Hymn to Bṛhaspati
Rigveda I.190 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Bṛhaspati, lord of sacred speech and divine knowledge, priest of the gods. 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. Exalt with songs, ever anew, the unrivaled bull, sweet-tongued Bṛhaspati — whose radiant hymns the shining gods, and mortals too, listen to as he is being praised.
2. Timely words attend upon him, who was sent forth like a rushing stream of those devoted to the gods. Bṛhaspati indeed, straightaway, filled the wide spaces — he became far-reaching together with truth, like Mātariśvan.
3. May he extend forth praise and the uplifting of homage, and the resounding call, as Savitṛ stretches out his two arms — he who by his own power is, day by day, fearsome as a wild beast, free of guile, and mighty.
4. His fame travels in heaven and on earth; the wise one, bearer of wonders, holds it firm like a racehorse held in check. And these powers go forth like hunters' weapons against beasts, day after day, against the serpent-wiles of his foes.
5. Those wicked ones, the Pajras, who think of you, god, as a trifling thing — they live off your bounty all the same. You do not grant your favor to the malicious; O Bṛhaspati, you take note of, and punish, the scorner.
6. Like an easy path through good pasture, like a beloved friend to one hard to guide — the unrivaled powers that watch over us have stood forth, uncovering what was concealed.
7. To him the songs of praise converge like streams, like the eddying banks of rivers flowing to the sea. He, knowing, perceives both realms within — Bṛhaspati, swift, and eager as the waters.
8. Thus the great, mighty-born, powerful Bṛhaspati, the bull, has been established as god. Praised by us, may he grant us wealth rich in sons and cattle; may we know his nourishment, his strength, his swift-given bounty.
Translator's note: verses 2, 4, and 5 contain compressed, disputed Vedic phrasing (e.g. añjo varāṁsi, ahimāyāḥ, devosrikam) where the syntax is genuinely compact and the referents are not fully recoverable from the verse alone. The renderings above follow the most literal sense of the Sanskrit words and grammar; readers consulting other translations may find different resolutions of these lines.
Colophon
Rigveda I.190 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.190
anarvāṇaṁ vṛṣabham mandrajihvam bṛhaspatiṁ vardhayā navyam arkaiḥ |
gāthānyaḥ suruco yasya devā āśṛṇvanti navamānasya martāḥ || 1 ||
tam ṛtviyā upa vācaḥ sacante sargo na yo devayatām asarji |
bṛhaspatiḥ sa hy añjo varāṁsi vibhvābhavat sam ṛte mātariśvā || 2 ||
upastutiṁ namasa udyatiṁ ca ślokaṁ yaṁsat saviteva pra bāhū |
asya kratvāhanyo3 yo asti mṛgo na bhīmo arakṣasas tuviṣmān || 3 ||
asya śloko divīyate pṛthivyām atyo na yaṁsad yakṣabhṛd vicetāḥ |
mṛgāṇāṁ na hetayo yanti cemā bṛhaspater ahimāyām̐ abhi dyūn || 4 ||
ye tvā devosrikam manyamānāḥ pāpā bhadram upajīvanti pajrāḥ |
na dūḍhye3 anu dadāsi vāmam bṛhaspate cayasa it piyārum || 5 ||
supraituḥ sūyavaso na panthā durniyantuḥ pariprīto na mitraḥ |
anarvāṇo abhi ye cakṣate no 'pīvṛtā aporṇuvanto asthuḥ || 6 ||
saṁ yaṁ stubho 'vanayo na yanti samudraṁ na sravato rodhacakrāḥ |
sa vidvām̐ ubhayaṁ caṣṭe antar bṛhaspatis tara āpaś ca gṛdhraḥ || 7 ||
evā mahas tuvijātas tuviṣmān bṛhaspatir vṛṣabho dhāyi devaḥ |
sa naḥ stuto vīravad dhātu gomad vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 8 ||
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).