Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.16 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Indra, the storm-king and champion of the gods, slayer of Vṛtra, lord of thunder and rain. 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. May the bay horses carry you, the bull, here to drink the soma. O Indra, may the sun-eyed ones carry you.
2. Let these grains, dripping with ghee, and the two bay horses bring Indra here, in the most comfortable chariot.
3. We call Indra at dawn; we call Indra as the rite proceeds; we call Indra to drink the soma.
4. Come to our pressed soma, O Indra, with your maned bay horses — for at the pressing we call you.
5. Come to this hymn of ours, to this pressed libation; drink like a thirsty wild bull.
6. These soma drops, pressed out, lie upon the sacred grass. Drink them, Indra, for strength.
7. Let this foremost hymn of ours reach your heart and be most pleasing to you; then drink the pressed soma.
8. Indra goes to every pressed libation for his exhilaration — the slayer of Vṛtra, to drink the soma.
9. Fill this desire of ours with cattle and with horses, you of a hundred powers; may we, with devoted minds, praise you.
Translator's note: "gaura" (verse 5) names a wild bovine (a gaur or wild buffalo) known for drinking thirstily; rendered here as "wild bull." "Śatakratu" (verse 9), literally "of a hundred [ritual] powers/deeds," is a standing epithet of Indra, kept close to its literal sense rather than smoothed into a title.
Colophon
Rigveda I.16 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.16
ā tvā vahantu harayo vṛṣaṇaṁ somapītaye |
indra tvā sūracakṣasaḥ || 1 ||
imā dhānā ghṛtasnuvo harī ihopa vakṣataḥ |
indraṁ sukhatame rathe || 2 ||
indram prātar havāmaha indram prayaty adhvare |
indraṁ somasya pītaye || 3 ||
upa naḥ sutam ā gahi haribhir indra keśibhiḥ |
sute hi tvā havāmahe || 4 ||
semaṁ naḥ stomam ā gahy upedaṁ savanaṁ sutam |
gauro na tṛṣitaḥ piba || 5 ||
ime somāsa indavaḥ sutāso adhi barhiṣi |
tām̐ indra sahase piba || 6 ||
ayaṁ te stomo agriyo hṛdispṛg astu śaṁtamaḥ |
athā somaṁ sutam piba || 7 ||
viśvam it savanaṁ sutam indro madāya gacchati |
vṛtrahā somapītaye || 8 ||
semaṁ naḥ kāmam ā pṛṇa gobhir aśvaiḥ śatakrato |
stavāma tvā svādhyaḥ || 9 ||
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).