Hymn to Vāyu, Indra-Vāyu, and Mitra-Varuṇa
Rigveda I.2 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) in three movements: the first three verses call Vāyu, god of wind, alone; the next three call Indra and Vāyu together; the last three call Mitra and Varuṇa, the twin guardians of truth and cosmic order (ṛta). 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. Vāyu, come — you beautiful one. These soma drinks are made ready. Drink of them; hear our call.
2. O Vāyu, with hymns the singers praise you — those who have pressed the soma, who know the (right) days for the rite.
3. Vāyu, your voice, richly flowing and wide-reaching, goes out to the one who has made offering, for the drinking of soma.
4. Indra and Vāyu, these soma-drops are pressed — come here with our offerings. The drops long for you.
5. Vāyu and Indra, you two mark the pressed drinks, you two rich in strength. Come quickly here.
6. Vāyu and Indra, come to the presser, to the appointed place — swiftly, thus, with mind attentive, you two leaders.
7. I call upon Mitra, pure in strength, and Varuṇa, destroyer of foes — the two who bring to fulfillment the prayer rich as ghee.
8. Through the (cosmic) order, Mitra and Varuṇa, who strengthen order and hold fast to order, you two have attained a vast power.
9. Mitra and Varuṇa, wise seers, born of great might, dwelling far and wide — grant us the strength for our work.
Translator's note: a few terms resist a single confident English equivalent and are rendered conservatively — "darśata" (v.1, "beautiful/visible one," an epithet of Vāyu); "dhenā" (v.3, here "voice," literally a milk-stream/yielding stream, used of speech or inspiration); "vājinīvasū" (v.5, "rich in strength," a dual epithet); "riśādasam" (v.7, "destroyer of foes," of uncertain root); and "kratum bṛhantam" (v.8, "a vast power," which can also mean "a vast insight" or "a vast resolve").
Colophon
Rigveda I.2 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.2
vāyav ā yāhi darśateme somā araṁkṛtāḥ |
teṣām pāhi śrudhī havam || 1 ||
vāya ukthebhir jarante tvām acchā jaritāraḥ |
sutasomā aharvidaḥ || 2 ||
vāyo tava prapṛñcatī dhenā jigāti dāśuṣe |
urūcī somapītaye || 3 ||
indravāyū ime sutā upa prayobhir ā gatam |
indavo vām uśanti hi || 4 ||
vāyav indraś ca cetathaḥ sutānāṁ vājinīvasū |
tāv ā yātam upa dravat || 5 ||
vāyav indraś ca sunvata ā yātam upa niṣkṛtam |
makṣv i1tthā dhiyā narā || 6 ||
mitraṁ huve pūtadakṣaṁ varuṇaṁ ca riśādasam |
dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīṁ sādhantā || 7 ||
ṛtena mitrāvaruṇāv ṛtāvṛdhāv ṛtaspṛśā |
kratum bṛhantam āśāthe || 8 ||
kavī no mitrāvaruṇā tuvijātā urukṣayā |
dakṣaṁ dadhāte apasam || 9 ||
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).