Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.61 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 hymn names the Gotamas as its makers in its final verse, matching the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī attribution to the Gotama lineage of seers.
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. To him, the strong and vehement one, I offer this hymn like a food-offering, to the mighty one. To the hymn-worthy, irresistible Indra I bring these prayers — devotions most freely given.
2. To him I extend it like an offering of food; I bring a resounding hymn, a well-wrought praise-song in time of distress. To Indra, with heart, mind, and thought, to the ancient lord — our visions are polished in his honor.
3. To him, that supreme winner of the sun, I bring a resounding hymn with my own mouth — to the most bountiful one, with words of invocation, with well-wrought praises, to exalt the mighty lord.
4. To him I fashion a hymn of praise together, like a craftsman shaping a chariot for that end — songs for the one who is carried along by songs, well-wrought praise for Indra, the all-pervading, the wise one.
5. To him, as though racing like a swift steed for glory, I adorn a hymn for Indra with my tongue — to praise the hero at home in generosity, the breaker of strongholds, whose fame is welcomed.
6. For him Tvaṣṭṛ fashioned the mace, most skillfully made, resounding, for battle — by which he found even Vṛtra's vital point, striking as the ruler, with his striking weapon, he of abundant wealth.
7. This indeed, at his mother's pressing-rites, at once, having drunk the great draught, the lovely food — Viṣṇu, the mightier, stole the cooked food; the archer pierced the boar through the mountain.
8. To him even the goddesses, wives of the gods, sang a hymn of praise for Indra after his slaying of the serpent. He encompassed the two wide worlds, heaven and earth — yet even they, the two, do not contain your greatness.
9. His greatness indeed surpasses heaven, earth, and the space between. Indra, the self-ruler, welcomed by all in his house, matchless, resounding, has grown mighty for battle.
10. By his very strength Indra cut apart the roaring Vṛtra with his mace. He set free the rivers, penned in like cows, mindful, to grant us renown.
11. By his fierce power the rivers rejoiced when he held them back with his mace. Acting as their ruler, favoring the one who offers, the overpowering one made a safe crossing for Turvīti.
12. He, the swift-moving ruler rich in wealth, hurled the mace at Vṛtra; he split him apart joint by joint like the joints of a cow, cutting across, rushing on, so that the floods of waters might move freely.
13. Proclaim now, with fresh hymns, the ancient deeds of the swift one — how, hastening to battle and hurling his weapons, raging, he drives out his enemies.
14. In fear of him even the firm mountains, and heaven and earth, tremble at his very birth. Praising again and again the favor of the loving one, Nodhas at once rose to sing of his heroic deed.
15. To him alone was that granted, since, ruling over abundance, he desired it. Indra helped Etaśa, who raced for the sun-prize, and helped the soma-presser in the contest of swift horses.
16. Thus, O yoker of bay steeds, the Gotamas have made these well-wrought devotions for you, O Indra. Place in them an all-adorning vision; may he, rich in insight, come swiftly at daybreak.
Translator's note: several words in this hymn are rare or obscure and are rendered conservatively. "Ādhrigu" (v. 1) and "kiyedhāḥ" (vv. 6, 12) are difficult epithets of Indra of uncertain precise sense, taken here in their general force of "irresistible" and "rich, abundant." "Gūrtaśravasam" (v. 5) is rendered by its component parts, "whose fame is welcomed." Verse 7 compresses an allusive myth involving Indra's mother, Viṣṇu, and a boar pierced through a mountain; the verse is kept as terse in English as it is in the Sanskrit rather than expanded with borrowed context. "Nodhas" (v. 14) and "Etaśa" and "Turvīti" (v. 15) are proper names — Nodhas Gautama is the seer to whom hymns of this family are traditionally credited, and Etaśa and Turvīti are figures who appear elsewhere in the Rigveda as recipients of Indra's aid.
Colophon
Rigveda I.61 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.61
asmā id u pra tavase turāya prayo na harmi stomam māhināya |
ṛcīṣamāyādhrigava oham indrāya brahmāṇi rātatamā || 1 ||
asmā id u praya iva pra yaṁsi bharāmy āṅgūṣam bādhe suvṛkti |
indrāya hṛdā manasā manīṣā pratnāya patye dhiyo marjayanta || 2 ||
asmā id u tyam upamaṁ svarṣām bharāmy āṅgūṣam āsyena |
maṁhiṣṭham acchoktibhir matīnāṁ suvṛktibhiḥ sūriṁ vāvṛdhadhyai || 3 ||
asmā id u stomaṁ saṁ hinomi rathaṁ na taṣṭeva tatsināya |
giraś ca girvāhase suvṛktīndrāya viśvaminvam medhirāya || 4 ||
asmā id u saptim iva śravasyendrāyārkaṁ juhvā3 sam añje |
vīraṁ dānaukasaṁ vandadhyai purāṁ gūrtaśravasaṁ darmāṇam || 5 ||
asmā id u tvaṣṭā takṣad vajraṁ svapastamaṁ svarya1ṁ raṇāya |
vṛtrasya cid vidad yena marma tujann īśānas tujatā kiyedhāḥ || 6 ||
asyed u mātuḥ savaneṣu sadyo mahaḥ pitum papivāñ cārv annā |
muṣāyad viṣṇuḥ pacataṁ sahīyān vidhyad varāhaṁ tiro adrim astā || 7 ||
asmā id u gnāś cid devapatnīr indrāyārkam ahihatya ūvuḥ |
pari dyāvāpṛthivī jabhra urvī nāsya te mahimānam pari ṣṭaḥ || 8 ||
asyed eva pra ririce mahitvaṁ divas pṛthivyāḥ pary antarikṣāt |
svarāḻ indro dama ā viśvagūrtaḥ svarir amatro vavakṣe raṇāya || 9 ||
asyed eva śavasā śuṣantaṁ vi vṛścad vajreṇa vṛtram indraḥ |
gā na vrāṇā avanīr amuñcad abhi śravo dāvane sacetāḥ || 10 ||
asyed u tveṣasā ranta sindhavaḥ pari yad vajreṇa sīm ayacchat |
īśānakṛd dāśuṣe daśasyan turvītaye gādhaṁ turvaṇiḥ kaḥ || 11 ||
asmā id u pra bharā tūtujāno vṛtrāya vajram īśānaḥ kiyedhāḥ |
gor na parva vi radā tiraśceṣyann arṇāṁsy apāṁ caradhyai || 12 ||
asyed u pra brūhi pūrvyāṇi turasya karmāṇi navya ukthaiḥ |
yudhe yad iṣṇāna āyudhāny ṛghāyamāṇo niriṇāti śatrūn || 13 ||
asyed u bhiyā girayaś ca dṛḻhā dyāvā ca bhūmā januṣas tujete |
upo venasya joguvāna oṇiṁ sadyo bhuvad vīryāya nodhāḥ || 14 ||
asmā id u tyad anu dāyy eṣām eko yad vavne bhūrer īśānaḥ |
praitaśaṁ sūrye paspṛdhānaṁ sauvaśvye suṣvim āvad indraḥ || 15 ||
evā te hāriyojanā suvṛktīndra brahmāṇi gotamāso akran |
aiṣu viśvapeśasaṁ dhiyaṁ dhāḥ prātar makṣū dhiyāvasur jagamyāt || 16 ||
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).