Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.8 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. Indra, bring us wealth that wins, ever-victorious, all-conquering, the most abundant wealth — bring it for our help.
2. By that wealth, with blows of the fist, may we beat down our enemies — helped by you, together with our steed.
3. Indra, helped by you, may we take up the mace and the clubs; may we conquer our rivals together in battle.
4. May we, with our heroes who hurl their weapons, with you as our ally, Indra — may we overcome those who make war on us.
5. Great is Indra, and greater still — let there now be greatness for the mace-bearer, his strength as vast as the sky.
6. Whether men who have won their place in the crush of battle, in the gaining of offspring, or the inspired poets who seek insight —
7. whose belly, greatest drinker of soma, swells like the ocean, like the wide waters at the rim.
8. So indeed is his bounty — joyous, abundant, rich in cattle, great — like a ripe branch for the one who makes offering.
9. So indeed, Indra, are your mighty deeds and your helps for one such as me — they come even at once, for the one who offers.
10. So indeed his praise-song and his hymn are desirable and are to be proclaimed — for Indra, for the drinking of soma.
Translator's note: verse 7's "kākudaḥ" (rendered here as "at the rim") is an obscure word — it can mean palate, hump, or summit; the image of the belly swelling like ocean waters is clear even where this last word is not. Verse 6 reads as a relative clause whose sense continues into verse 7's description of Indra's soma-filled belly; both are translated as literally as the Sanskrit allows.
Colophon
Rigveda I.8 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.8
endra sānasiṁ rayiṁ sajitvānaṁ sadāsaham |
varṣiṣṭham ūtaye bhara || 1 ||
ni yena muṣṭihatyayā ni vṛtrā ruṇadhāmahai |
tvotāso ny arvatā || 2 ||
indra tvotāsa ā vayaṁ vajraṁ ghanā dadīmahi |
jayema saṁ yudhi spṛdhaḥ || 3 ||
vayaṁ śūrebhir astṛbhir indra tvayā yujā vayam |
sāsahyāma pṛtanyataḥ || 4 ||
mahām̐ indraḥ paraś ca nu mahitvam astu vajriṇe |
dyaur na prathinā śavaḥ || 5 ||
samohe vā ya āśata naras tokasya sanitau |
viprāso vā dhiyāyavaḥ || 6 ||
yaḥ kukṣiḥ somapātamaḥ samudra iva pinvate |
urvīr āpo na kākudaḥ || 7 ||
evā hy asya sūnṛtā virapśī gomatī mahī |
pakvā śākhā na dāśuṣe || 8 ||
evā hi te vibhūtaya ūtaya indra māvate |
sadyaś cit santi dāśuṣe || 9 ||
evā hy asya kāmyā stoma ukthaṁ ca śaṁsyā |
indrāya somapītaye || 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).