Hymn to Indra, the Aśvins, and Dawn
Rigveda I.30 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) that moves across three addressees in turn: Indra, the storm-king and drinker of soma, receives the first sixteen verses; the twin horsemen-gods the Aśvins receive three; and Uṣas, goddess of the Dawn, receives the closing three. 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. Pour out Indra for yourselves with drops of soma, as Krivi once did, urging on the hundred-powered, most bounteous one.
2. He who drinks a hundred of the pure soma-draughts, or a thousand of the milk-mixed ones — he streams on unchecked, like water into a hollow.
3. When, for his exhilaration, the impetuous one is filled with this soma in his belly, he holds room within him like the ocean.
4. This song comes to you as a dove comes to its nest — yet that word of ours, it seems, you do not heed.
5. O lord of bounties, hero borne up by our songs — may the abundance that is yours prove true and generous.
6. Stand upright for our help in this contest, O hundred-powered one; let the two of us speak out together against all rivals.
7. In every venture, in every contest, we call — as friends — on Indra the mightier, for his help.
8. He will surely come, if he hears, with his thousandfold aids, with his rewards, to our call.
9. As from an ancient dwelling, I call the far-renowned hero — the one your father called before.
10. You, all-bountiful one, we entreat, O much-invoked; O friend, O good one — favor your singers.
11. Be the friend of us who wear the war-helmet, of us soma-offerers, O soma-drinker; O friend, O wielder of the thunderbolt, be the friend of your friends.
12. So let it be, soma-drinker; so act, O friend, wielder of the thunderbolt, as we desire it for our success.
13. May there be for us, at the shared feast with Indra, rich rewards, full of strength and food, by which we may rejoice.
14. One like you, reached in person, O bold one, sought after by the singers — you set the axle turning, as of two wheels.
15. When you grant your favor, O hundred-powered one, and the desire of the singers, you set the axle moving, as it were, by your own mighty powers.
16. Indra has ever won his riches with horses snorting, neighing, panting hard; he of wondrous power — give us the golden chariot; he the winner, for our winning, he has given it to us.
17. O Aśvins, come with your team of horses, with mighty strength, O wondrous ones, bringing wealth of cattle and of gold.
18. For your chariot, equally yoked, O wondrous immortal pair, moves across the sea, O Aśvins.
19. You have set one wheel of your chariot on the head of the unslayable one; the other travels around the sky.
20. Who is dear to you, O Dawn — what mortal, for his enjoyment, O immortal one? Whom do you approach, O radiant one?
21. For we have thought of you, from near and from far, O bright red one — like a radiant mare.
22. Come, O daughter of Heaven, with those your gifts; bestow riches upon us.
Translator's note: Verse 4 (kapota iva garbhadhim, "vacas tac cin na ohase") is grammatically compressed and its exact sense is debated; the rendering here keeps the dove/nest image and the sense that the singer's word goes unheeded. Verse 19's "aghnyasya" ("of the unslayable one") is an epithet elsewhere applied to the cow; here, describing the head on which a chariot-wheel rests, its precise referent is uncertain, and the word is rendered literally rather than resolved.
Colophon
Rigveda I.30 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.30
ā va indraṁ kriviṁ yathā vājayantaḥ śatakratum |
maṁhiṣṭhaṁ siñca indubhiḥ || 1 ||
śataṁ vā yaḥ śucīnāṁ sahasraṁ vā samāśirām |
ed u nimnaṁ na rīyate || 2 ||
saṁ yan madāya śuṣmiṇa enā hy asyodare |
samudro na vyaco dadhe || 3 ||
ayam u te sam atasi kapota iva garbhadhim |
vacas tac cin na ohase || 4 ||
stotraṁ rādhānām pate girvāho vīra yasya te |
vibhūtir astu sūnṛtā || 5 ||
ūrdhvas tiṣṭhā na ūtaye 'smin vāje śatakrato |
sam anyeṣu bravāvahai || 6 ||
yoge-yoge tavastaraṁ vāje-vāje havāmahe |
sakhāya indram ūtaye || 7 ||
ā ghā gamad yadi śravat sahasriṇībhir ūtibhiḥ |
vājebhir upa no havam || 8 ||
anu pratnasyaukaso huve tuvipratiṁ naram |
yaṁ te pūrvam pitā huve || 9 ||
taṁ tvā vayaṁ viśvavārā śāsmahe puruhūta |
sakhe vaso jaritṛbhyaḥ || 10 ||
asmākaṁ śipriṇīnāṁ somapāḥ somapāvnām |
sakhe vajrin sakhīnām || 11 ||
tathā tad astu somapāḥ sakhe vajrin tathā kṛṇu |
yathā ta uśmasīṣṭaye || 12 ||
revatīr naḥ sadhamāda indre santu tuvivājāḥ |
kṣumanto yābhir madema || 13 ||
ā gha tvāvān tmanāptaḥ stotṛbhyo dhṛṣṇav iyānaḥ |
ṛṇor akṣaṁ na cakryoḥ || 14 ||
ā yad duvaḥ śatakratav ā kāmaṁ jaritṝṇām |
ṛṇor akṣaṁ na śacībhiḥ || 15 ||
śaśvad indraḥ popruthadbhir jigāya nānadadbhiḥ śāśvasadbhir dhanāni |
sa no hiraṇyarathaṁ daṁsanāvān sa naḥ sanitā sanaye sa no 'dāt || 16 ||
āśvināv aśvāvatyeṣā yātaṁ śavīrayā |
gomad dasrā hiraṇyavat || 17 ||
samānayojano hi vāṁ ratho dasrāv amartyaḥ |
samudre aśvineyate || 18 ||
ny a1ghnyasya mūrdhani cakraṁ rathasya yemathuḥ |
pari dyām anyad īyate || 19 ||
kas ta uṣaḥ kadhapriye bhuje marto amartye |
kaṁ nakṣase vibhāvari || 20 ||
vayaṁ hi te amanmahy āntād ā parākāt |
aśve na citre aruṣi || 21 ||
tvaṁ tyebhir ā gahi vājebhir duhitar divaḥ |
asme rayiṁ ni dhāraya || 22 ||
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).