A Charm to Restore the Dying to Life
Rigveda X.161 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. The hymn is a healing charm spoken over a sick or dying person: it calls on Indra and Agni, and further on Savitar and Bṛhaspati, to loosen the grip of disease and death and restore the sufferer to a full life.
1. I free you with an oblation, for life, from the unknown wasting sickness and from the royal wasting sickness. If the Seizer has truly seized hold of this man, then release him from her grip, O Indra and Agni.
2. If his lifespan is spent, or if he has already gone, or if he has already been led to the edge of death — I bring him back from the lap of Nirṛti, goddess of dissolution. I have rescued him, for a hundred autumns.
3. With a thousand-eyed oblation, one of a hundred autumns, one of a hundred lifetimes, I have brought him back — so that Indra may lead him a hundred autumns onward, to the far shore of every hardship.
4. Live a hundred autumns, growing in strength, a hundred winters, and a hundred springs as well. May Indra and Agni, Savitar, and Bṛhaspati give him back again a hundred years, with an oblation of a hundred lifetimes.
5. I have brought you back, I have found you. You have come again, O renewed one. O whole-limbed one, I have found your sight whole, and I have found your whole lifespan.
Translator's note: "rājayakṣma" (v.1) is a named wasting disease, traditionally glossed as consumption or "the royal sickness"; it is kept close to the Sanskrit rather than modernized to a specific diagnosis. "Grāhi" (v.1) is treated as a proper name, the demoness "Seizer," rather than a common noun. "Nirṛti" (v.2) is the goddess of dissolution and misfortune; "her lap/womb" (upastha) is rendered "lap" for the image of being drawn back from her hold.
Colophon
Rigveda X.161 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.161
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.
muñcāmi tvā haviṣā jīvanāya kam ajñātayakṣmād uta rājayakṣmāt |
grāhir jagrāha yadi vaitad enaṁ tasyā indrāgnī pra mumuktam enam || 1 ||
yadi kṣitāyur yadi vā pareto yadi mṛtyor antikaṁ nīta eva |
tam ā harāmi nirṛter upasthād aspārṣam enaṁ śataśāradāya || 2 ||
sahasrākṣeṇa śataśāradena śatāyuṣā haviṣāhārṣam enam |
śataṁ yathemaṁ śarado nayātīndro viśvasya duritasya pāram || 3 ||
śataṁ jīva śarado vardhamānaḥ śataṁ hemantāñ chatam u vasantān |
śatam indrāgnī savitā bṛhaspatiḥ śatāyuṣā haviṣemam punar duḥ || 4 ||
āhārṣaṁ tvāvidaṁ tvā punar āgāḥ punarnava |
sarvāṅga sarvaṁ te cakṣuḥ sarvam āyuś ca te 'vidam || 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).