Hymn to Viṣṇu
Rigveda I.156 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Viṣṇu, praising him as an ancient ordainer, ever new, who works in close fellowship with Mitra, Varuṇa, the Aśvins, the Maruts, and Indra, and who upholds ṛta, the cosmic order. 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. Be dear to us like Mitra, you whose libation is ghee, of far-spread splendor, swift-moving and wide-reaching. Then, Vishnu, even the wise worshiper with his offering may rightly carry through his hymn of praise and his sacrifice for you.
2. Whoever offers worship to Vishnu — the ancient ordainer, ever new, well-born — and whoever proclaims aloud the great birth of this great one, he indeed shall attain fit fellowship together with glory.
3. O singers, as you have known him of old, bring him to fullness through his birth — the very embryo of cosmic order. Knowing his name, declare it. And we share, O Vishnu, in your great favor.
4. Him King Varuna follows, him the two Ashvins follow, him the ordainers of the Maruts follow in purpose. He holds the highest skill, the one who knows the days; and Vishnu, together with his friends, throws open the cattle-pen.
5. Vishnu — divine, a better doer of good deeds than the good doer himself — has wrought fellowship for Indra. The ordainer, in his three seats, quickened the noble one, and allotted the sacrificer his share in cosmic order.
Translator's note: "sumajjānaye" (v.2) is rendered conservatively as "well-born"; the exact sense of the compound is uncertain. "vivāya" (v.5, from √vā, "to weave") is rendered as "wrought," in the sense of weaving together a bond. "triṣadhastha" (v.5), "having three seats/abodes," is kept literal rather than expanded into any specific cosmological reading.
Colophon
Rigveda I.156 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.156
bhavā mitro na śevyo ghṛtāsutir vibhūtadyumna evayā u saprathāḥ |
adhā te viṣṇo viduṣā cid ardhyaḥ stomo yajñaś ca rādhyo haviṣmatā || 1 ||
yaḥ pūrvyāya vedhase navīyase sumajjānaye viṣṇave dadāśati |
yo jātam asya mahato mahi bravat sed u śravobhir yujyaṁ cid abhy asat || 2 ||
tam u stotāraḥ pūrvyaṁ yathā vida ṛtasya garbhaṁ januṣā pipartana |
āsya jānanto nāma cid vivaktana mahas te viṣṇo sumatim bhajāmahe || 3 ||
tam asya rājā varuṇas tam aśvinā kratuṁ sacanta mārutasya vedhasaḥ |
dādhāra dakṣam uttamam aharvidaṁ vrajaṁ ca viṣṇuḥ sakhivām̐ aporṇute || 4 ||
ā yo vivāya sacathāya daivya indrāya viṣṇuḥ sukṛte sukṛttaraḥ |
vedhā ajinvat triṣadhastha āryam ṛtasya bhāge yajamānam ābhajat || 5 ||
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).