Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.174 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 recalls his war deeds on behalf of his human allies Purukutsa and Kutsa — the breaking of the seven autumn strongholds, the release of the pent waters, and the overthrow of the Dāsa chieftain Kuyava — and closes with a plea that Indra remain the protector of his worshippers. 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. You are king, Indra — you and the gods with you — so protect our men; guard us, O mighty one. You are the true lord, the bounteous one, our deliverer; you are true, winning goods, giving us strength.
2. Subdue, Indra, the clans of hostile speech, when you tore open the seven autumn forts that sheltered them. You set free the waters, faultless in their flood, for the young Purukutsa, and delivered Vṛtra into his hands.
3. You drove forth those whose lords were heroes, and the sky along with them, O much-invoked one — now against the demon, the swift consuming fire, the all-conquering one — like a lion in its den, doing its deeds at daybreak.
4. May these remain here, Indra, for your glory, by the greatness of your thunder-tipped weapon. He let the floods pour down when by battle he won the cattle; he mounted his two bay horses and boldly seized the spoils.
5. Carry Kutsa, Indra, the one you delight in, with the two swift horses of the wind. May he tear loose the wheel of the sun in the clash; may the thunderbolt-armed one go forth against his rivals.
6. Having slain the Mitrerus, Indra, grown strong from the goad, O lord of bay steeds, against those who give no offerings — those who beheld Aryaman together for their own good, carried by you, made strong, bearing their offspring.
7. The sage spoke, Indra, in the winning of the sun-hymn: you made the earth a bed for the Dāsa. The bounteous one made the three regions rich with gifts, and struck down Kuyava in his own dwelling, in battle.
8. Those ancient deeds of yours, Indra, come to us renewed; your strength reached the sky, and many waters flowed for our peace. You split apart the godless forts, as a breaker breaks, and bent down the weapon of the godless scorner.
9. You, the roaring one, Indra, set loose the roaring waters, flowing like rivers. When you, hero, carried them across the flood, you brought Turvaśa and Yadu safely across.
10. May you always be ours, Indra, the most guileless protector of our men. Overpowering for us all rivals, may we find nourishment, strength, and a swift-giving bounty.
Translator's note: verse 3 (śūrapatnīḥ, aśuṣam) and verse 6 (mitrerūn, aryamaṇaṁ sacā yoḥ) contain words whose precise sense is uncertain even in the scholarly tradition; they are rendered conservatively, close to their root meanings, rather than resolved into a confident but unverifiable reading.
Colophon
Rigveda I.174 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.174
tvaṁ rājendra ye ca devā rakṣā nṝn pāhy asura tvam asmān |
tvaṁ satpatir maghavā nas tarutras tvaṁ satyo vasavānaḥ sahodāḥ || 1 ||
dano viśa indra mṛdhravācaḥ sapta yat puraḥ śarma śāradīr dart |
ṛṇor apo anavadyārṇā yūne vṛtram purukutsāya randhīḥ || 2 ||
ajā vṛta indra śūrapatnīr dyāṁ ca yebhiḥ puruhūta nūnam |
rakṣo agnim aśuṣaṁ tūrvayāṇaṁ siṁho na dame apāṁsi vastoḥ || 3 ||
śeṣan nu ta indra sasmin yonau praśastaye pavīravasya mahnā |
sṛjad arṇāṁsy ava yad yudhā gās tiṣṭhad dharī dhṛṣatā mṛṣṭa vājān || 4 ||
vaha kutsam indra yasmiñ cākan syūmanyū ṛjrā vātasyāśvā |
pra sūraś cakraṁ vṛhatād abhīke 'bhi spṛdho yāsiṣad vajrabāhuḥ || 5 ||
jaghanvām̐ indra mitrerūñ codapravṛddho harivo adāśūn |
pra ye paśyann aryamaṇaṁ sacāyos tvayā śūrtā vahamānā apatyam || 6 ||
rapat kavir indrārkasātau kṣāṁ dāsāyopabarhaṇīṁ kaḥ |
karat tisro maghavā dānucitrā ni duryoṇe kuyavācam mṛdhi śret || 7 ||
sanā tā ta indra navyā āguḥ saho nabho 'viraṇāya pūrvīḥ |
bhinat puro na bhido adevīr nanamo vadhar adevasya pīyoḥ || 8 ||
tvaṁ dhunir indra dhunimatīr ṛṇor apaḥ sīrā na sravantīḥ |
pra yat samudram ati śūra parṣi pārayā turvaśaṁ yaduṁ svasti || 9 ||
tvam asmākam indra viśvadha syā avṛkatamo narāṁ nṛpātā |
sa no viśvāsāṁ spṛdhāṁ sahodā 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).