Hymn to Sūrya
Rigveda I.50 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Sūrya, the sun-god, the all-seeing eye of heaven, rider of the celestial chariot. 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. Up, the rays carry that god Jātavedas — Sūrya — for all the world to see.
2. Like thieves, the stars steal away with the nights before Sūrya, the all-seeing one.
3. His rays have been seen, his beams spreading out among the people, shining like fires.
4. You are swift, visible to all, the maker of light — you are this, O Sūrya. You shine upon the whole luminous realm.
5. Facing the clans of the gods, facing toward men, you rise up; facing everything, so that heaven's light may be seen.
6. With that eye, O purifying one, you, Varuṇa, watch over the restless man among the people.
7. You cross the sky, the wide space, measuring out the days with the nights, watching over the creatures, O Sūrya.
8. Seven tawny mares carry you on your chariot, O god Sūrya, flame-haired, far-seeing one.
9. He has yoked the seven bright daughters of Sūrya's chariot; with them, self-yoked, he travels.
10. Up out of the darkness, seeing the higher light, we have come to the god Sūrya among the gods, the highest light.
11. Rising today, O you as great as Mitra, climbing the higher heaven — destroy, O Sūrya, my heart's ailment and my jaundice.
12. In the parrots we place my yellowness, and in the ropaṇākā birds; and in the yellow haridrava birds too we place my yellowness.
13. This son of Aditi has risen with all his might, delivering the one who hates me into my hands; may I not be delivered into the hands of the one who hates me.
Translator's note: Verse 6 addresses Sūrya as "Varuṇa" — an ancient identification of the sun as Varuṇa's watching eye, kept literally rather than smoothed over. Verses 11–13 shift from cosmic praise to a personal charm against jaundice (harimāṇa); śuka, ropaṇākā, and hāridrava (v. 12) are names of yellow-plumed birds — parrot, an unidentified bird, and oriole/yellow-bird — to which the sickness's yellow color is ritually transferred. These bird names are rendered as transliterated proper terms rather than guessed at further, since their exact species are uncertain.
Colophon
Rigveda I.50 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.50
ud u tyaṁ jātavedasaṁ devaṁ vahanti ketavaḥ |
dṛśe viśvāya sūryam || 1 ||
apa tye tāyavo yathā nakṣatrā yanty aktubhiḥ |
sūrāya viśvacakṣase || 2 ||
adṛśram asya ketavo vi raśmayo janām̐ anu |
bhrājanto agnayo yathā || 3 ||
taraṇir viśvadarśato jyotiṣkṛd asi sūrya |
viśvam ā bhāsi rocanam || 4 ||
pratyaṅ devānāṁ viśaḥ pratyaṅṅ ud eṣi mānuṣān |
pratyaṅ viśvaṁ svar dṛśe || 5 ||
yenā pāvaka cakṣasā bhuraṇyantaṁ janām̐ anu |
tvaṁ varuṇa paśyasi || 6 ||
vi dyām eṣi rajas pṛthv ahā mimāno aktubhiḥ |
paśyañ janmāni sūrya || 7 ||
sapta tvā harito rathe vahanti deva sūrya |
śociṣkeśaṁ vicakṣaṇa || 8 ||
ayukta sapta śundhyuvaḥ sūro rathasya naptyaḥ |
tābhir yāti svayuktibhiḥ || 9 ||
ud vayaṁ tamasas pari jyotiṣ paśyanta uttaram |
devaṁ devatrā sūryam aganma jyotir uttamam || 10 ||
udyann adya mitramaha ārohann uttarāṁ divam |
hṛdrogam mama sūrya harimāṇaṁ ca nāśaya || 11 ||
śukeṣu me harimāṇaṁ ropaṇākāsu dadhmasi |
atho hāridraveṣu me harimāṇaṁ ni dadhmasi || 12 ||
ud agād ayam ādityo viśvena sahasā saha |
dviṣantam mahyaṁ randhayan mo ahaṁ dviṣate radham || 13 ||
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).