Hymn to Indra, Destroyer of Demons
Rigveda I.133 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Indra, the storm-king and champion of the gods, slayer of Vṛtra, lord of thunder and rain — invoked here specifically as the crusher of yātudhānas (sorcerers and sorceresses) and rakṣas (demonic beings). It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
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. I purify both worlds with truth; I burn away the mighty deceits, the god-less ones. Where the enemies, struck down and trampled, lie crushed all around in the refuse-pit.
2. Having trampled the heads of the sorceresses, O wielder of the stone, cut them down with the crushing foot — with the great crushing foot.
3. Strike down, O bounteous one, the host of these sorceresses — in the pit, in the ruin; in the great pit, in the ruin.
4. The hundred and fifty of them you scattered with your trampling blows — this indeed suits you well, this indeed suits you well.
5. Crush utterly, O Indra, the tawny-horned, roaring demon; beat down every rakṣas.
6. For, fiercest of the fierce, you go forth with terrible weapons — no slayer of men, unopposed hero, with your thrice-seven warriors, O hero, with your warriors.
7. Only the one who presses the soma seeks to win thousands, unhindered, the prize-winner. To the one who presses, Indra gives fitting wealth — gives fitting wealth.
Translator's note: several words are rare and their exact sense uncertain — vaṭūriṇā (rendered "crushing," possibly a name for Indra's foot or a trampling implement), armaka ("ruin" or refuse-heap), ambhṛṇa ("roaring" or "bellowing," an epithet of the piśāca), and the repeated takat in verse 4, likely a variant or intensified form of tat. These are translated conservatively rather than confidently resolved.
Colophon
Rigveda I.133 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.133
ubhe punāmi rodasī ṛtena druho dahāmi sam mahīr anindrāḥ |
abhivlagya yatra hatā amitrā vailasthānam pari tṛḻhā aśeran || 1 ||
abhivlagyā cid adrivaḥ śīrṣā yātumatīnām |
chindhi vaṭūriṇā padā mahāvaṭūriṇā padā || 2 ||
avāsām maghavañ jahi śardho yātumatīnām |
vailasthānake armake mahāvailasthe armake || 3 ||
yāsāṁ tisraḥ pañcāśato 'bhivlaṅgair apāvapaḥ |
tat su te manāyati takat su te manāyati || 4 ||
piśaṅgabhṛṣṭim ambhṛṇam piśācim indra sam mṛṇa |
sarvaṁ rakṣo ni barhaya || 5 ||
śuṣmintamo hi śuṣmibhir vadhair ugrebhir īyase |
apūruṣaghno apratīta śūra satvabhis trisaptaiḥ śūra satvabhiḥ || 6 ||
sunvāna it siṣāsati sahasrā vājy avṛtaḥ |
sunvānāyendro dadāty ābhuvaṁ rayiṁ dadāty ābhuvam || 7 ||
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).