Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.63 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 its own singers as the Gotamas (verse 9), consistent with the traditional attribution of this run of hymns to Nodhas Gautama.
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. You are great, Indra — you who at your birth held heaven and earth fast by your furious strength. Before you all the mountains, even the vast, monstrous ones, trembled in fear and broke apart though they were firm.
2. When your two bay horses, Indra, went their own ways and turned back to you, the singer placed the mace in your two arms — with that mace, O you of unrelenting will, much-invoked one, you drive out the enemies and their many strongholds.
3. You, Indra, are true, bold against these foes; you are lord of the Ṛbhus, manly, the vanquisher. In the struggle, for the sake of young, radiant Kutsa, you slew Śuṣṇa.
4. You indeed drove that on, Indra, as a friend, when, mace-bearer of bull-like deeds, you overpowered Vṛtra. When, hero of bull-like might, you scattered the Dasyus far off in their own lair, effortless conqueror that you are.
5. You indeed, Indra, stand unharmed even amid the hostility of strong mortals — clear the course for our racing steed, and like a club, mace-bearer, strike down our enemies.
6. You, Indra, in the winning of the flood, in the battle for the sun's prize — men call on you in the fray. Your help, self-strong one, in this contest, has ever been what was needed in the struggles for strength.
7. You indeed, Indra, mace-bearer, fighting broke open the seven forts for Purukutsa; as one freely lays low the sacrificial grass, you laid low distress for Sudās, and made room, O king, for the Pūru.
8. You, our god Indra, have made that wondrous nourishment swell like the waters, all-encircling one. With it, hero, grant us in return your own strength, that it may flow forth always.
9. For you, Indra, the Gotamas have made and spoken these prayers with homage, for you and your two bay steeds. Bring us fine, well-formed strength; may it come swiftly, at dawn, rich with the wealth devotion brings.
Translator's note: several phrases in this hymn are notoriously compressed even by Rigvedic standards. "ame dhāḥ" (v.1), "vivratā ver" (v.2), "ajuṣṭau" (v.5), and "ṛṇasātau ... atasāyyā" (v.6) admit more than one plausible parsing; the renderings above follow the most conservative reading of each verb root and case ending rather than any single downstream interpretation.
Colophon
Rigveda I.63 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.63
tvam mahām̐ indra yo ha śuṣmair dyāvā jajñānaḥ pṛthivī ame dhāḥ |
yad dha te viśvā girayaś cid abhvā bhiyā dṛḻhāsaḥ kiraṇā naijan || 1 ||
ā yad dharī indra vivratā ver ā te vajraṁ jaritā bāhvor dhāt |
yenāviharyatakrato amitrān pura iṣṇāsi puruhūta pūrvīḥ || 2 ||
tvaṁ satya indra dhṛṣṇur etān tvam ṛbhukṣā naryas tvaṁ ṣāṭ |
tvaṁ śuṣṇaṁ vṛjane pṛkṣa āṇau yūne kutsāya dyumate sacāhan || 3 ||
tvaṁ ha tyad indra codīḥ sakhā vṛtraṁ yad vajrin vṛṣakarmann ubhnāḥ |
yad dha śūra vṛṣamaṇaḥ parācair vi dasyūm̐r yonāv akṛto vṛthāṣāṭ || 4 ||
tvaṁ ha tyad indrāriṣaṇyan dṛḻhasya cin martānām ajuṣṭau |
vy a1smad ā kāṣṭhā arvate var ghaneva vajriñ chnathihy amitrān || 5 ||
tvāṁ ha tyad indrārṇasātau svarmīḻhe nara ājā havante |
tava svadhāva iyam ā samarya ūtir vājeṣv atasāyyā bhūt || 6 ||
tvaṁ ha tyad indra sapta yudhyan puro vajrin purukutsāya dardaḥ |
barhir na yat sudāse vṛthā varg aṁho rājan varivaḥ pūrave kaḥ || 7 ||
tvaṁ tyāṁ na indra deva citrām iṣam āpo na pīpayaḥ parijman |
yayā śūra praty asmabhyaṁ yaṁsi tmanam ūrjaṁ na viśvadha kṣaradhyai || 8 ||
akāri ta indra gotamebhir brahmāṇy oktā namasā haribhyām |
supeśasaṁ vājam ā bharā naḥ prātar makṣū dhiyāvasur jagamyāt || 9 ||
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).