Hymn to Pūṣan
Rigveda I.138 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Pūṣan, the pastoral god, guardian of paths and herds, escort of the dead. 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. Seeking your favor, I sing your praise — you whose help lasts to the end, who bring joy, who have yoked the mind of every being; the mighty god has yoked it, the mighty one.
2. I, a mortal, call on you, the joy-bringing god, for friendship. Make our praise-songs shine with splendor; make us shine with splendor in the contests for strength.
3. Following that, we beg wealth of you and of your newest team of steeds. Ungrudging one, widely praised, be at hand for us — in contest after contest, be at hand for us.
4. May we truly win you over with well-made hymns of praise, O wonder-worker. I do not slight you, Pūṣan, O radiant one; I do not disown your friendship.
Translator's note: "niyutam" (v.3) names the yoked team of steeds associated with Pūṣan's chariot; "sarī bhava" is rendered "be at hand" for the sense of being present and ready to help. "āghṛṇe" (v.4), a vocative epithet of Pūṣan, is rendered "O radiant one" (from ghṛṇi-, glow/heat).
Colophon
Rigveda I.138 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda I.138
arcāmi sumnayann aham antyūtim mayobhuvam |
viśvasya yo mana āyuyuve makho deva āyuyuve makhaḥ || 1 ||
huve yat tvā mayobhuvaṁ devaṁ sakhyāya martyaḥ |
asmākam āṅgūṣān dyumninas kṛdhi vājeṣu dyumninas kṛdhi || 2 ||
tām anu tvā navīyasīṁ niyutaṁ rāya īmahe |
aheḻamāna uruśaṁsa sarī bhava vāje-vāje sarī bhava || 3 ||
o ṣu tvā vavṛtīmahi stomebhir dasma sādhubhiḥ |
nahi tvā pūṣann atimanya āghṛṇe na te sakhyam apahnuve || 4 ||
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).