Hymn to the Maruts
Rigveda I.168 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the Maruts, the storm-troop of heaven, sons of Pṛśni, who ride down from the sky, shake the mountains and the compact earth, and scatter the 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. At every sacrifice alike, eager ones, you have taken to yourselves every god-seeking hymn. May I turn you hither, toward the two world-halves, for good fortune, for great help — with well-woven praises.
2. Like hidden dens, self-born, self-strong, the Shakers are born to bring food and heaven's light. Thousandfold like the waves of the waters, calling out with their mouths like cows, praiseworthy like bulls.
3. Like pressed soma-juices, their stalks full, drunk within the heart, they do not sit idle in their service. On their shoulders something clings like a climbing vine; on their hands the bracelet and the [ornament] are fastened together.
4. Self-yoked, they have come down freely from heaven, the immortals; with the whip they urge themselves onward. Dustless, mightily born, they have shaken even the firm things, O Maruts with gleaming spears.
5. Who among you, O Maruts with lightning spears, trembles by himself like the tongue moving with the jaw? Driven on like [arrows] in their course, much-impelled, daily, like Etaśa the swift horse.
6. Where indeed is the far end of this great realm, and where the near end, O Maruts, into which you have come? When you shake the compact mass as if it were tottering, you fly apart, with the mountain-cloud, as the flashing flood.
7. Like a forceful gain, full of heaven's light, your gift is brilliant, O Maruts, ripened and adorning. Auspicious is your bounty, like the largess of a generous giver — wide-striding, godlike, ever showing itself.
8. The rivers roar back in answer to your wheel-rims, when you raise up the voice of the cloud. The lightnings smile down upon the earth, when you, Maruts, sprinkle the rain like ghee.
9. Pṛśni gave birth, for the great contest, to the brilliant host of the tireless Maruts. They, moving as one, brought forth that mighty power; then indeed they looked upon their own vigorous nature.
10. This is your hymn of praise, O Maruts, this song of Māndārya, the honored singer. May this song reach you for our persons; may we find nourishment, strength, and swift-giving bounty.
Translator's note: several words in this hymn are rare and their precise sense uncertain — among them the images in verse 2 (vavrāsaḥ, "hidden dens/burrows"), the pair of objects on the Maruts' hands in verse 3 (khādiḥ, likely a bracelet or anklet, and kṛtiḥ, an unclear ornament or implement, rendered "[ornament]"), the simile of Etaśa the horse in verse 5, and the descriptive terms in verses 7 and 9 (jañjatī, sapsarāsaḥ). These are translated conservatively, following the most literal sense of the Sanskrit roots, rather than resolved with confident guesses.
Colophon
Rigveda I.168 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.168
yajñā-yajñā vaḥ samanā tuturvaṇir dhiyaṁ-dhiyaṁ vo devayā u dadhidhve |
ā vo 'rvācaḥ suvitāya rodasyor mahe vavṛtyām avase suvṛktibhiḥ || 1 ||
vavrāso na ye svajāḥ svatavasa iṣaṁ svar abhijāyanta dhūtayaḥ |
sahasriyāso apāṁ normaya āsā gāvo vandyāso nokṣaṇaḥ || 2 ||
somāso na ye sutās tṛptāṁśavo hṛtsu pītāso duvaso nāsate |
aiṣām aṁseṣu rambhiṇīva rārabhe hasteṣu khādiś ca kṛtiś ca saṁ dadhe || 3 ||
ava svayuktā diva ā vṛthā yayur amartyāḥ kaśayā codata tmanā |
areṇavas tuvijātā acucyavur dṛḻhāni cin maruto bhrājadṛṣṭayaḥ || 4 ||
ko vo 'ntar maruta ṛṣṭividyuto rejati tmanā hanveva jihvayā |
dhanvacyuta iṣāṁ na yāmani purupraiṣā ahanyo3 naitaśaḥ || 5 ||
kva svid asya rajaso mahas paraṁ kvāvaram maruto yasminn āyaya |
yac cyāvayatha vithureva saṁhitaṁ vy adriṇā patatha tveṣam arṇavam || 6 ||
sātir na vo 'mavatī svarvatī tveṣā vipākā marutaḥ pipiṣvatī |
bhadrā vo rātiḥ pṛṇato na dakṣiṇā pṛthujrayī asuryeva jañjatī || 7 ||
prati ṣṭobhanti sindhavaḥ pavibhyo yad abhriyāṁ vācam udīrayanti |
ava smayanta vidyutaḥ pṛthivyāṁ yadī ghṛtam marutaḥ pruṣṇuvanti || 8 ||
asūta pṛśnir mahate raṇāya tveṣam ayāsām marutām anīkam |
te sapsarāso 'janayantābhvam ād it svadhām iṣirām pary apaśyan || 9 ||
eṣa vaḥ stomo maruta iyaṁ gīr māndāryasya mānyasya kāroḥ |
eṣā yāsīṣṭa tanve vayāṁ vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 10 ||
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).