Hymn to Dakṣiṇā, the Sacrificial Gift
Rigveda X.107 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. Their great bounty has become manifest. Every living being has been freed from the dark; the great light given by the forefathers has arrived. The wide path of the sacrificial gift has been seen.
2. High in heaven stand those who possess the gift; those who give horses stand together with the sun. Givers of gold share in immortality; givers of clothing, O Soma, extend their span of life.
3. The gift is a divine fulfillment, dakṣiṇā, a worship of the gods — it is not for misers, for they do not give. Yet many men, once they have pledged the gift, give it out of fear of blame.
4. Men with a hero's sight look upon the offering as they would upon wind with its hundred streams, as the chant that finds the sun. Those who give and keep extending gifts at the gathering milk the gift, dakṣiṇā, who has seven mothers.
5. The man who possesses the gift, when called, goes forth first; the man who possesses the gift goes at the head of the village, in front. Him alone I hold to be lord of the people — the one who was first to win the gift.
6. Him they call seer, him they call priest, worthy of sacrifice, singer of the sāman, speaker of the hymn. He knows the three bodies of the bright god — the one who first prospered through the gift.
7. The gift gives the horse, the gift gives the cow, the gift gives silver and gold. The gift wins food, which is our very breath; the man who understands this makes the gift his armor.
8. The generous do not die, they do not come to ruin; the generous take no harm, they do not falter. All this world, and heaven itself — all this the gift gives to the generous.
9. The generous won the fragrant womb first; the generous won the bride in her fine clothes. The generous won the inner draught of the liquor; the generous win even when they go forth uninvited.
10. For the generous man they groom the swift horse; for the generous man the maiden sits, adorning herself. The generous man's dwelling is like a lotus pond, decked out, wondrous as the house of the gods.
11. Horses that carry well bear the generous man onward; the well-turning chariot of the gift rolls on. O gods, protect the generous man in the clashes of battle; the generous man is victor over his enemies in the meeting of armies.
Translator's note: "dakṣiṇā" (the sacrificial gift or priestly fee) is personified throughout this hymn and is left untranslated at several points to preserve that personification; "bhoja" is rendered "the generous [man]," its consistent sense across verses 8–11. Verse 2 addresses "Soma" by name in its final line — this vocative sits oddly within a hymn otherwise devoted to Dakṣiṇā, but it is present in the Sanskrit and is translated as it stands rather than smoothed away. Verse 7's "candra" (moon) is kept literal rather than read as a metaphor for silver.
Colophon
Rigveda X.107 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.107
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.
āvir abhūn mahi māghonam eṣāṁ viśvaṁ jīvaṁ tamaso nir amoci |
mahi jyotiḥ pitṛbhir dattam āgād uruḥ panthā dakṣiṇāyā adarśi || 1 ||
uccā divi dakṣiṇāvanto asthur ye aśvadāḥ saha te sūryeṇa |
hiraṇyadā amṛtatvam bhajante vāsodāḥ soma pra tiranta āyuḥ || 2 ||
daivī pūrtir dakṣiṇā devayajyā na kavāribhyo nahi te pṛṇanti |
athā naraḥ prayatadakṣiṇāso 'vadyabhiyā bahavaḥ pṛṇanti || 3 ||
śatadhāraṁ vāyum arkaṁ svarvidaṁ nṛcakṣasas te abhi cakṣate haviḥ |
ye pṛṇanti pra ca yacchanti saṁgame te dakṣiṇāṁ duhate saptamātaram || 4 ||
dakṣiṇāvān prathamo hūta eti dakṣiṇāvān grāmaṇīr agram eti |
tam eva manye nṛpatiṁ janānāṁ yaḥ prathamo dakṣiṇām āvivāya || 5 ||
tam eva ṛṣiṁ tam u brahmāṇam āhur yajñanyaṁ sāmagām ukthaśāsam |
sa śukrasya tanvo veda tisro yaḥ prathamo dakṣiṇayā rarādha || 6 ||
dakṣiṇāśvaṁ dakṣiṇā gāṁ dadāti dakṣiṇā candram uta yad dhiraṇyam |
dakṣiṇānnaṁ vanute yo na ātmā dakṣiṇāṁ varma kṛṇute vijānan || 7 ||
na bhojā mamrur na nyartham īyur na riṣyanti na vyathante ha bhojāḥ |
idaṁ yad viśvam bhuvanaṁ svaś caitat sarvaṁ dakṣiṇaibhyo dadāti || 8 ||
bhojā jigyuḥ surabhiṁ yonim agre bhojā jigyur vadhva1ṁ yā suvāsāḥ |
bhojā jigyur antaḥpeyaṁ surāyā bhojā jigyur ye ahūtāḥ prayanti || 9 ||
bhojāyāśvaṁ sam mṛjanty āśum bhojāyāste kanyā3 śumbhamānā |
bhojasyedam puṣkariṇīva veśma pariṣkṛtaṁ devamāneva citram || 10 ||
bhojam aśvāḥ suṣṭhuvāho vahanti suvṛd ratho vartate dakṣiṇāyāḥ |
bhojaṁ devāso 'vatā bhareṣu bhojaḥ śatrūn samanīkeṣu jetā || 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).