Hymn to Pitu (Food)
Rigveda I.187 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Pitu, Food personified as a sustaining power strong enough to have aided Trita and Indra in their battles against the serpent Vṛtra. 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. Now I will praise Food, the great sustaining power, the mighty one — by whose strength Trita tore Vṛtra apart, limb from limb.
2. Sweet Food, honey-sweet Food, we have chosen you — be our helper.
3. Come to us, O Food, kindly one, with kindly aid — bringing joy, never to be shunned, a friend, most dear, without deceit.
4. Your saps, O Food, are spread through the regions of the air, resting in the sky like the winds.
5. Those gifts of yours, O Food — your sweetest gifts, O Food — the sweet essences of your saps go forth, surging like strong-necked bulls.
6. On you, O Food, the mind of the great gods is set. A beautiful hymn was fashioned with insight — by your help he struck down the serpent.
7. When you have come, O Food, from yonder, gleaming forth from the mountains — even here, O honey-sweet Food, may you come duly for our eating.
8. When we partake of our share of the waters and the plants — O Vātāpi, be truly full.
9. When we partake, O Soma, of you mixed with milk, mixed with barley — O Vātāpi, be truly full.
10. O porridge, O plant, be rich and full, kidney-shaped, swelling like a raised chariot-seat — O Vātāpi, be truly full.
11. That is you, O Food, whom we have called forth with words, like cows summoned to be milked — you the shared feast for the gods, you the shared feast for us.
Translator's note: "Vātāpi" (verses 8–10) is a vocative name meaning roughly "swollen with wind/breath," addressed here to the food or its digestive power itself, not to the later epic demon of the same name; the rendering "be truly full" keeps this literal sense. The compound "udārathiḥ" in verse 10, describing the porridge, is obscure — rendered conservatively as "swelling like a raised chariot-seat."
Colophon
Rigveda I.187 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.187
pituṁ nu stoṣam maho dharmāṇaṁ taviṣīm |
yasya trito vy ojasā vṛtraṁ viparvam ardayat || 1 ||
svādo pito madho pito vayaṁ tvā vavṛmahe |
asmākam avitā bhava || 2 ||
upa naḥ pitav ā cara śivaḥ śivābhir ūtibhiḥ |
mayobhur adviṣeṇyaḥ sakhā suśevo advayāḥ || 3 ||
tava tye pito rasā rajāṁsy anu viṣṭhitāḥ |
divi vātā iva śritāḥ || 4 ||
tava tye pito dadatas tava svādiṣṭha te pito |
pra svādmāno rasānāṁ tuvigrīvā iverate || 5 ||
tve pito mahānāṁ devānām mano hitam |
akāri cāru ketunā tavāhim avasāvadhīt || 6 ||
yad ado pito ajagan vivasva parvatānām |
atrā cin no madho pito 'ram bhakṣāya gamyāḥ || 7 ||
yad apām oṣadhīnām pariṁśam āriśāmahe |
vātāpe pīva id bhava || 8 ||
yat te soma gavāśiro yavāśiro bhajāmahe |
vātāpe pīva id bhava || 9 ||
karambha oṣadhe bhava pīvo vṛkka udārathiḥ |
vātāpe pīva id bhava || 10 ||
taṁ tvā vayam pito vacobhir gāvo na havyā suṣūdima |
devebhyas tvā sadhamādam asmabhyaṁ tvā sadhamādam || 11 ||
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).