Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.105 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. This hymn is among the most syntactically compressed and lexically obscure in the Rigveda; see the translator's note below.
1. When, O bountiful one, will the water held back at the beard go down for the eager one's praise-song — the long-pressed soma, for the swelling of the wind?
2. Whose two bay steeds, well-yoked, each of its own will, the two swift ones, tail following tail, both streaked like the long-maned pair — the lord bestowing —
3. From the two of them Indra shrank back, like a mortal grown weary, made afraid — when, full of might, he yoked them for splendor.
4. Together with the two of them Indra drags onward, serving them near the wagon-pole; of the two neighing ones of separate will, Indra is the hero.
5. He who mounted the two long-maned, spacious ones, as if for their thriving, wins with his two lips — he who is the lipped one.
6. The one of lofty strength praised it forth with the lofty ones; the hero shaped it with his power, like Ṛbhu with his skills, like Mātariśvan.
7. He who made the mace for the easy slaying of the Dasyu — golden-jawed, golden through and through, his jaw unbroken, like the wondrous realm of space.
8. Sharpen down the crooked things for our sake with this verse; may we win out over the hymnless ones. Not without sacred word does the sacrifice, apart, find favor in you.
9. When your threefold one stood upright, her seat at the yoke-poles of the sacrifice, [board] together the self-glorious boat, together with the two.
10. For your splendor the dappled pouring-vessel came to be; for splendor, the spotless ladle — by which you pour upward into your own vessel.
11. Even should a hundred rise against you, O mighty one, Sumitra praised you thus, Durmitra praised you thus — for you helped Kutsa's son when the Dasyus were slain, you helped forth Kutsa's offspring when the Dasyus were slain.
Translator's note: X.105 is widely regarded as one of the most linguistically difficult hymns in the Rigveda, and several phrases resist confident translation. Verse 1's "water held back at the beard" (śmaśā rudhad vāḥ) and verse 2's syntax around the paired steeds are rendered conservatively, following the plain sense of the individual words rather than any smoothing paraphrase. In verse 5, śipra (lip/jaw) and śiprin (the lipped one) are kept literal rather than resolved into a specific ritual action. In verse 9, the main verb governing "the self-glorious boat" is grammatically absent from the Sanskrit (a common Rigvedic ellipsis); "[board]" is supplied in brackets to complete the sense implied by the surrounding verses about mounting the steeds/chariot. Ṛbhu (verse 6) is the Rigveda's divine craftsman-figure; Mātariśvan (verse 6) is a divine agent associated with fire/wind, here used as a simile for skilled making. Dasyu (verses 7, 11) is the Rigveda's term for Indra's non-Aryan or demonic adversaries. Sumitra and Durmitra (verse 11) appear to be two praisers or two epithets contrasting "good friend" and "bad friend," addressing Indra despite hostility; the Sanskrit does not specify further who they are.
Colophon
Rigveda X.105 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 X.105
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.
kadā vaso stotraṁ haryata āva śmaśā rudhad vāḥ |
dīrghaṁ sutaṁ vātāpyāya || 1 ||
harī yasya suyujā vivratā ver arvantānu śepā |
ubhā rajī na keśinā patir dan || 2 ||
apa yor indraḥ pāpaja ā marto na śaśramāṇo bibhīvān |
śubhe yad yuyuje taviṣīvān || 3 ||
sacāyor indraś carkṛṣa ām̐ upānasaḥ saparyan |
nadayor vivratayoḥ śūra indraḥ || 4 ||
adhi yas tasthau keśavantā vyacasvantā na puṣṭyai |
vanoti śiprābhyāṁ śipriṇīvān || 5 ||
prāstaud ṛṣvaujā ṛṣvebhis tatakṣa śūraḥ śavasā |
ṛbhur na kratubhir mātariśvā || 6 ||
vajraṁ yaś cakre suhanāya dasyave hirīmaśo hirīmān |
arutahanur adbhutaṁ na rajaḥ || 7 ||
ava no vṛjinā śiśīhy ṛcā vanemānṛcaḥ |
nābrahmā yajña ṛdhag joṣati tve || 8 ||
ūrdhvā yat te tretinī bhūd yajñasya dhūrṣu sadman |
sajūr nāvaṁ svayaśasaṁ sacāyoḥ || 9 ||
śriye te pṛśnir upasecanī bhūc chriye darvir arepāḥ |
yayā sve pātre siñcasa ut || 10 ||
śataṁ vā yad asurya prati tvā sumitra itthāstaud durmitra itthāstaut |
āvo yad dasyuhatye kutsaputram prāvo yad dasyuhatye kutsavatsam || 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).