Hymn to Indra and Vishnu
Rigveda I.155 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed jointly to Indra, the storm-king and champion of the gods, and Viṣṇu, whose three strides span earth, sky, and the farthest heaven. 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. Sing forth to your protector of the soma-draught, to the thoughtful one, the great hero, Viṣṇu — the two undeceivable ones who took their mighty stand on the peaks of the mountains, like a racehorse on its straight course.
2. Terrible indeed is the clash of you two powerful ones, Indra and Viṣṇu! The soma-presser guards you both — you two who guard the mortal against what is aimed at him, the very shot of Kṛśānu, the arrows.
3. These forces increase his great manly power; the two mothers lead him down for begetting and enjoyment. The son establishes the father's name — the lower and the higher, a third name — in the luminous realm of heaven.
4. We proclaim each and every manly deed of this vigorous one, the protector, the harmless, the bounteous one — who strode across the earthly regions with three wide strides, for life, for him who is far-striding and far-praised.
5. Only two of his strides can the mortal see and busy himself observing — his, the beholder of heaven's light. His third stride no one dares approach, not even the winged birds in flight.
6. With ninety and four names together, like a turning wheel, he has set the alternating periods in motion. Vast of body, measuring out the world with hymns, ever-young, he comes forth to meet the contest.
Translator's note: verse 2's reference to "Kṛśānu" and "the arrows" points to the archer of the soma-eagle myth, but the exact image the verse intends is not fully recoverable from the line alone; rendered conservatively. Verse 3's "two mothers" and "third name" and verse 6's "ninety and four names" and "turning wheel" are likewise compressed, riddle-like Vedic imagery (the latter probably marking a division of time); they are translated literally rather than resolved into a confident paraphrase.
Colophon
Rigveda I.155 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.155
pra vaḥ pāntam andhaso dhiyāyate mahe śūrāya viṣṇave cārcata |
yā sānuni parvatānām adābhyā mahas tasthatur arvateva sādhunā || 1 ||
tveṣam itthā samaraṇaṁ śimīvator indrāviṣṇū sutapā vām uruṣyati |
yā martyāya pratidhīyamānam it kṛśānor astur asanām uruṣyathaḥ || 2 ||
tā īṁ vardhanti mahy asya pauṁsyaṁ ni mātarā nayati retase bhuje |
dadhāti putro 'varam param pitur nāma tṛtīyam adhi rocane divaḥ || 3 ||
tat-tad id asya pauṁsyaṁ gṛṇīmasīnasya trātur avṛkasya mīḻhuṣaḥ |
yaḥ pārthivāni tribhir id vigāmabhir uru kramiṣṭorugāyāya jīvase || 4 ||
dve id asya kramaṇe svardṛśo 'bhikhyāya martyo bhuraṇyati |
tṛtīyam asya nakir ā dadharṣati vayaś cana patayantaḥ patatriṇaḥ || 5 ||
caturbhiḥ sākaṁ navatiṁ ca nāmabhiś cakraṁ na vṛttaṁ vyatīm̐r avīvipat |
bṛhaccharīro vimimāna ṛkvabhir yuvākumāraḥ praty ety āhavam || 6 ||
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).