Hymn to Indra and the Maruts
Rigveda I.167 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Indra and the Maruts, the storm-gods who ride with him, and to Rodasī, their female companion who accompanies their chariot. 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. A thousand are your helps to us, Indra, a thousand most-welcome food-gifts, O lord of bay steeds. A thousand riches, to gladden us — let thousandfold strength-prizes come to us.
2. Let the Maruts come to us with their favors, with their eldest, sky-exalted, of good creative power — and when their supreme yoked teams race even to the far shore of the ocean.
3. In them clings a well-placed, ghee-gleaming spear, golden-adorned, like one thrust from below; moving in secret like a woman among men, a gathered speech, joined as at the sacred rite.
4. Forth go the bright, tireless ones, mingling as if at a shared stream — the Maruts. The terrible ones do not thrust apart the two world-halves; the gods take delight in the one who strengthens, for the sake of friendship.
5. When she, the mighty one, chose to join them — Rodasī, with loosened hair, of manly spirit — she came like the sun to the worshipper's chariot, bright-faced, leader amid the mist.
6. The young men set the young woman among them, joined for splendor, firm one at the sacred gatherings — when the oblation-bearing singer, O Maruts, presser of soma, sings the song in service to you.
7. I proclaim — worthy to be told — the true greatness of these Maruts: how the bull-minded, self-exalting one carries with him even the steadfast, fortunate women.
8. Mitra and Varuṇa protect her from blame; Aryaman marks out the unworthy. And the unshaken, firm ones move — the Maruts, bestowers of chosen gifts, have grown mighty.
9. Truly, O Maruts, your limit is not near us — even from far off none has reached the end of your power. They, grown strong with bold might, have boldly overwhelmed hostility like a flood.
10. Today we are Indra's dearest; tomorrow may we speak so in the assembly. As before, so through our days — may Indra, lord of the Ṛbhus, grant this to us, foremost among men.
11. This is your hymn of praise, O Maruts — this song of Māndārya, the honorable poet. May it bring us bodily vigor; may we find nourishment, strength, and swift-giving bounty.
Translator's note: verses 3, 5, and 6–7 refer to Rodasī, a female figure who rides with the Maruts in this hymn; the Sanskrit of verse 3 is especially compressed and its imagery (a "spear," a woman "moving in secret") is rendered conservatively rather than resolved into a confident narrative. "Ṛbhukṣā" in verse 10 is an epithet of Indra, kept untranslated where the name itself is meant.
Colophon
Rigveda I.167 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.167
sahasraṁ ta indrotayo naḥ sahasram iṣo harivo gūrtatamāḥ |
sahasraṁ rāyo mādayadhyai sahasriṇa upa no yantu vājāḥ || 1 ||
ā no 'vobhir maruto yāntv acchā jyeṣṭhebhir vā bṛhaddivaiḥ sumāyāḥ |
adha yad eṣāṁ niyutaḥ paramāḥ samudrasya cid dhanayanta pāre || 2 ||
mimyakṣa yeṣu sudhitā ghṛtācī hiraṇyanirṇig uparā na ṛṣṭiḥ |
guhā carantī manuṣo na yoṣā sabhāvatī vidathyeva saṁ vāk || 3 ||
parā śubhrā ayāso yavyā sādhāraṇyeva maruto mimikṣuḥ |
na rodasī apa nudanta ghorā juṣanta vṛdhaṁ sakhyāya devāḥ || 4 ||
joṣad yad īm asuryā sacadhyai viṣitastukā rodasī nṛmaṇāḥ |
ā sūryeva vidhato rathaṁ gāt tveṣapratīkā nabhaso netyā || 5 ||
āsthāpayanta yuvatiṁ yuvānaḥ śubhe nimiślāṁ vidatheṣu pajrām |
arko yad vo maruto haviṣmān gāyad gāthaṁ sutasomo duvasyan || 6 ||
pra taṁ vivakmi vakmyo ya eṣām marutām mahimā satyo asti |
sacā yad īṁ vṛṣamaṇā ahaṁyuḥ sthirā cij janīr vahate subhāgāḥ || 7 ||
pānti mitrāvaruṇāv avadyāc cayata īm aryamo apraśastān |
uta cyavante acyutā dhruvāṇi vāvṛdha īm maruto dātivāraḥ || 8 ||
nahī nu vo maruto anty asme ārāttāc cic chavaso antam āpuḥ |
te dhṛṣṇunā śavasā śūśuvāṁso 'rṇo na dveṣo dhṛṣatā pari ṣṭhuḥ || 9 ||
vayam adyendrasya preṣṭhā vayaṁ śvo vocemahi samarye |
vayam purā mahi ca no anu dyūn tan na ṛbhukṣā narām anu ṣyāt || 10 ||
eṣa vaḥ stomo maruta iyaṁ gīr māndāryasya mānyasya kāroḥ |
eṣā yāsīṣṭa tanve vayāṁ vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 11 ||
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).