Hymn to the Aśvins
Rigveda I.47 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the Aśvins, the twin divine horsemen, healers of the gods and bringers of dawn. 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. This sweetest soma has been pressed for you two, strengtheners of cosmic order. Drink it, Aśvins — the soma kept since yesterday — and give treasures to the one who has offered it.
2. Come, Aśvins, with your three-seated, threefold, beautifully-fashioned chariot. The Kaṇvas are shaping sacred words for you at this rite; listen well to their call.
3. Aśvins, strengtheners of cosmic order, drink the sweetest soma. Then today, wondrous ones, bearing wealth in your chariot, come to the one who has given the offering.
4. On the barhis grass with its three resting-places, you who hold all wealth, moisten the sacrifice with the sweet drink. The Kaṇvas, soma pressed and ready, reaching toward heaven, call on you two, Aśvins.
5. With whatever aid you gave Kaṇva, Aśvins, with that same aid help us well, lords of splendor. Drink the soma, strengtheners of cosmic order.
6. For Sudās, wondrous ones, bearing wealth in your chariot, bring us abundance, Aśvins. Set upon us riches greatly desired, whether from the ocean or from the sky.
7. Whether you are far away, Nāsatyas, or whether you are among the Turvaśa people, come from there to us with your well-turning chariot, together with the rays of the sun.
8. Let your steeds, glory of the rite, bring you here to the pressing. Mixing refreshment for the one who has done well, bounteous ones, sit down on the barhis, you two men.
9. Come, Nāsatyas, with that chariot bright as the sun's own skin, the chariot with which you have always carried wealth to the one who gives, to drink the sweet soma.
10. With hymns we call you here for help, you of abundant wealth, and with chants — always, at the beloved seat of the Kaṇvas — for you have indeed drunk the soma, Aśvins.
Translator's note: "tiroahnyaṁ" (v.1) is rendered "kept since yesterday," following its literal sense of soma set aside overnight before use. "Nāsatyas" (vv.7, 9) is a standing epithet of the Aśvins, kept untranslated as a proper name rather than rendered by its disputed etymology.
Colophon
Rigveda I.47 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.47
ayaṁ vām madhumattamaḥ sutaḥ soma ṛtāvṛdhā |
tam aśvinā pibataṁ tiroahnyaṁ dhattaṁ ratnāni dāśuṣe || 1 ||
trivandhureṇa trivṛtā supeśasā rathenā yātam aśvinā |
kaṇvāso vām brahma kṛṇvanty adhvare teṣāṁ su śṛṇutaṁ havam || 2 ||
aśvinā madhumattamam pātaṁ somam ṛtāvṛdhā |
athādya dasrā vasu bibhratā rathe dāśvāṁsam upa gacchatam || 3 ||
triṣadhasthe barhiṣi viśvavedasā madhvā yajñam mimikṣatam |
kaṇvāso vāṁ sutasomā abhidyavo yuvāṁ havante aśvinā || 4 ||
yābhiḥ kaṇvam abhiṣṭibhiḥ prāvataṁ yuvam aśvinā |
tābhiḥ ṣv a1smām̐ avataṁ śubhas patī pātaṁ somam ṛtāvṛdhā || 5 ||
sudāse dasrā vasu bibhratā rathe pṛkṣo vahatam aśvinā |
rayiṁ samudrād uta vā divas pary asme dhattam puruspṛham || 6 ||
yan nāsatyā parāvati yad vā stho adhi turvaśe |
ato rathena suvṛtā na ā gataṁ sākaṁ sūryasya raśmibhiḥ || 7 ||
arvāñcā vāṁ saptayo 'dhvaraśriyo vahantu savaned upa |
iṣam pṛñcantā sukṛte sudānava ā barhiḥ sīdataṁ narā || 8 ||
tena nāsatyā gataṁ rathena sūryatvacā |
yena śaśvad ūhathur dāśuṣe vasu madhvaḥ somasya pītaye || 9 ||
ukthebhir arvāg avase purūvasū arkaiś ca ni hvayāmahe |
śaśvat kaṇvānāṁ sadasi priye hi kaṁ somam papathur aśvinā || 10 ||
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).