Hymn to the Viśvedevas
Rigveda I.139 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) that moves across several deities in turn — a divine pair addressed in the dual, then Indra, Aryaman, the Maruts, and Indra-Agni — before closing with the address to the Viśvedevas, the All-Gods, counted in their traditional threefold group of eleven in heaven, eleven on earth, and eleven in the waters. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The hymn is traditionally attributed to the ṛṣi Parucchepa Daivodāsi in the 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. When the newest bond has been forged in kinship, with Vivasvat — then let our prayers go straight forth, our prayers, toward the gods.
2. In your dwellings, just so, we have seen the golden one — with our thoughts, with our mind, with our own eyes; with our own eyes, bright from the soma.
3. All splendors are yours, and all sustenance, you two who possess everything. Your wheel-rims spray forth in your golden chariot, O wondrous ones — in the golden chariot.
4. Your seat rests on the chariot-box, in the golden chariot, O wondrous ones. Going as if on a path, you two govern the realm, ruling the realm directly.
5. With your mighty powers, O you two rich in power, favor us by day and by night. Let your gift to us never fail, nor ours to you, ever.
6. Let these songs delight you, for the giving of great and wondrous bounty. With hymns, O you who are borne by song, being praised, come here — come here to us, gracious and kind.
7. When the gods gave that cow to the Aṅgirases, Aryaman milks her forth in the working together; this one knows her, together with me.
8. Whatever wondrous thing of yours, ever new, age after age, sounds forth immortal — grant that to us, O Maruts, and whatever is hard to surpass, grant that hard-to-surpass thing too.
9. Their reach extends among the gods; our kinship-bonds rest in them. By their footstep I bow down low; O Indra-Agni, I bow with a song.
10. We have grasped, by ourselves, the far-reaching sound of the pressing-stone. Then the one of good purpose upheld [the ararindāni] — many are his seats, the one of good purpose.
11. O gods who are eleven in heaven, who are eleven upon the earth, who dwelling in the waters are eleven in your greatness — you gods, accept this sacrifice.
Translator's note: several words in this hymn resist confident rendering. In verse 1, "vivasvati" may name the deity Vivasvat or simply mean "in the shining one"; both are kept open here. In verse 7, "kartarī sacā" (rendered "in the working together") is obscure in its exact sense. In verse 10, "ararindāni" has no settled meaning and is left untranslated in brackets rather than guessed at.
Colophon
Rigveda I.139 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.139
yad dha krāṇā vivasvati nābhā saṁdāyi navyasī |
adha pra sū na upa yantu dhītayo devām̐ acchā na dhītayaḥ || 1 ||
yuvor itthādhi sadmasv apaśyāma hiraṇyayam |
dhībhiś cana manasā svebhir akṣabhiḥ somasya svebhir akṣabhiḥ || 2 ||
yuvor viśvā adhi śriyaḥ pṛkṣaś ca viśvavedasā |
pruṣāyante vām pavayo hiraṇyaye rathe dasrā hiraṇyaye || 3 ||
adhi vāṁ sthāma vandhure rathe dasrā hiraṇyaye |
patheva yantāv anuśāsatā rajo 'ñjasā śāsatā rajaḥ || 4 ||
śacībhir naḥ śacīvasū divā naktaṁ daśasyatam |
mā vāṁ rātir upa dasat kadā canāsmad rātiḥ kadā cana || 5 ||
te tvā mandantu dāvane mahe citrāya rādhase |
gīrbhir girvāhaḥ stavamāna ā gahi sumṛḻīko na ā gahi || 6 ||
yad dha tyām aṅgirobhyo dhenuṁ devā adattana |
vi tāṁ duhre aryamā kartarī sacām̐ eṣa tāṁ veda me sacā || 7 ||
yad vaś citraṁ yuge-yuge navyaṁ ghoṣād amartyam |
asmāsu tan maruto yac ca duṣṭaraṁ didhṛtā yac ca duṣṭaram || 8 ||
teṣāṁ deveṣv āyatir asmākaṁ teṣu nābhayaḥ |
teṣām padena mahy ā name girendrāgnī ā name girā || 9 ||
jagṛbhmā dūraādiśaṁ ślokam adrer adha tmanā |
adhārayad ararindāni sukratuḥ purū sadmāni sukratuḥ || 10 ||
ye devāso divy ekādaśa stha pṛthivyām adhy ekādaśa stha |
apsukṣito mahinaikādaśa stha te devāso yajñam imaṁ juṣadhvam || 11 ||
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).