in the sacred rivers, and daily puja brings flowers, incense, and food to the altars.

At a glance

Soma is the tripartite Vedic deity personifying the sacred mountain plant, the invigorating sacrificial drink pressed during religious rituals, and the celestial moon in the night sky. Praised exclusively throughout the 114 hymns of the ninth Mandala of the Rigveda, Soma is celebrated under the name Pavamana as he flows clarified through wool filters, imparting visionary insight (dhi) to rishi poets and heroic strength to Indra to slay the dragon Vritra. In the Brahmanas and Puranas, he is venerated as Oshadhipati, the sovereign ruler of medicinal herbs and the spouse of the twenty-seven stellar Nakshatras.

5 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The cup, the crescent moon, the sacred plant and the dew

Family

Parents

Atri (rishi)Anasuya

Soma

Unions

Rohini (and the twenty-seven lunar mansions born of Daksha)Tara (wife of divine preceptor Brihaspati)

Children

Budha (regent of Mercury and progenitor of the lunar dynasty)

Genealogy according to Rigveda, Mandala 9; Shatapatha Brahmana 4.1.3; Taittiriya Samhita 2.3.5; Mahabharata, Adi Parva 1.61; Harivamsa 1.25

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anonymous, Rigveda Samhita (Mandala IX: Pavamana Suktas). translation: Stephanie W. Jamison e Joel P. Brereton, The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, New York, 2014. read
Yajnavalkya (attributed), Shatapatha Brahmana (Book IV: The Soma Liturgy). translation: Julius Eggeling, The Satapatha-Brahmana, SBE Vol. 26, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1885. read
Anonymous, Taittiriya Samhita (Kanda II, Prapathaka 3: The Myth of the Nakshatras). translation: Arthur Berriedale Keith, The Veda of the Black Yajus School, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1914. read
Vyasa (attributed), Harivamsa Purana (Harivamsa Parva, Chapters 25 and 26). translation: Manmatha Nath Dutt, A Prose English Translation of Harivamsha, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1897. read

Studies

R. Gordon Wasson, Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1968. open
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, The Rig Veda: An Anthology: One Hundred and Eight Hymns. Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, 1981. open
Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde). Verlag von Karl J. Trübner, Strassburg, 1897. open
Frits Staal, Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar (Lectures on the Science of Ritual). Asian Humanities Press / Motilal Banarsidass, Berkeley/Poona, 1982. open

Name and epithets

The Sanskrit masculine noun Sóma derives from the Vedic verbal root su (or sunoti), meaning to press, extract, or crush juice from a plant.

In the ancient sources

Rigveda, c. 1500–1200 BCE. Vedic liturgical book exclusively dedicated to hymns sung during the extraction, straining, and offering of the Soma drink. Shatapatha Brahmana, c. 8th–6th century BCE.

The myths

Sacrificial Extraction and the Ecstasy of the Vedic Seers. In the earliest strata of the Rigveda, the precious stalks of the Soma plant were gathered upon the rugged slopes of Mount Mujavat and brought by ritual cart to…

Worship and archaeology

The veneration of Soma formed the core of the Vedic Shrauta ritual cycle, particularly the Somayaga and its standard form, the Agnishtoma.

How the god was depicted

In classical sculpture and painting, Soma-Chandra is depicted as a fair, youthful sovereign dressed in white silk and jewels, riding a celestial two-wheeled chariot drawn by ten white steeds or an agile antelope.

What scholars debate

Botanical Identity of the Vedic Soma Plant. Ethnobotanists and Vedic scholars have long debated the botanical identity of the ancient Soma plant. While R.

After antiquity

The legacy of Soma extends deeply into world literature and cultural history. Aldous Huxley borrowed the name 'soma' for the state-administered euphoria drug in his 1932 novel Brave New World, while modern spiritual and…

Did you know?

Mandala 9 of the Rigveda, containing 114 hymns, is unique among the ten books of the Rigveda in being devoted entirely to a single divinity: Soma Pavamana.

Codex relic

Cup of Soma. The sacred drink that gives vigor and ecstasy to the gods, tied to the moon and to immortality.

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