Hymn to the Aśvins
Rigveda I.120 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the Aśvins, the twin divine horsemen, healers of the gods and bringers of dawn. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The hymn is attributed in the traditional Anukramaṇī to the seer Kakṣīvant, son of Pajra, and is unusual even among Rigvedic hymns for how riddling and compressed its language is — several verses turn on images (a horseless chariot, milk without calves) whose exact sense is debated by scholars to this day.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. What offering will win favor with you, Aśvins? What pleases the two of you together? How can someone without insight worship you rightly?
2. Let the two who know be asked — let the one who does not know, thoughtless as he is, ask at your doors instead. Even now, among mortals, he stands unresourceful.
3. We call upon you, the two who know. May you, knowing ones, speak our thought today. Let the one devoted to you, seeking your favor, sing it forth.
4. I ask the gods plainly, as one untaught, about the wondrous offering made with the vaṣaṭ-call. O wondrous ones, protect us — you out of your strength, and you out of your eagerness.
5. The speech that rings out like the roar of Bhṛgu — with that speech the son of Pajra worships you two, like one who knows how to send it forth.
6. I have sung, indeed, the famous gāyatra-chant of Takavāna to you, Aśvins, granting sight, O lords of splendor.
7. You two once dwelt rejoicing in your greatness, or in whatever it was you stretched forth. Be good guardians for us, you good ones; protect us from the wolf, from the one who wishes us harm.
8. Do not hand us over to any enemy. Let our milk-cows not stray from our houses anywhere — cows full at the udder, without calves beside them.
9. May they, cows that are yours, give milk to seal our friendship. Measure out for us wealth full of strength, and measure out for us nourishment rich in milk-cows.
10. I have taken great delight in the horseless chariot — the winning gift of the two Aśvins, rich in swift steeds.
11. Do not draw me out, even so, past these other people. The easy-running chariot goes to the soma-drinking.
12. And then, for the dispelling of sleep, and of the wealthy man who does not enjoy his wealth — both these things vanish at once.
Translator's note: this hymn is one of the most compressed and riddling in the Rigveda. Verses 2, 6, 8, and 10–12 in particular turn on images and grammatical forms (the "horseless chariot," cows "without calves," the dual "vanishing" of sleep and unused wealth) whose precise referents are genuinely uncertain and debated among Sanskritists. The renderings above follow the Sanskrit words as closely as English allows without supplying a certainty the text itself does not have.
Colophon
Rigveda I.120 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
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Source Text: ṛgveda I.120
kā rādhad dhotrāśvinā vāṁ ko vāṁ joṣa ubhayoḥ |
kathā vidhāty apracetāḥ || 1 ||
vidvāṁsāv id duraḥ pṛcched avidvān itthāparo acetāḥ |
nū cin nu marte akrau || 2 ||
tā vidvāṁsā havāmahe vāṁ tā no vidvāṁsā manma vocetam adya |
prārcad dayamāno yuvākuḥ || 3 ||
vi pṛcchāmi pākyā3 na devān vaṣaṭkṛtasyādbhutasya dasrā |
pātaṁ ca sahyaso yuvaṁ ca rabhyaso naḥ || 4 ||
pra yā ghoṣe bhṛgavāṇe na śobhe yayā vācā yajati pajriyo vām |
praiṣayur na vidvān || 5 ||
śrutaṁ gāyatraṁ takavānasyāhaṁ cid dhi rirebhāśvinā vām |
ākṣī śubhas patī dan || 6 ||
yuvaṁ hy āstam maho ran yuvaṁ vā yan niratataṁsatam |
tā no vasū sugopā syātam pātaṁ no vṛkād aghāyoḥ || 7 ||
mā kasmai dhātam abhy amitriṇe no mākutrā no gṛhebhyo dhenavo guḥ |
stanābhujo aśiśvīḥ || 8 ||
duhīyan mitradhitaye yuvāku rāye ca no mimītaṁ vājavatyai |
iṣe ca no mimītaṁ dhenumatyai || 9 ||
aśvinor asanaṁ ratham anaśvaṁ vājinīvatoḥ |
tenāham bhūri cākana || 10 ||
ayaṁ samaha mā tanūhyāte janām̐ anu |
somapeyaṁ sukho rathaḥ || 11 ||
adha svapnasya nir vide 'bhuñjataś ca revataḥ |
ubhā tā basri naśyataḥ || 12 ||
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).