Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.52 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Indra, the storm-king and champion of the gods, slayer of Vṛtra, lord of thunder and rain. 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. Magnify well that ram — the finder of the sun — together with whose hundred mighty companions the singers move as one. Like a racehorse eager for the contest, may I turn Indra, swift as a chariot, toward us for help, with well-wrought songs of praise.
2. He, unshaken like a mountain in his foundations, with a thousand helps, grew mighty in his strength — when Indra slew Vṛtra, who held back the rivers, forcing open the pent-up floods, exulting in the soma-draught.
3. He is a door among doors, hidden in the udder of the cloud, shining at his base, grown strong in exhilaration through the wise. That Indra, most generous giver, I have called with a skillful prayer — for he is filled full with the draught.
4. Whom those seated on the sacred grass in heaven fill up, as their own mighty streams fill the ocean — him, in the slaying of Vṛtra, his helping-powers attended: unfaltering forces, unbending in form, following Indra.
5. Toward his own power of rain, while he fought in his exhilaration, his helping-powers flowed like swift streams down a slope — when Indra, the mace-bearer, emboldened by the soma-draught, split open the enclosures of Vala, as Trita did.
6. A glow moves about him, his might has flared up; having covered over the waters, he lay at the bottom of the airy realm — when, on the slope, hard to seize in his roaring, you, Indra, struck the thunder-roar out of the jaws of Vṛtra.
7. For, like waves into a lake, the sacred formulations — those that are your strengtheners, O Indra — pour into you. Even Tvaṣṭṛ increased for you the might that suits you; he fashioned the mace of overpowering force.
8. Having slain Vṛtra with your tawny steeds, O Indra of gathered resolve, opening a path for the waters for the sake of Manu, you held the iron mace in your two arms; you set the sun in heaven, to be seen.
9. When, out of fear, they made the great, sun-bright, mighty, praiseworthy climb of heaven — when the helping-powers, fighting mankind's battles, attended Indra, the Maruts, companions of men, rejoiced along with him toward the light.
10. Even heaven itself, mighty as it is, shrank back in fear from the serpent's roar and from your thunderbolt, O Indra — when, in the exhilaration of the pressed soma, you split with your might the head of Vṛtra, who was crushing down the two world-halves.
11. When indeed, O Indra, the earth of ten regions — when the peoples stretched out through all the days — then, O bounteous one, your far-famed strength reached, by its power and its force, all the way to heaven.
12. You, at the far edge of this realm, of the sky, self-existent in strength, bold of mind, made the earth, for our help, a match for your power; encompassing the waters and the sun, you go all the way to heaven.
13. You became the counterpart of the earth; you became lord of the lofty, great, towering one. You filled the whole mid-region with your greatness. Truly, in earnest — no other is like you.
14. Heaven and earth together do not match his vastness; not even the rivers have reached the end of his realm; nor have they reached the reach of his own rain-power when he fights in his exhilaration — alone, you have made all else, one thing after another.
15. There the Maruts sang out; in that battle all the gods rejoiced along with you, O Indra — when, with your barbed weapon, you struck Vṛtra down, blow after blow, face to face.
Translator's note: several phrases resist confident rendering and are kept close to the Sanskrit rather than smoothed over. Verse 1's "meṣa" (ram) is a genuine epithet applied to Indra here and is kept literal. Verse 3's "dvaro dvariṣu vavra ūdhani" ("a door among doors, hidden in the udder [of the cloud]") is an obscure cloud/gate image whose exact sense is uncertain. Verse 11's "daśabhujiḥ" ("of ten arms/regions," describing the earth) and verse 13's "ṛṣvavīrasya bṛhataḥ" ("of the lofty, great, towering one") are likewise rendered conservatively rather than resolved into a confident paraphrase.
Colophon
Rigveda I.52 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.52
tyaṁ su meṣam mahayā svarvidaṁ śataṁ yasya subhvaḥ sākam īrate |
atyaṁ na vājaṁ havanasyadaṁ ratham endraṁ vavṛtyām avase suvṛktibhiḥ || 1 ||
sa parvato na dharuṇeṣv acyutaḥ sahasramūtis taviṣīṣu vāvṛdhe |
indro yad vṛtram avadhīn nadīvṛtam ubjann arṇāṁsi jarhṛṣāṇo andhasā || 2 ||
sa hi dvaro dvariṣu vavra ūdhani candrabudhno madavṛddho manīṣibhiḥ |
indraṁ tam ahve svapasyayā dhiyā maṁhiṣṭharātiṁ sa hi paprir andhasaḥ || 3 ||
ā yam pṛṇanti divi sadmabarhiṣaḥ samudraṁ na subhva1ḥ svā abhiṣṭayaḥ |
taṁ vṛtrahatye anu tasthur ūtayaḥ śuṣmā indram avātā ahrutapsavaḥ || 4 ||
abhi svavṛṣṭim made asya yudhyato raghvīr iva pravaṇe sasrur ūtayaḥ |
indro yad vajrī dhṛṣamāṇo andhasā bhinad valasya paridhīm̐r iva tritaḥ || 5 ||
parīṁ ghṛṇā carati titviṣe śavo 'po vṛtvī rajaso budhnam āśayat |
vṛtrasya yat pravaṇe durgṛbhiśvano nijaghantha hanvor indra tanyatum || 6 ||
hradaṁ na hi tvā nyṛṣanty ūrmayo brahmāṇīndra tava yāni vardhanā |
tvaṣṭā cit te yujyaṁ vāvṛdhe śavas tatakṣa vajram abhibhūtyojasam || 7 ||
jaghanvām̐ u haribhiḥ sambhṛtakratav indra vṛtram manuṣe gātuyann apaḥ |
ayacchathā bāhvor vajram āyasam adhārayo divy ā sūryaṁ dṛśe || 8 ||
bṛhat svaścandram amavad yad ukthya1m akṛṇvata bhiyasā rohaṇaṁ divaḥ |
yan mānuṣapradhanā indram ūtayaḥ svar nṛṣāco maruto 'madann anu || 9 ||
dyauś cid asyāmavām̐ aheḥ svanād ayoyavīd bhiyasā vajra indra te |
vṛtrasya yad badbadhānasya rodasī made sutasya śavasābhinac chiraḥ || 10 ||
yad in nv indra pṛthivī daśabhujir ahāni viśvā tatananta kṛṣṭayaḥ |
atrāha te maghavan viśrutaṁ saho dyām anu śavasā barhaṇā bhuvat || 11 ||
tvam asya pāre rajaso vyomanaḥ svabhūtyojā avase dhṛṣanmanaḥ |
cakṛṣe bhūmim pratimānam ojaso 'paḥ svaḥ paribhūr eṣy ā divam || 12 ||
tvam bhuvaḥ pratimānam pṛthivyā ṛṣvavīrasya bṛhataḥ patir bhūḥ |
viśvam āprā antarikṣam mahitvā satyam addhā nakir anyas tvāvān || 13 ||
na yasya dyāvāpṛthivī anu vyaco na sindhavo rajaso antam ānaśuḥ |
nota svavṛṣṭim made asya yudhyata eko anyac cakṛṣe viśvam ānuṣak || 14 ||
ārcann atra marutaḥ sasminn ājau viśve devāso amadann anu tvā |
vṛtrasya yad bhṛṣṭimatā vadhena ni tvam indra praty ānaṁ jaghantha || 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).