Hymn to the Maruts
Rigveda I.87 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the Maruts, the young storm gods who ride out together in their chariots, armed and adorned, shaking the earth as they pass. 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. Strong in their surging vigor, most mighty, full of great force, unbending, unshaken, resolute — most beloved, most manly, they have decked themselves with ornaments, some of them like bright ones adorned with stars.
2. When, O Maruts, like birds on some path, you have marked your swift course through the hidden ways, the pails drip beside your chariots — pour out the honey-colored ghee for the one who sings your praise.
3. In their onrushes the earth trembles as if unsteady, on their marches, when indeed they yoke themselves for splendor. They, the playful, roaring ones with gleaming spears, the shakers, themselves make their own greatness marveled at.
4. He indeed, self-driven, with dappled horses, the youthful troop, ruling by his own might, wrapped in his powers — you are true, straightforward, blameless, the furtherer of this prayer — the troop is a mighty bull.
5. By the descent of the ancient father we speak; the tongue of Soma goes forth with radiance. When the singers, at their sacred work, reached Indra, then indeed they took on names fit for worship.
6. For splendor they have mingled themselves with rays of light — with their reins, with their hymns, granters of ease, armed with axes, impetuous, fearless — they have found the dear domain of the Marut host.
Translator's note: verse 4 shifts between speaking of the Marut troop as "he" (a single collective) and addressing it directly as "you" — this shift is in the Sanskrit itself and is kept as written. "ṛjīṣiṇaḥ" (v.1) and "vāśīmantaḥ" (v.6) are rendered conservatively — the former as "resolute," the latter as "armed with axes" (vāśī being a Marut hand-tool/weapon) — where the precise nuance is uncertain.
Colophon
Rigveda I.87 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.87
pratvakṣasaḥ pratavaso virapśino 'nānatā avithurā ṛjīṣiṇaḥ |
juṣṭatamāso nṛtamāso añjibhir vy ānajre ke cid usrā iva stṛbhiḥ || 1 ||
upahvareṣu yad acidhvaṁ yayiṁ vaya iva marutaḥ kena cit pathā |
ścotanti kośā upa vo ratheṣv ā ghṛtam ukṣatā madhuvarṇam arcate || 2 ||
praiṣām ajmeṣu vithureva rejate bhūmir yāmeṣu yad dha yuñjate śubhe |
te krīḻayo dhunayo bhrājadṛṣṭayaḥ svayam mahitvam panayanta dhūtayaḥ || 3 ||
sa hi svasṛt pṛṣadaśvo yuvā gaṇo3 'yā īśānas taviṣībhir āvṛtaḥ |
asi satya ṛṇayāvānedyo 'syā dhiyaḥ prāvitāthā vṛṣā gaṇaḥ || 4 ||
pituḥ pratnasya janmanā vadāmasi somasya jihvā pra jigāti cakṣasā |
yad īm indraṁ śamy ṛkvāṇa āśatād in nāmāni yajñiyāni dadhire || 5 ||
śriyase kam bhānubhiḥ sam mimikṣire te raśmibhis ta ṛkvabhiḥ sukhādayaḥ |
te vāśīmanta iṣmiṇo abhīravo vidre priyasya mārutasya dhāmnaḥ || 6 ||
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).