Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.6 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Indra, storm-king and champion of the gods. It describes the yoking of Indra's tawny horses for his chariot, his companionship with the Maruts, and his breaking open of hidden strongholds to release the "ruddy cows" — the Vala myth, in which Indra frees light or cattle held captive in a cave. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The traditional Anukramaṇī attributes this hymn to the seer Madhuchandas Vaiśvāmitra.
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. They yoke the ruddy tawny one as it moves among those standing still; the luminous realms shine in heaven.
2. They yoke his desired bay horses to the chariot, flank to flank — the ruddy, bold pair that carries heroes.
3. Making a banner for the bannerless, an ornament for the unornamented, O young ones — you were born together with the dawns.
4. Then indeed, following their own nature, they went again into the state of the unborn, bearing a name worthy of sacrifice.
5. Even the firm strongholds you broke open with your breakers, even the hidden ones, O Indra, with your bearers — and so you found the ruddy cows.
6. As the god-seeking ones send their thought toward the finder of goods, so they have raised their voices to the great, famous one.
7. For you are seen together with Indra, having joined with the fearless one — the two of you joyful, equal in splendor.
8. With his blameless, heaven-reaching troop the mighty one sings out with force, with Indra's own desired companies.
9. From here, O far-ranging one, come — or from the luminous realm of heaven above; the songs are gathered together toward this rite.
10. From here we beg for the gift, or from heaven, or from the earthly realm above, or from the great mid-air — we beg it of Indra.
Translator's note: Several verses (3, 4, 6, 7, 9) are grammatically compressed and address shifting subjects — Indra, the Maruts, and the singers — without naming them explicitly, as is typical of this hymn's style; the referents above follow the verbs' number and person as closely as the Sanskrit allows. "Ruddy cows" (usriyāḥ, v. 5) may denote literal cattle or, as commonly in the Vala myth, the dawn-light released from a cave; both senses are carried by the same word and the translation preserves that ambiguity rather than resolving it.
Colophon
Rigveda I.6 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.6
yuñjanti bradhnam aruṣaṁ carantam pari tasthuṣaḥ |
rocante rocanā divi || 1 ||
yuñjanty asya kāmyā harī vipakṣasā rathe |
śoṇā dhṛṣṇū nṛvāhasā || 2 ||
ketuṁ kṛṇvann aketave peśo maryā apeśase |
sam uṣadbhir ajāyathāḥ || 3 ||
ād aha svadhām anu punar garbhatvam erire |
dadhānā nāma yajñiyam || 4 ||
vīḻu cid ārujatnubhir guhā cid indra vahnibhiḥ |
avinda usriyā anu || 5 ||
devayanto yathā matim acchā vidadvasuṁ giraḥ |
mahām anūṣata śrutam || 6 ||
indreṇa saṁ hi dṛkṣase saṁjagmāno abibhyuṣā |
mandū samānavarcasā || 7 ||
anavadyair abhidyubhir makhaḥ sahasvad arcati |
gaṇair indrasya kāmyaiḥ || 8 ||
ataḥ parijmann ā gahi divo vā rocanād adhi |
sam asminn ṛñjate giraḥ || 9 ||
ito vā sātim īmahe divo vā pārthivād adhi |
indram maho vā rajasaḥ || 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).