Dialogue of Lopāmudrā and Agastya
Rigveda I.179 is a saṃvāda (dialogue hymn), one of a small group of hymns in the Rigveda composed as exchanges between named speakers. Here the speakers are Lopāmudrā and her husband, the sage Agastya; the hymn moves from her appeal against the wearing effect of long ascetic effort, through an exchange on desire and restraint, to a closing verse on Agastya's own striving for offspring and strength. 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. For many autumns I have wearied myself, through evening and through dawn, through the aging dawns. Old age wears away the beauty of bodies. Let husbands go to their wives now.
2. Even those of old who held to the sacred order, who spoke its truths together with the gods — even they gave up their striving, for they did not reach its end. So let wives now unite with their bulls.
3. Not in vain is the effort the gods favor; let the two of us overcome every rival. Let us win here the contest worth a hundredfold, when the two of us, joined as one pair, drive forward together.
4. Desire has come to me for the roaring one who holds himself back, born from here, from there, from wherever. Lopāmudrā draws the virile man down; the restless woman drains the steadfast one, panting.
5. This soma, indeed, drunk close within our hearts, I appeal to now. Whatever offense we have done against it, let that be graciously forgiven — for mortal man is full of desire.
6. Agastya, digging with his digging-tools, desiring offspring, progeny, and strength — the mighty seer nourished both kinds, and his prayers to the gods came true.
Translator's note: verse 4's "nadasya" (the roaring/bellowing one) is read here as a bull-epithet for Agastya, in keeping with the animal imagery ("bulls," "wives") running through verses 1–4. Verse 6's "ubhau varṇāu" (both varṇas/kinds) is left conservative — the phrase is debated and may refer to two lineages or two classes of offspring rather than a fixed social category.
Colophon
Rigveda I.179 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.179
pūrvīr ahaṁ śaradaḥ śaśramāṇā doṣā vastor uṣaso jarayantīḥ |
mināti śriyaṁ jarimā tanūnām apy ū nu patnīr vṛṣaṇo jagamyuḥ || 1 ||
ye cid dhi pūrva ṛtasāpa āsan sākaṁ devebhir avadann ṛtāni |
te cid avāsur nahy antam āpuḥ sam ū nu patnīr vṛṣabhir jagamyuḥ || 2 ||
na mṛṣā śrāntaṁ yad avanti devā viśvā it spṛdho abhy aśnavāva |
jayāved atra śatanītham ājiṁ yat samyañcā mithunāv abhy ajāva || 3 ||
nadasya mā rudhataḥ kāma āgann ita ājāto amutaḥ kutaś cit |
lopāmudrā vṛṣaṇaṁ nī riṇāti dhīram adhīrā dhayati śvasantam || 4 ||
imaṁ nu somam antito hṛtsu pītam upa bruve |
yat sīm āgaś cakṛmā tat su mṛḻatu pulukāmo hi martyaḥ || 5 ||
agastyaḥ khanamānaḥ khanitraiḥ prajām apatyam balam icchamānaḥ |
ubhau varṇāv ṛṣir ugraḥ pupoṣa satyā deveṣv āśiṣo jagāma || 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).