Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.160 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. Drink of this potent, invigorating draught. Unyoke your two bay horses here, chariot and all. Indra, don't let other sacrificers hold you back — these pressed drinks are for you alone.
2. The pressed drinks are yours, and those still to be pressed are yours too; the eager songs call you here. Indra, taking pleasure in this pressing today, knowing all things, drink the soma set out here.
3. The man who presses soma for him with a willing mind, with his whole heart, desiring the god — that man's cattle Indra does not take away; instead he makes him praised and dear.
4. But this one is marked out — the wealthy man who does not press soma for him. The bounteous one sets him beyond his reach; unbidden, he strikes down the haters of sacred speech.
5. Desiring horses, desiring cattle, desiring reward, we call you to come to us. Attending on your fresh favor, we, Indra, call on you for our good fortune.
Translator's note: verse 4's "nir aratnau ... dadhāti" is rendered conservatively as "sets him beyond his reach" (literally something like "places him outside the forearm/embrace"), an idiom for casting someone out of favor or protection.
Colophon
Rigveda X.160 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.160
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.
tīvrasyābhivayaso asya pāhi sarvarathā vi harī iha muñca |
indra mā tvā yajamānāso anye ni rīraman tubhyam ime sutāsaḥ || 1 ||
tubhyaṁ sutās tubhyam u sotvāsas tvāṁ giraḥ śvātryā ā hvayanti |
indredam adya savanaṁ juṣāṇo viśvasya vidvām̐ iha pāhi somam || 2 ||
ya uśatā manasā somam asmai sarvahṛdā devakāmaḥ sunoti |
na gā indras tasya parā dadāti praśastam ic cārum asmai kṛṇoti || 3 ||
anuspaṣṭo bhavaty eṣo asya yo asmai revān na sunoti somam |
nir aratnau maghavā taṁ dadhāti brahmadviṣo hanty anānudiṣṭaḥ || 4 ||
aśvāyanto gavyanto vājayanto havāmahe tvopagantavā u |
ābhūṣantas te sumatau navāyāṁ vayam indra tvā śunaṁ huvema || 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).