Hymn Against Evil Dreams
Rigveda X.164 is a sūkta (hymn) 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. Traditionally known as the hymn against bad dreams (duḥsvapnanāśana), it addresses Manas (mind) directly before turning to Agni, Indra-Brahmanaspati, and the Āṅgirases for protection.
1. Go away, lord of mind — depart, wander off far away. Beyond Nirṛti, declare it: manifold is the mind of the living.
2. Good is the boon they choose; good the right-hand horse they yoke; good the sight turned toward the son of Vivasvant. In many places the mind of the living wanders.
3. Whatever wrong we have done through desire, through curse, through imprecation — whether waking or asleep — let Agni take all the ill deeds, all the unwelcome things, far away from us.
4. If, Indra, lord of the sacred formula, we have gone about doing harm, let the watchful Āṅgirases guard us from the distress of those who hate us.
5. Today we have won; today we have gained our cause; we are free of guilt. Whatever evil intention comes in waking or in sleep — let it strike the one we hate; let it strike the one who hates us.
Translator's note: "nirṛtyā" (verse 1) names Nirṛti, the goddess/force of dissolution and destruction; rendered here simply as "Nirṛti" rather than translated. "Vaivasvate" (verse 2) refers to the son of Vivasvant — Yama, lord of the dead — kept untranslated as a name.
Colophon
Rigveda X.164 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.164
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.
apehi manasas pate 'pa krāma paraś cara |
paro nirṛtyā ā cakṣva bahudhā jīvato manaḥ || 1 ||
bhadraṁ vai varaṁ vṛṇate bhadraṁ yuñjanti dakṣiṇam |
bhadraṁ vaivasvate cakṣur bahutrā jīvato manaḥ || 2 ||
yad āśasā niḥśasābhiśasopārima jāgrato yat svapantaḥ |
agnir viśvāny apa duṣkṛtāny ajuṣṭāny āre asmad dadhātu || 3 ||
yad indra brahmaṇas pate 'bhidrohaṁ carāmasi |
pracetā na āṅgiraso dviṣatām pātv aṁhasaḥ || 4 ||
ajaiṣmādyāsanāma cābhūmānāgaso vayam |
jāgratsvapnaḥ saṁkalpaḥ pāpo yaṁ dviṣmas taṁ sa ṛcchatu yo no dveṣṭi tam ṛcchatu || 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).