Hymn to Śraddhā (Faith)
Rigveda X.151 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. By faith the fire is kindled, by faith the offering is poured out. Faith, at the head of fortune, we proclaim in speech.
2. Dear, O Faith, to the one who gives; dear, O Faith, to the one who means to give. Dear among the generous sacrificers — make this word of mine so.
3. As the gods set faith among the mighty Asuras, so make our word so among the generous sacrificers.
4. The sacrificing gods, kept by Vāyu, wait upon Faith. By the heart's own intention, by faith, one finds wealth.
5. We call upon Faith at morning, upon Faith around midday, upon Faith at the sun's setting. O Faith, make us here full of faith.
Translator's note: verse 1's "bhagasya mūrdhani" (at the head/summit of Bhaga — fortune or the god Bhaga) is rendered conservatively as "at the head of fortune." Verse 4's "hṛdayyayā ākūtyā" (by heart-belonging intention) is rendered as "the heart's own intention." Vāyu appears once, in verse 4, as the gods' guardian/keeper — he is not the hymn's addressee; Śraddhā (Faith), invoked and named in every verse, is.
Colophon
Rigveda X.151 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda X.151
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.
śraddhayāgniḥ sam idhyate śraddhayā hūyate haviḥ |
śraddhām bhagasya mūrdhani vacasā vedayāmasi || 1 ||
priyaṁ śraddhe dadataḥ priyaṁ śraddhe didāsataḥ |
priyam bhojeṣu yajvasv idam ma uditaṁ kṛdhi || 2 ||
yathā devā asureṣu śraddhām ugreṣu cakrire |
evam bhojeṣu yajvasv asmākam uditaṁ kṛdhi || 3 ||
śraddhāṁ devā yajamānā vāyugopā upāsate |
śraddhāṁ hṛdayya1yākūtyā śraddhayā vindate vasu || 4 ||
śraddhām prātar havāmahe śraddhām madhyaṁdinam pari |
śraddhāṁ sūryasya nimruci śraddhe śrad dhāpayeha naḥ || 5 ||
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).