Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa
Rigveda X.132 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. Heaven, rich in welcomed bounty, attends the one who has sacrificed; Earth too stands ready to serve the one who has sacrificed. The two Aśvin gods have strengthened with their favors the one who has sacrificed.
2. We worship you two, Mitra and Varuṇa, sustainers of the people, with well-disposed intent. Through friendship with you, may we prevail over the demons — for the one who acts in devotion to you.
3. And now, indeed, when we wish to obtain from you the dear inheritance and become its masters — or when the giver prospers in wealth — no one's bounties are diminished.
4. That other one, O Asura, was set forth — Heaven; but you, Varuṇa, are king of all. As the head of the chariot you took delight; not by so slight a fault is one branded a betrayer unto death.
5. In this, indeed, lies the guilt of Śakapūta: when a truce has been struck, he strikes down the fallen warriors — or when the steed bestows favor upon your two dear, sacred bodies.
6. For your mother, Aditi, O wise ones, like Heaven and Earth, has purified you with her milk; grant us down your dear gifts, washed clean by the rays of the sun.
7. For you two, lords of wealth, have taken your seat, like a standing chariot fixed at the pole, seated upon the sacred wood. Those wandering, distressed ones of ours — Nṛmedha has drawn out of distress, and Sumedha has drawn out of distress.
Translator's note: verses 3 and 5 contain syntactically compressed and lexically obscure passages (the phrase rendered "no one's bounties are diminished" in v.3, and the proper name Śakapūta and the term "arvā" / "steed" in v.5) where the Sanskrit admits more than one construal; the renderings above are conservative and literal rather than interpretive.
Colophon
Rigveda X.132 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.132
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.
ījānam id dyaur gūrtāvasur ījānam bhūmir abhi prabhūṣaṇi |
ījānaṁ devāv aśvināv abhi sumnair avardhatām || 1 ||
tā vām mitrāvaruṇā dhārayatkṣitī suṣumneṣitatvatā yajāmasi |
yuvoḥ krāṇāya sakhyair abhi ṣyāma rakṣasaḥ || 2 ||
adhā cin nu yad didhiṣāmahe vām abhi priyaṁ rekṇaḥ patyamānāḥ |
dadvām̐ vā yat puṣyati rekṇaḥ sam v āran nakir asya maghāni || 3 ||
asāv anyo asura sūyata dyaus tvaṁ viśveṣāṁ varuṇāsi rājā |
mūrdhā rathasya cākan naitāvatainasāntakadhruk || 4 ||
asmin sv e3tac chakapūta eno hite mitre nigatān hanti vīrān |
avor vā yad dhāt tanūṣv avaḥ priyāsu yajñiyāsv arvā || 5 ||
yuvor hi mātāditir vicetasā dyaur na bhūmiḥ payasā pupūtani |
ava priyā didiṣṭana sūro ninikta raśmibhiḥ || 6 ||
yuvaṁ hy apnarājāv asīdataṁ tiṣṭhad rathaṁ na dhūrṣadaṁ vanarṣadam |
tā naḥ kaṇūkayantīr nṛmedhas tatre aṁhasaḥ sumedhas tatre aṁhasaḥ || 7 ||
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).