Hymn to the Aśvins

Rigveda I.180 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the Aśvins, the twin divine horsemen, healers of the gods and bringers of dawn. 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. Your well-guided horses range through the realms, when your chariot flies around the waters. Your golden wheel-rims spray forth droplets, and drinking of the honeyed draught, you two attend the dawn.

2. You two come down to help the swift one, the inspired, manly, devout worshiper. When the sister, praised by all, brings her offering to you, she prays, O honey-drinkers, for strength and for refreshment.

3. You two placed milk in the ruddy cow — the cooked within the raw, the ancient gift of the cow. When, within the tree, O you of true form, the pure one bearing oblations worships, like a hidden turning.

4. You two indeed opened the honeyed gharma-vessel for Atri, like a flood of waters, to hasten his relief. That gift of yours, O men, O Aśvins, sought for the herd — the streams of honey come toward you like chariot-wheels.

5. I would turn to you two for a gift, O wonder-workers, as the aged son of Tugra turned, with the bringing of a cow. The waters and the two realms follow your greatness; your worn axle is freed from distress, O adorable ones.

6. When you two, bounteous ones, yoke your team, you send forth abundance by your own powers. The patron speeds and enters like the wind; for greatness, like one of good observance, he takes the prize.

7. We indeed, your true praisers, sing out in wonder, though the miser stands entrenched against us. Yet you, blameless Aśvins, you two bulls, stand guard, close by the god.

8. You two indeed, O Aśvins, day after day, in the winning of the flowing stream free from harm — Agastya, praised among men, made himself known like a river, with thousands.

9. When you two drive forth with the might of your chariot, you go swift-flowing, like the hotṛ-priest of Manu. Grant to your patrons good horses as well; O Nāsatyas, may we be companions of wealth.

10. That chariot of yours we would invoke today with praise-songs, O Aśvins, ever new, for our well-being — its rim unbroken, circling round the sky. May we find refreshment, strength, and swift-giving bounty.

Translator's note: several verses (3, 4, 5, 7, 8) allude to old rescue-legends associated with the Aśvins — the sage Atri and the heated gharma-vessel, Bhujyu the son of Tugra saved at sea, and the sage Agastya — that this hymn names only in passing, assuming the hearer already knows the stories. The Sanskrit at these points (e.g. "hvāro na śucir," "virudrasya prasravaṇasya") is compressed and allusive; the English above renders it conservatively, word by word, rather than filling in the untold narrative.

Colophon

Rigveda I.180 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.180

yuvo rajāṁsi suyamāso aśvā ratho yad vām pary arṇāṁsi dīyat |
hiraṇyayā vām pavayaḥ pruṣāyan madhvaḥ pibantā uṣasaḥ sacethe || 1 ||

yuvam atyasyāva nakṣatho yad vipatmano naryasya prayajyoḥ |
svasā yad vāṁ viśvagūrtī bharāti vājāyeṭṭe madhupāv iṣe ca || 2 ||

yuvam paya usriyāyām adhattam pakvam āmāyām ava pūrvyaṁ goḥ |
antar yad vanino vām ṛtapsū hvāro na śucir yajate haviṣmān || 3 ||

yuvaṁ ha gharmam madhumantam atraye 'po na kṣodo 'vṛṇītam eṣe |
tad vāṁ narāv aśvinā paśvaïṣṭī rathyeva cakrā prati yanti madhvaḥ || 4 ||

ā vāṁ dānāya vavṛtīya dasrā gor oheṇa taugryo na jivriḥ |
apaḥ kṣoṇī sacate māhinā vāṁ jūrṇo vām akṣur aṁhaso yajatrā || 5 ||

ni yad yuvethe niyutaḥ sudānū upa svadhābhiḥ sṛjathaḥ puraṁdhim |
preṣad veṣad vāto na sūrir ā mahe dade suvrato na vājam || 6 ||

vayaṁ cid dhi vāṁ jaritāraḥ satyā vipanyāmahe vi paṇir hitāvān |
adhā cid dhi ṣmāśvināv anindyā pātho hi ṣmā vṛṣaṇāv antidevam || 7 ||

yuvāṁ cid dhi ṣmāśvināv anu dyūn virudrasya prasravaṇasya sātau |
agastyo narāṁ nṛṣu praśastaḥ kārādhunīva citayat sahasraiḥ || 8 ||

pra yad vahethe mahinā rathasya pra syandrā yātho manuṣo na hotā |
dhattaṁ sūribhya uta vā svaśvyaṁ nāsatyā rayiṣācaḥ syāma || 9 ||

taṁ vāṁ rathaṁ vayam adyā huvema stomair aśvinā suvitāya navyam |
ariṣṭanemim pari dyām iyānaṁ 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).