Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa
Rigveda I.152 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Mitra and Varuṇa, the great pair: Mitra the lord of covenant and Varuṇa the upholder of cosmic law. 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. You two clothe yourselves in garments rich with substance; your intentions, indeed, are unbroken streams. You have overcome all falsehoods through truth; O Mitra and Varuṇa, you hold fast to truth.
2. Let someone indeed discern this among these words: the true utterance spoken by the poet-seer, forceful and true. The fierce four-cornered one strikes down the three-cornered one; the first scorners of the gods, indeed, did not grow old.
3. The footless one goes first among those who have feet — who among you, O Mitra and Varuṇa, has understood that? The germ carries its burden even now; may truth nourish, and cast down untruth.
4. We see the lover of young women going forth, never turning back to approach again, clothing himself in what stretches out unbroken — the dear domain of Mitra and Varuṇa.
5. Born without a horse, without reins, a courser neighing loudly, flying, its back raised high — the young men have delighted in the sacred formulation that none can grasp, proclaiming forth the ordinance that dwells in Mitra, in Varuṇa.
6. The milk-cows, favoring Māmateya who is dear to the sacred word, filled him from a single udder; may the knowing one beg for the paths of nourishment, seeking with his mouth to serve — may he set Aditi free, wide and unconfined.
7. May I bring to you, O Mitra and Varuṇa, delight in the offering, with homage, O gods, and with your help. May our sacred formulation prevail in battles; may our heavenly rain be abundant and carry us safely through.
Translator's note: Verses 2 and 4 are classic examples of Vedic riddle-speech (brahmodya) — the "three-cornered" and "four-cornered" figures of verse 2, and the "footless one" and departing "lover" of verses 3–4, are deliberately cryptic images without a settled referent even in the traditional commentaries. They are rendered here as literally as English allows, without resolving the riddle. Verse 6 names the sage Māmateya (Dīrghatamas, "son of Mamatā"), the traditional seer of this hymn.
Colophon
Rigveda I.152 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.152
yuvaṁ vastrāṇi pīvasā vasāthe yuvor acchidrā mantavo ha sargāḥ |
avātiratam anṛtāni viśva ṛtena mitrāvaruṇā sacethe || 1 ||
etac cana tvo vi ciketad eṣāṁ satyo mantraḥ kaviśasta ṛghāvān |
triraśriṁ hanti caturaśrir ugro devanido ha prathamā ajūryan || 2 ||
apād eti prathamā padvatīnāṁ kas tad vām mitrāvaruṇā ciketa |
garbho bhāram bharaty ā cid asya ṛtam piparty anṛtaṁ ni tārīt || 3 ||
prayantam it pari jāraṁ kanīnām paśyāmasi nopanipadyamānam |
anavapṛgṇā vitatā vasānam priyam mitrasya varuṇasya dhāma || 4 ||
anaśvo jāto anabhīśur arvā kanikradat patayad ūrdhvasānuḥ |
acittam brahma jujuṣur yuvānaḥ pra mitre dhāma varuṇe gṛṇantaḥ || 5 ||
ā dhenavo māmateyam avantīr brahmapriyam pīpayan sasminn ūdhan |
pitvo bhikṣeta vayunāni vidvān āsāvivāsann aditim uruṣyet || 6 ||
ā vām mitrāvaruṇā havyajuṣṭiṁ namasā devāv avasā vavṛtyām |
asmākam brahma pṛtanāsu sahyā asmākaṁ vṛṣṭir divyā supārā || 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).