Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda I.49 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Uṣas, the goddess of dawn, bringer of light, daughter of heaven, mother of mornings. 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. Uṣas, come with your blessings, down from the luminous realm of heaven itself. Let your ruddy steeds carry you near, to the house of the soma-presser.
2. With that beautifully wrought, smooth-riding chariot which you, Uṣas, have mounted — with it, daughter of heaven, carry the people of good renown forward, today.
3. Even the winged birds are yours; the two-footed and the four-footed creatures have stirred, O bright Uṣas, each in its own season, from the ends of the sky, on every side.
4. For dawning with your rays you light up the whole shining world. You, O Uṣas — the Kaṇvas, longing for good things, have called upon you with their songs.
Translator's note: verse 1's "bhadrebhiḥ" (instrumental plural, "with auspicious ones") is left as "blessings" — it could equally point to her auspicious rays or attendants rather than gifts she carries. Verse 3's "arjuni" (a rare vocative epithet meaning roughly "bright, white one") is rendered simply as "bright." Verse 4's Kaṇvas are a clan of seers associated with this hymn-family; "vasūyavaḥ" ("desiring goods/wealth") is rendered "longing for good things."
Colophon
Rigveda I.49 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.49
uṣo bhadrebhir ā gahi divaś cid rocanād adhi |
vahantv aruṇapsava upa tvā somino gṛham || 1 ||
supeśasaṁ sukhaṁ rathaṁ yam adhyasthā uṣas tvam |
tenā suśravasaṁ janam prāvādya duhitar divaḥ || 2 ||
vayaś cit te patatriṇo dvipac catuṣpad arjuni |
uṣaḥ prārann ṛtūm̐r anu divo antebhyas pari || 3 ||
vyucchantī hi raśmibhir viśvam ābhāsi rocanam |
tāṁ tvām uṣar vasūyavo gīrbhiḥ kaṇvā ahūṣata || 4 ||
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).