Hymn to the Aśvins
Rigveda I.183 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. Yoke that chariot which is swifter than thought, three-seated, O mighty ones, three-wheeled, by which you approach the house of the pious man; with its three parts you fly like a bird with its wings.
2. The easy-rolling chariot turns as it goes over the earth, when you two, wise ones, mount it for strength. Let this wondrous song accompany your wondrous form; you two are joined with Uṣas, the daughter of heaven.
3. Mount your easy-rolling chariot, which turns according to its own ordinances, laden with the oblation; by which, O men, O Nāsatyas, you make your circuit to bring vigor, for offspring and for yourselves.
4. Let no wolf, no she-wolf, assail you. Do not pass us by, do not overshoot us. This portion is laid out for you, this song too; O wondrous ones, here are your stores of sweetness.
5. Gotama, Purumīḷha, and Atri call you, O wondrous ones, for help, with oblation. Like one going straight toward a direction shown to him, come, O Nāsatyas, to my call.
6. We have crossed to the far shore of this darkness; a hymn of praise has been set toward you two, O Aśvins. Come here by the paths the gods travel; may we find nourishment, strength, and swift bounty.
Translator's note: "vṛjanam" in verse 6 is rendered conservatively as "strength" — the word can also denote an enclosure or a band of people, and the sense here is genuinely uncertain. "jīradānum," likewise translated conservatively as "swift bounty," is an epithet meaning something close to "quick to give."
Colophon
Rigveda I.183 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.183
taṁ yuñjāthām manaso yo javīyān trivandhuro vṛṣaṇā yas tricakraḥ |
yenopayāthaḥ sukṛto duroṇaṁ tridhātunā patatho vir na parṇaiḥ || 1 ||
suvṛd ratho vartate yann abhi kṣāṁ yat tiṣṭhathaḥ kratumantānu pṛkṣe |
vapur vapuṣyā sacatām iyaṁ gīr divo duhitroṣasā sacethe || 2 ||
ā tiṣṭhataṁ suvṛtaṁ yo ratho vām anu vratāni vartate haviṣmān |
yena narā nāsatyeṣayadhyai vartir yāthas tanayāya tmane ca || 3 ||
mā vāṁ vṛko mā vṛkīr ā dadharṣīn mā pari varktam uta māti dhaktam |
ayaṁ vām bhāgo nihita iyaṁ gīr dasrāv ime vāṁ nidhayo madhūnām || 4 ||
yuvāṁ gotamaḥ purumīḻho atrir dasrā havate 'vase haviṣmān |
diśaṁ na diṣṭām ṛjūyeva yantā me havaṁ nāsatyopa yātam || 5 ||
atāriṣma tamasas pāram asya prati vāṁ stomo aśvināv adhāyi |
eha yātam pathibhir devayānair 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).