The Song of Speech (Devī Sūkta)
Rigveda X.125, known as the Devī Sūkta, is a hymn of eight verses from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, spoken in the first person by Vāc — the goddess Speech. She is the rarest kind of Vedic deity: one who needs no praise from a priest, because she declares herself. The hymn became a cornerstone of later goddess theology and is still recited in Devī worship today.
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. I move with the Rudras and the Vasus, I with the Ādityas and the All-Gods. I carry both Mitra and Varuṇa, I Indra and Agni, I both the Aśvins.
2. I carry the swelling Soma, I Tvaṣṭṛ and Pūṣan and Bhaga. I bestow wealth on the offerer of the oblation, on the devout sacrificer who presses the Soma.
3. I am the queen, the gatherer of treasures, the knowing one, first among those worthy of sacrifice. The gods have distributed me into many places — many are my stations, many the things I enter.
4. Through me whoever sees, whoever breathes, whoever hears what is spoken, eats his food. Without knowing it, they dwell in me. Hear, you who are heard: what I tell you is worthy of faith.
5. It is I myself who declare this, which is welcome to gods and to men: whomever I love, that one I make mighty — I make him a keeper of the sacred word, a seer, a sage.
6. I stretch the bow for Rudra, so that his arrow may strike down the hater of the sacred word. I stir up battle for the people. I have entered heaven and earth.
7. I give birth to the father at the head of this world; my womb is within the waters, in the sea. From there I spread out through all the worlds, and I touch yonder sky with my crown.
8. It is I who blow like the wind, taking hold of all the worlds — beyond heaven, beyond this earth: so great have I become by my own greatness.
Translator's note: The speaker is named nowhere in the hymn itself; the tradition (Anukramaṇī) assigns it to Vāc, daughter of the seer Ambhṛṇa, and verse 4's "whoever hears what is spoken" confirms Speech as the power described. Rāṣṭrī in verse 3, rendered "queen," is literally the female sovereign of the realm. In verse 5, brahmāṇam is the master of sacred formulation, rendered "keeper of the sacred word."
Colophon
Rigveda X.125 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.125
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.
ahaṁ rudrebhir vasubhiś carāmy aham ādityair uta viśvadevaiḥ |
aham mitrāvaruṇobhā bibharmy aham indrāgnī aham aśvinobhā || 1 ||
ahaṁ somam āhanasam bibharmy ahaṁ tvaṣṭāram uta pūṣaṇam bhagam |
ahaṁ dadhāmi draviṇaṁ haviṣmate suprāvye3 yajamānāya sunvate || 2 ||
ahaṁ rāṣṭrī saṁgamanī vasūnāṁ cikituṣī prathamā yajñiyānām |
tām mā devā vy adadhuḥ purutrā bhūristhātrām bhūry āveśayantīm || 3 ||
mayā so annam atti yo vipaśyati yaḥ prāṇiti ya īṁ śṛṇoty uktam |
amantavo māṁ ta upa kṣiyanti śrudhi śruta śraddhivaṁ te vadāmi || 4 ||
aham eva svayam idaṁ vadāmi juṣṭaṁ devebhir uta mānuṣebhiḥ |
yaṁ kāmaye taṁ-tam ugraṁ kṛṇomi tam brahmāṇaṁ tam ṛṣiṁ taṁ sumedhām || 5 ||
ahaṁ rudrāya dhanur ā tanomi brahmadviṣe śarave hantavā u |
ahaṁ janāya samadaṁ kṛṇomy ahaṁ dyāvāpṛthivī ā viveśa || 6 ||
ahaṁ suve pitaram asya mūrdhan mama yonir apsv a1ntaḥ samudre |
tato vi tiṣṭhe bhuvanānu viśvotāmūṁ dyāṁ varṣmaṇopa spṛśāmi || 7 ||
aham eva vāta iva pra vāmy ārabhamāṇā bhuvanāni viśvā |
paro divā para enā pṛthivyaitāvatī mahinā sam babhūva || 8 ||
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).