Hymn to the All-Gods (Viśvedevas)
Rigveda I.90 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to the Viśvedevas, the "All-Gods" — Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman, Indra, the Maruts, Pūṣan, Bhaga, Viṣṇu, and Bṛhaspati named together rather than singly. 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. May Varuṇa lead us with straight guidance, and knowing Mitra, and Aryaman together with the gods, of one accord.
2. For they, possessors of wealth, the wealthy ones, unerring in their might, guard their ordinances every day.
3. May they, the immortals, grant us shelter, we who are mortal, driving away our haters.
4. May Indra, the Maruts, Pūṣan, and praiseworthy Bhaga open up paths for us, toward good fortune.
5. And, Pūṣan, and Viṣṇu who moves swiftly — make our prayers rich in cattle, make us possessed of well-being.
6. Sweet blow the winds for the one who follows the sacred law; sweet flow the rivers; may the plants be honeyed for us.
7. Sweet is the night and the dawns; honeyed is the realm of earth; may heaven, our father, be sweet for us.
8. May the lord of the forest be honeyed for us; may the sun be honeyed; may our cows give us sweetness.
9. May Mitra be well-being for us, may Varuṇa be well-being, may Aryaman be well-being for us; may Indra and Bṛhaspati be well-being for us; may Viṣṇu of the wide stride be well-being for us.
Translator's note: verses 6–8 are the hymn's well-known "honey verses" (madhu), where wind, rivers, plants, night, dawn, earth, heaven, forest, sun, and cattle are each in turn called "sweet" or "honeyed" — a single repeated image applied across the whole world rather than nine separate claims, kept here verse by verse as the Sanskrit gives it.
Colophon
Rigveda I.90 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda I.90
ṛjunītī no varuṇo mitro nayatu vidvān |
aryamā devaiḥ sajoṣāḥ || 1 ||
te hi vasvo vasavānās te apramūrā mahobhiḥ |
vratā rakṣante viśvāhā || 2 ||
te asmabhyaṁ śarma yaṁsann amṛtā martyebhyaḥ |
bādhamānā apa dviṣaḥ || 3 ||
vi naḥ pathaḥ suvitāya ciyantv indro marutaḥ |
pūṣā bhago vandyāsaḥ || 4 ||
uta no dhiyo goagrāḥ pūṣan viṣṇav evayāvaḥ |
kartā naḥ svastimataḥ || 5 ||
madhu vātā ṛtāyate madhu kṣaranti sindhavaḥ |
mādhvīr naḥ santv oṣadhīḥ || 6 ||
madhu naktam utoṣaso madhumat pārthivaṁ rajaḥ |
madhu dyaur astu naḥ pitā || 7 ||
madhumān no vanaspatir madhumām̐ astu sūryaḥ |
mādhvīr gāvo bhavantu naḥ || 8 ||
śaṁ no mitraḥ śaṁ varuṇaḥ śaṁ no bhavatv aryamā |
śaṁ na indro bṛhaspatiḥ śaṁ no viṣṇur urukramaḥ || 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).