Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.176 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 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. Gladden us, O drop of soma, that we may win good things — enter Indra as a bull enters. Raging, you drive the enemy before you; near you, he finds nothing to match him.
2. Send our songs of praise into him, who alone stands over the tribes of men. By his own nature, the bull draws him forth, as one draws forth barley that has been sown.
3. In whose two hands rests all the wealth of the five peoples — seek out the one who deceives us, and strike him down like the bolt from the sky.
4. Strike down as well the one who presses no soma, the hard-to-reach one, who brings you no delight. Give us what is his — even the wise patron takes note of this.
5. You have helped him whose strength is doubled in the chants; may he stand by continually. In Indra's contest, O drop of soma, you have carried forward the strong one among the battles for spoils.
6. As you have been, O Indra, like joy to the singers before me, like water to the thirsty — so, following that, I call on you again with this invocation. May I find nourishment, strength, and swift bounty.
Translator's note: verses 2, 5, and 6 turn on compact Vedic idiom (the bull "plowing forth" the praised one like sown barley; "doubled strength in the chants"; the repeated invocation, nivid) that resists a single clean English equivalent. The renderings above stay close to the Sanskrit word order and images rather than smoothing them into fluent paraphrase.
Colophon
Rigveda I.176 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.176
matsi no vasyaïṣṭaya indram indo vṛṣā viśa |
ṛghāyamāṇa invasi śatrum anti na vindasi || 1 ||
tasminn ā veśayā giro ya ekaś carṣaṇīnām |
anu svadhā yam upyate yavaṁ na carkṛṣad vṛṣā || 2 ||
yasya viśvāni hastayoḥ pañca kṣitīnāṁ vasu |
spāśayasva yo asmadhrug divyevāśanir jahi || 3 ||
asunvantaṁ samaṁ jahi dūṇāśaṁ yo na te mayaḥ |
asmabhyam asya vedanaṁ daddhi sūriś cid ohate || 4 ||
āvo yasya dvibarhaso 'rkeṣu sānuṣag asat |
ājāv indrasyendo prāvo vājeṣu vājinam || 5 ||
yathā pūrvebhyo jaritṛbhya indra maya ivāpo na tṛṣyate babhūtha |
tām anu tvā nividaṁ johavīmi vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 6 ||
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).