Hymn to the Horse
Rigveda I.163 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the sacrificial horse (Aśva) itself, identifying it in turn with Yama, Trita Āptya, Āditya, and Varuṇa, and tracing its birth from the cosmic waters through to its ritual death at the sacrifice. It stands beside I.162 as one of the two great horse-sacrifice (Aśvamedha) hymns of the Rigveda. 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. When first you neighed, being born, rising up from the sea or from the waters above — with a falcon's wings and a fallow deer's forelegs — great and praiseworthy was your birth, O steed.
2. Given by Yama, Trita yoked you; Indra was the first to mount you; the Gandharva seized your rein; the Vasus fashioned the horse out of the sun.
3. You are Yama, you are Āditya, O steed; you are Trita by a hidden ordinance; you are set apart, shared equally with Soma. They say you have three bonds in heaven.
4. Three bonds, they say, you have in heaven; three in the waters, three within the sea. And to me, O steed, you seem like Varuṇa — there, where they say your highest birthplace is.
5. These, O vigorous one, are your grooming-places; these are the resting-places of your winning hooves. Here I saw your auspicious reins, which the guardians of the cosmic order protect.
6. I recognized, from afar, with my mind, your true self — a flying thing winging beneath the sky. I saw your head moving by easy, dustless paths, in flight.
7. Here I saw your highest form, seeking to win nourishment at the gathering-place of the cattle. When a mortal has gained his enjoyment by following you, then indeed you eagerly devour the plants you have roused.
8. The chariot follows you, the young warrior follows, O steed; the cows follow, and the fortune of maidens follows. Bands of men have sought your friendship; the gods have measured out your valor.
9. Golden-horned, his feet of metal, swift as thought — Indra was his rider. The gods indeed came to eat of his oblation, he who first mounted the steed.
10. With tapering flanks, slender in the middle, bold together, the heavenly coursers — like wild geese they range in rows, when the horses have reached the heavenly racecourse.
11. Your body is swift in flight, O steed; your mind sweeps like the gliding wind. Your horns are spread out in many places; restless, they range through the forests.
12. The vigorous steed has gone forward to the place of slaughter, his mind turned in thought toward the gods. The goat, his kinsman, is led before him; behind follow the poets, the singers of praise.
13. He has gone forward to the highest gathering-place, the steed, toward his father and his mother. Today may he go, most welcome, to the gods, and then grant the worshipper his heart's desires.
Translator's note: verse 11's "horns" (śṛṅgāṇi) applied to a horse is a genuine oddity in the Sanskrit — some read it as ornamental horns or an image carried over from the horse's identification with other animals in this hymn; it is rendered literally here rather than resolved. Verse 7's "ajīgaḥ" (roused/awakened) is likewise terse in the Sanskrit and rendered conservatively.
Colophon
Rigveda I.163 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.163
yad akrandaḥ prathamaṁ jāyamāna udyan samudrād uta vā purīṣāt |
śyenasya pakṣā hariṇasya bāhū upastutyam mahi jātaṁ te arvan || 1 ||
yamena dattaṁ trita enam āyunag indra eṇam prathamo adhy atiṣṭhat |
gandharvo asya raśanām agṛbhṇāt sūrād aśvaṁ vasavo nir ataṣṭa || 2 ||
asi yamo asy ādityo arvann asi trito guhyena vratena |
asi somena samayā vipṛkta āhus te trīṇi divi bandhanāni || 3 ||
trīṇi ta āhur divi bandhanāni trīṇy apsu trīṇy antaḥ samudre |
uteva me varuṇaś chantsy arvan yatrā ta āhuḥ paramaṁ janitram || 4 ||
imā te vājinn avamārjanānīmā śaphānāṁ sanitur nidhānā |
atrā te bhadrā raśanā apaśyam ṛtasya yā abhirakṣanti gopāḥ || 5 ||
ātmānaṁ te manasārād ajānām avo divā patayantam pataṁgam |
śiro apaśyam pathibhiḥ sugebhir areṇubhir jehamānam patatri || 6 ||
atrā te rūpam uttamam apaśyaṁ jigīṣamāṇam iṣa ā pade goḥ |
yadā te marto anu bhogam ānaḻ ād id grasiṣṭha oṣadhīr ajīgaḥ || 7 ||
anu tvā ratho anu maryo arvann anu gāvo 'nu bhagaḥ kanīnām |
anu vrātāsas tava sakhyam īyur anu devā mamire vīryaṁ te || 8 ||
hiraṇyaśṛṅgo 'yo asya pādā manojavā avara indra āsīt |
devā id asya haviradyam āyan yo arvantam prathamo adhyatiṣṭhat || 9 ||
īrmāntāsaḥ silikamadhyamāsaḥ saṁ śūraṇāso divyāso atyāḥ |
haṁsā iva śreṇiśo yatante yad ākṣiṣur divyam ajmam aśvāḥ || 10 ||
tava śarīram patayiṣṇv arvan tava cittaṁ vāta iva dhrajīmān |
tava śṛṅgāṇi viṣṭhitā purutrāraṇyeṣu jarbhurāṇā caranti || 11 ||
upa prāgāc chasanaṁ vājy arvā devadrīcā manasā dīdhyānaḥ |
ajaḥ puro nīyate nābhir asyānu paścāt kavayo yanti rebhāḥ || 12 ||
upa prāgāt paramaṁ yat sadhastham arvām̐ acchā pitaram mātaraṁ ca |
adyā devāñ juṣṭatamo hi gamyā athā śāste dāśuṣe vāryāṇi || 13 ||
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).