Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.104 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Soma has been pressed for you, much-invoked one. With your pair of bay horses, come quickly to the sacrifice. Songs for you, sent forth by the poet-heroes, have rushed onward — Indra, drink of the pressed soma.
2. O lord of bay horses, drink here of what has been rinsed in the waters, pressed by men — fill your belly. What the pressing-stones have prepared for you, Indra — with that, grow in your rapture, you who are borne on our hymns.
3. I send forth the mighty, true drink of the bull, for you to come to the pressed soma, O lord of bay steeds. Indra, take your joy here in these streams, as we praise you with all our thoughts and all our skill.
4. By your help, O powerful one, through your strength, the eager ones who know the sacred order have taken on new vigor. With their offspring, Indra, in Manu's house, they have taken their place, singing, sharing the feast together.
5. By your guidance, O lord of bay steeds, the radiant people of the well-praised, gracious one — your praisers, Indra — have won your most bountiful help, and extend it now with their true and joyful words.
6. Come with your two bay horses, lord of bay steeds, to our sacred words, to drink of the pressed soma. Indra, the sacrifice has reached you as you wait; you are the devoted one, the very sign of the rite.
7. Thousand-fold in strength, overcomer of hostile plots, delighting in the pressed soma, the bounteous one, worthy of the finest praise — songs of reverence attend matchless Indra; the singer's praises exalt him.
8. Seven divine waters, delightful and unimpaired, by which you crossed the river, Indra, breaker of strongholds — ninety-nine flowing streams — you found the way for the gods and for humankind.
9. You freed the great waters from that curse, and you alone, a god, kept watch over them. Indra, those waters that you won in the battle with Vrtra — may they nourish your body throughout your life.
10. Indra's will is heroic, worthy of praise — the song too calls upon the much-invoked one. He crushed Vrtra and made room for the world; the mighty one, ever victorious, overcame the battle-hosts.
11. May we call, for our good fortune, on bounteous Indra — most manful in this battle, in the winning of the prize — the mighty one who hears, who aids us in the fray, who strikes down foes, who wins the spoils.
Translator's note: verses 4–5 are grammatically dense (chains of participles describing "the eager ones" and "the radiant people" who praise Indra); the rendering above keeps the sense conservative rather than smoothing the syntax. "Abhiśasti" in verse 9 (rendered "curse") denotes the hostile power/imprecation embodied by Vrtra's blocking of the waters.
Colophon
Rigveda X.104 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 X.104
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
asāvi somaḥ puruhūta tubhyaṁ haribhyāṁ yajñam upa yāhi tūyam |
tubhyaṁ giro vipravīrā iyānā dadhanvira indra pibā sutasya || 1 ||
apsu dhūtasya harivaḥ pibeha nṛbhiḥ sutasya jaṭharam pṛṇasva |
mimikṣur yam adraya indra tubhyaṁ tebhir vardhasva madam ukthavāhaḥ || 2 ||
progrām pītiṁ vṛṣṇa iyarmi satyām prayai sutasya haryaśva tubhyam |
indra dhenābhir iha mādayasva dhībhir viśvābhiḥ śacyā gṛṇānaḥ || 3 ||
ūtī śacīvas tava vīryeṇa vayo dadhānā uśija ṛtajñāḥ |
prajāvad indra manuṣo duroṇe tasthur gṛṇantaḥ sadhamādyāsaḥ || 4 ||
praṇītibhiṣ ṭe haryaśva suṣṭoḥ suṣumnasya pururuco janāsaḥ |
maṁhiṣṭhām ūtiṁ vitire dadhānāḥ stotāra indra tava sūnṛtābhiḥ || 5 ||
upa brahmāṇi harivo haribhyāṁ somasya yāhi pītaye sutasya |
indra tvā yajñaḥ kṣamamāṇam ānaḍ dāśvām̐ asy adhvarasya praketaḥ || 6 ||
sahasravājam abhimātiṣāhaṁ suteraṇam maghavānaṁ suvṛktim |
upa bhūṣanti giro apratītam indraṁ namasyā jarituḥ pananta || 7 ||
saptāpo devīḥ suraṇā amṛktā yābhiḥ sindhum atara indra pūrbhit |
navatiṁ srotyā nava ca sravantīr devebhyo gātum manuṣe ca vindaḥ || 8 ||
apo mahīr abhiśaster amuñco 'jāgar āsv adhi deva ekaḥ |
indra yās tvaṁ vṛtratūrye cakartha tābhir viśvāyus tanvam pupuṣyāḥ || 9 ||
vīreṇyaḥ kratur indraḥ suśastir utāpi dhenā puruhūtam īṭṭe |
ārdayad vṛtram akṛṇod u lokaṁ sasāhe śakraḥ pṛtanā abhiṣṭiḥ || 10 ||
śunaṁ huvema maghavānam indram asmin bhare nṛtamaṁ vājasātau |
śṛṇvantam ugram ūtaye samatsu ghnantaṁ vṛtrāṇi saṁjitaṁ dhanānām || 11 ||
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).