Hymn to Rātrī (Night)
Rigveda X.127 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. Known as the Rātrī Sūkta, it praises Night as a goddess who fills the world with her presence, sends creatures to rest, and is asked to keep danger away until her sister Dawn returns.
1. Night, approaching, has looked out over many places with her eyes — the goddess. She has put on all her glories.
2. The immortal goddess has filled the wide space, the depths below and the heights above. With her light she drives back the darkness.
3. The goddess, coming, has sent forth her sister Dawn; and the darkness goes away.
4. She, in whose path we have settled down today, as birds settle into their dwelling in a tree —
5. The villages have settled down, the footed creatures have settled, the winged ones have settled, even the eager hawks have settled.
6. Drive off the she-wolf, drive off the wolf, drive off the thief, O Night; then be easy for us to cross through.
7. Darkness, black and richly decked, has come and settled upon me. O Dawn, drive it off, as one would settle a debt.
8. I have driven up to you my song, as one drives cattle home; accept it, O Daughter of Heaven, O Night, as one accepts a hymn of praise offered to a victor.
Translator's note: verse 6's vocative "ūrmye," an epithet addressed to Night, is of uncertain sense (possibly "she of the flood" or "she of the night-watches"); it is left untranslated as a direct address rather than guessed at. "Sutarā" in the same verse ("easy to cross/pass through") is rendered to keep its image of Night as a passage to be gotten through safely.
Colophon
Rigveda X.127 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.127
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.
rātrī vy akhyad āyatī purutrā devy a1kṣabhiḥ |
viśvā adhi śriyo 'dhita || 1 ||
orv aprā amartyā nivato devy u1dvataḥ |
jyotiṣā bādhate tamaḥ || 2 ||
nir u svasāram askṛtoṣasaṁ devy āyatī |
aped u hāsate tamaḥ || 3 ||
sā no adya yasyā vayaṁ ni te yāmann avikṣmahi |
vṛkṣe na vasatiṁ vayaḥ || 4 ||
ni grāmāso avikṣata ni padvanto ni pakṣiṇaḥ |
ni śyenāsaś cid arthinaḥ || 5 ||
yāvayā vṛkya1ṁ vṛkaṁ yavaya stenam ūrmye |
athā naḥ sutarā bhava || 6 ||
upa mā pepiśat tamaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ vyaktam asthita |
uṣa ṛṇeva yātaya || 7 ||
upa te gā ivākaraṁ vṛṇīṣva duhitar divaḥ |
rātri stomaṁ na jigyuṣe || 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).