The Slaying of Vṛtra
Rigveda I.32 is the great narrative hymn of Indra's combat with Vṛtra, the serpent who had penned up the waters of the world. In fifteen triṣṭubh verses the thunderbolt is forged, the serpent is broken "like a no-fighter in bad intoxication," his mother Dānu falls over him, the seven rivers pour free — and then, in the hymn's strangest turn, the poet asks the victor why fear entered his heart. It is the central telling of the central myth of the Rigveda.
The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Now let me proclaim the heroic deeds of Indra, the first ones that the wielder of the thunderbolt did: he slew the serpent, then bored a channel for the waters; he split open the bellies of the mountains.
2. He slew the serpent lying upon the mountain — for him Tvaṣṭṛ had fashioned the roaring thunderbolt. Like lowing cows streaming homeward, the waters ran straight down to the sea.
3. Acting the bull, he chose the Soma for himself; at the Trikadruka rites he drank of the pressed juice. The bounteous one took up his missile, the thunderbolt, and slew him — the firstborn of serpents.
4. When, Indra, you slew the firstborn of serpents and outwitted then the wiles of the wily, bringing forth the sun, the sky, the dawn — from that moment you have found no enemy at all.
5. Indra slew Vṛtra, the obstructer beyond all obstructers, the shoulderless one, with the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon. Like tree-trunks split apart by the axe, the serpent lies flat against the earth.
6. For like a no-fighter in bad intoxication he had challenged the great hero, the hard-pressing drinker of the pressed dregs. He did not survive the clash of his weapons: the one whose foe was Indra was shattered and utterly crushed.
7. Footless and handless, still he gave Indra battle. Indra struck the bolt down upon his back. A steer straining to be the match of the bull, Vṛtra lay scattered in many pieces.
8. As he lies there like a broken reed, the waters rise and flow over him at their pleasure. The very waters that Vṛtra had once surrounded by his greatness — at their feet the serpent now lies.
9. The vital force of Vṛtra's mother ebbed away; Indra had brought his weapon down upon her. The mother lay above, the son beneath: Dānu lies like a cow beside her calf.
10. In the midst of the watercourses that never stand still and never rest, his body is laid away. The waters flow across Vṛtra's hidden place; the one whose foe was Indra sank into long darkness.
11. Penned in, the waters had stood — wives of the Dāsa, the serpent their keeper — like the cows penned in by the Paṇi. Having slain Vṛtra, he threw open the outlet of the waters that had been sealed.
12. You became a single horse's tail-hair, Indra, when he lashed back at you — you, the one god. You won the cows, hero; you won the Soma; you set the seven rivers free to flow.
13. Neither lightning nor thunder availed him, nor the mist and the hail he scattered. When Indra and the serpent fought, the bounteous one conquered — for all time to come.
14. Whom did you see, Indra, as avenger of the serpent, that fear came into your heart after you had slain him — that you crossed the nine-and-ninety streams like a frightened falcon crossing the spaces?
15. Indra, thunderbolt in his arm, is king of what moves and what rests, of the tame beast and the horned. He alone rules as king of the peoples; as the rim encircles the spokes, he encompasses them all.
Translator's note: In verse 6, ayoddheva durmada — "like a no-fighter in bad intoxication" — mocks Vṛtra as one who challenged a warrior while unable to fight; ṛjīṣam, "drinker of the pressed dregs," is a standing epithet of Indra whose exact sense is debated. In verse 12, "a single horse's tail-hair" (aśvyo vāraḥ) is the hymn's own startling image for the god's escape or self-diminution under the counterblow — the verse is a famous crux, translated literally here rather than smoothed away. Verse 14's unanswered question is in the text itself.
Colophon
Rigveda I.32 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.32
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
indrasya nu vīryāṇi pra vocaṁ yāni cakāra prathamāni vajrī |
ahann ahim anv apas tatarda pra vakṣaṇā abhinat parvatānām || 1 ||
ahann ahim parvate śiśriyāṇaṁ tvaṣṭāsmai vajraṁ svaryaṁ tatakṣa |
vāśrā iva dhenavaḥ syandamānā añjaḥ samudram ava jagmur āpaḥ || 2 ||
vṛṣāyamāṇo 'vṛṇīta somaṁ trikadrukeṣv apibat sutasya |
ā sāyakam maghavādatta vajram ahann enam prathamajām ahīnām || 3 ||
yad indrāhan prathamajām ahīnām ān māyinām amināḥ prota māyāḥ |
āt sūryaṁ janayan dyām uṣāsaṁ tādītnā śatruṁ na kilā vivitse || 4 ||
ahan vṛtraṁ vṛtrataraṁ vyaṁsam indro vajreṇa mahatā vadhena |
skandhāṁsīva kuliśenā vivṛkṇāhiḥ śayata upapṛk pṛthivyāḥ || 5 ||
ayoddheva durmada ā hi juhve mahāvīraṁ tuvibādham ṛjīṣam |
nātārīd asya samṛtiṁ vadhānāṁ saṁ rujānāḥ pipiṣa indraśatruḥ || 6 ||
apād ahasto apṛtanyad indram āsya vajram adhi sānau jaghāna |
vṛṣṇo vadhriḥ pratimānam bubhūṣan purutrā vṛtro aśayad vyastaḥ || 7 ||
nadaṁ na bhinnam amuyā śayānam mano ruhāṇā ati yanty āpaḥ |
yāś cid vṛtro mahinā paryatiṣṭhat tāsām ahiḥ patsutaḥśīr babhūva || 8 ||
nīcāvayā abhavad vṛtraputrendro asyā ava vadhar jabhāra |
uttarā sūr adharaḥ putra āsīd dānuḥ śaye sahavatsā na dhenuḥ || 9 ||
atiṣṭhantīnām aniveśanānāṁ kāṣṭhānām madhye nihitaṁ śarīram |
vṛtrasya niṇyaṁ vi caranty āpo dīrghaṁ tama āśayad indraśatruḥ || 10 ||
dāsapatnīr ahigopā atiṣṭhan niruddhā āpaḥ paṇineva gāvaḥ |
apām bilam apihitaṁ yad āsīd vṛtraṁ jaghanvām̐ apa tad vavāra || 11 ||
aśvyo vāro abhavas tad indra sṛke yat tvā pratyahan deva ekaḥ |
ajayo gā ajayaḥ śūra somam avāsṛjaḥ sartave sapta sindhūn || 12 ||
nāsmai vidyun na tanyatuḥ siṣedha na yām miham akirad dhrāduniṁ ca |
indraś ca yad yuyudhāte ahiś cotāparībhyo maghavā vi jigye || 13 ||
aher yātāraṁ kam apaśya indra hṛdi yat te jaghnuṣo bhīr agacchat |
nava ca yan navatiṁ ca sravantīḥ śyeno na bhīto ataro rajāṁsi || 14 ||
indro yāto 'vasitasya rājā śamasya ca śṛṅgiṇo vajrabāhuḥ |
sed u rājā kṣayati carṣaṇīnām arān na nemiḥ pari tā babhūva || 15 ||
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).