Hymn to the Ṛbhus

Rigveda I.161 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the Ṛbhus — three brothers, once mortal craftsmen, who earned a place among the gods through the skill of their hands. The hymn is built as a dialogue: Agni carries messages between the gods and the Ṛbhus, Tvaṣṭṛ (the divine artisan) at first scorns their work, and the Ṛbhus answer with an account of their own feats — multiplying a single cup into four, making an old pair young again, shaping a horse and a cow and a chariot, and sleeping through a year in the house of the "one not to be hidden" before waking to find the seasons themselves had moved on without them. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books.

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. What indeed is best? Has the youngest not come to us? What errand is being sent? What have we said? We do not fault the cup, of noble lineage that it is — Agni, brother, we spoke of its being fashioned out of wood.

2. "Make the one cup into four" — this the gods said to you; this I have come and told you. Sons of Sudhanvan, if you will do this, you will become, together with the gods, worthy of the sacrifice.

3. What you said in answer to Agni the messenger: "A horse is to be made, and here a chariot is to be made, a cow is to be made, and two young ones are to be made — these, brother, once we have made them, we will come to you."

4. The Ṛbhus, having finished the work, asked this: "Where has he gone, the one who came to us as messenger?" When he announced that the four cups had been made, then Tvaṣṭṛ hid himself away among the goddesses.

5. "Let us kill them" — so said Tvaṣṭṛ, of those who had scorned the cup, the gods' drinking-vessel. They take other names at the pressing of the soma; the maiden favored them under those other names.

6. Indra yoked his two bay horses, the Aśvins their chariot, Bṛhaspati drove up the all-formed cow. Ṛbhu, Vibhvan, and Vāja came before the gods; skilled workers, you won your share of the sacrifice.

7. You drew the cow out of the hide by your crafts, you who made the aged pair young again. Sons of Sudhanvan, you shaped a horse out of a horse; having yoked the chariot, you went up to the gods.

8. "Drink this water" — so you said — "or drink this, the rinsing of the muñja-grass." Sons of Sudhanvan, if that does not please you, then may you be gladdened at the third pressing.

9. "Water is foremost," said one; "no, Agni is foremost," said another. One declared her — the cow — refused to many; speaking truly, they carved out the cups.

10. One drives the lame cow to water, one carves the flesh brought for the offering, one carried off the dung until sunset — what indeed did the two parents grant their sons?

11. You made grass for it on the high ground and waters on the low ground by your skillful work, you men. When you slept in the house of the one not to be hidden — that, Ṛbhus, you do not remember to this day.

12. When, eyes closed, you crept about through the worlds, where then were your two parents, in their secrecy? You cursed the one who took hold of your forearm, and to the one who spoke out, you spoke back.

13. The Ṛbhus, having slept, asked this: "Who has woken us, O one not to be hidden?" The goat named the dog as the waker: "The year has this day made itself known."

14. The Maruts go by way of the sky, this Agni by the earth, Vāta goes by way of mid-air; Varuṇa goes by the waters, by the seas — seeking you, O sons of strength.

Translator's note: this is one of the Rigveda's most riddling hymns, built as a fast-moving dialogue among Agni, Tvaṣṭṛ, and the Ṛbhus with speakers often unnamed and shifting mid-verse. Several phrases are genuinely opaque and are rendered conservatively here: verse 9's "vadharyantīm... praiko abravīt" (of the cow being "refused" or "warded off" from many) and verse 12's "sammīlya... paryasarpata" (crawling through the worlds "with eyes closed," commonly read as the Ṛbhus' year-long sleep) are among the most debated lines in the hymn. "The one not to be hidden" (agohya) in verses 11 and 13 is left untranslated as an epithet rather than resolved to a specific god, since the Sanskrit itself does not name him there.

Colophon

Rigveda I.161 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.161

kim u śreṣṭhaḥ kiṁ yaviṣṭho na ājagan kim īyate dūtya1ṁ kad yad ūcima |
na nindima camasaṁ yo mahākulo 'gne bhrātar druṇa id bhūtim ūdima || 1 ||

ekaṁ camasaṁ caturaḥ kṛṇotana tad vo devā abruvan tad va āgamam |
saudhanvanā yady evā kariṣyatha sākaṁ devair yajñiyāso bhaviṣyatha || 2 ||

agniṁ dūtam prati yad abravītanāśvaḥ kartvo ratha uteha kartvaḥ |
dhenuḥ kartvā yuvaśā kartvā dvā tāni bhrātar anu vaḥ kṛtvy emasi || 3 ||

cakṛvāṁsa ṛbhavas tad apṛcchata kved abhūd yaḥ sya dūto na ājagan |
yadāvākhyac camasāñ caturaḥ kṛtān ād it tvaṣṭā gnāsv antar ny ānaje || 4 ||

hanāmainām̐ iti tvaṣṭā yad abravīc camasaṁ ye devapānam anindiṣuḥ |
anyā nāmāni kṛṇvate sute sacām̐ anyair enān kanyā3 nāmabhiḥ sparat || 5 ||

indro harī yuyuje aśvinā ratham bṛhaspatir viśvarūpām upājata |
ṛbhur vibhvā vājo devām̐ agacchata svapaso yajñiyam bhāgam aitana || 6 ||

niś carmaṇo gām ariṇīta dhītibhir yā jarantā yuvaśā tākṛṇotana |
saudhanvanā aśvād aśvam atakṣata yuktvā ratham upa devām̐ ayātana || 7 ||

idam udakam pibatety abravītanedaṁ vā ghā pibatā muñjanejanam |
saudhanvanā yadi tan neva haryatha tṛtīye ghā savane mādayādhvai || 8 ||

āpo bhūyiṣṭhā ity eko abravīd agnir bhūyiṣṭha ity anyo abravīt |
vadharyantīm bahubhyaḥ praiko abravīd ṛtā vadantaś camasām̐ apiṁśata || 9 ||

śroṇām eka udakaṁ gām avājati māṁsam ekaḥ piṁśati sūnayābhṛtam |
ā nimrucaḥ śakṛd eko apābharat kiṁ svit putrebhyaḥ pitarā upāvatuḥ || 10 ||

udvatsv asmā akṛṇotanā tṛṇaṁ nivatsv apaḥ svapasyayā naraḥ |
agohyasya yad asastanā gṛhe tad adyedam ṛbhavo nānu gacchatha || 11 ||

sammīlya yad bhuvanā paryasarpata kva svit tātyā pitarā va āsatuḥ |
aśapata yaḥ karasnaṁ va ādade yaḥ prābravīt pro tasmā abravītana || 12 ||

suṣupvāṁsa ṛbhavas tad apṛcchatāgohya ka idaṁ no abūbudhat |
śvānam basto bodhayitāram abravīt saṁvatsara idam adyā vy akhyata || 13 ||

divā yānti maruto bhūmyāgnir ayaṁ vāto antarikṣeṇa yāti |
adbhir yāti varuṇaḥ samudrair yuṣmām̐ icchantaḥ śavaso napātaḥ || 14 ||

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).