Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.138 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. Those bearers of song, Indra, in fellowship with you, pondering the truth, split open Vala — where, being gracious to the Dawns, you let the waters flow free, for Kutsa's sake, at his prayer, and worked your wonders upon the serpent.
2. You set the fruitful ones loose, and made the mountains bow down. You drove the bright cows upward, and drank the dear mead. By this deed of yours you gave strength to the wooden vessels; the Sun blazed forth in song, born of the truth.
3. The Sun unyoked his chariot in the middle of the sky; the noble one found his match for the Dāsa. Indra broke open the strongholds of Pipru, the magic-working demon, acting as one with Ṛjiśvan.
4. Bold, he broke open what none could break; the tireless one destroyed the godless hoards. As the Sun [overtakes] the Moon, he seized the wealth of the stronghold; praised in song, he shattered his enemies with his gleaming weapon.
5. The Vṛtra-slayer, with the far-reaching, all-shattering one, grants victory over the unwarlike foe; he whets his swift weapons. The piercer feared Indra's mace; Śundhyu fled away; Dawn abandoned her cart.
6. These famous deeds are yours alone — for you alone made that one without sacrifice. You set the ordering of the months in place above, in the sky; and the father, Heaven, carries the wheel-rim you split apart.
Translator's note: several words in this hymn are obscure. "Vaninaḥ" (v. 2) is rendered conservatively as "wooden vessels," following its likely sense of wood/wooden objects, though the exact referent is uncertain. "Ayāsyaḥ" (v. 4) is taken as an epithet, "the tireless one," rather than as the proper name of the sage Ayāsya, though both readings are attested. "Śundhyu" (v. 5) is a proper name, apparently a demon or foe defeated by Indra, about whom little else is known from this hymn alone.
Colophon
Rigveda X.138 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.138
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.
tava tya indra sakhyeṣu vahnaya ṛtam manvānā vy adardirur valam |
yatrā daśasyann uṣaso riṇann apaḥ kutsāya manmann ahyaś ca daṁsayaḥ || 1 ||
avāsṛjaḥ prasvaḥ śvañcayo girīn ud āja usrā apibo madhu priyam |
avardhayo vanino asya daṁsasā śuśoca sūrya ṛtajātayā girā || 2 ||
vi sūryo madhye amucad rathaṁ divo vidad dāsāya pratimānam āryaḥ |
dṛḻhāni pipror asurasya māyina indro vy āsyac cakṛvām̐ ṛjiśvanā || 3 ||
anādhṛṣṭāni dhṛṣito vy āsyan nidhīm̐r adevām̐ amṛṇad ayāsyaḥ |
māseva sūryo vasu puryam ā dade gṛṇānaḥ śatrūm̐r aśṛṇād virukmatā || 4 ||
ayuddhaseno vibhvā vibhindatā dāśad vṛtrahā tujyāni tejate |
indrasya vajrād abibhed abhiśnathaḥ prākrāmac chundhyūr ajahād uṣā anaḥ || 5 ||
etā tyā te śrutyāni kevalā yad eka ekam akṛṇor ayajñam |
māsāṁ vidhānam adadhā adhi dyavi tvayā vibhinnam bharati pradhim pitā || 6 ||
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).