Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.167 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. This sweet draught is poured out here for you, Indra; you rule over the jar of pressed soma. Make for us wealth rich in many men. You, blazing with heat on every side, won the sun.
2. We call here the great sun-winner, gladdened by the soma-juice, the mighty one, to the pressed drink. Take notice of this sacrifice of ours, come here; we beg the bounteous one who conquers his rivals.
3. Under the ordinance of King Soma and of Varuna, under the shelter of Brihaspati and of Anumati — today, O bounteous one, at your praising, O ordainer, O disposer, I have drunk from the jars.
4. Set in motion, I made my draught even at the ladle, and this song of praise I, the foremost sage, polish for myself. If at the pressing I have come before you two by way of my gain, then know it, O Vishvamitra and Jamadagni, in this house.
Translator's note: "śarman" (v.3) is rendered "shelter," its ordinary sense of protective cover; "un mṛje" (v.4) is rendered "polish," from the verb meaning to wipe clean or burnish, here applied to the composing of a hymn. The final line of verse 4 is compressed and its exact ritual sense uncertain; it is rendered conservatively, keeping the address to the two named seers and the claim of having come "by way of gain" (sātena) to their dwelling.
Colophon
Rigveda X.167 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.167
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.
tubhyedam indra pari ṣicyate madhu tvaṁ sutasya kalaśasya rājasi |
tvaṁ rayim puruvīrām u nas kṛdhi tvaṁ tapaḥ paritapyājayaḥ svaḥ || 1 ||
svarjitam mahi mandānam andhaso havāmahe pari śakraṁ sutām̐ upa |
imaṁ no yajñam iha bodhy ā gahi spṛdho jayantam maghavānam īmahe || 2 ||
somasya rājño varuṇasya dharmaṇi bṛhaspater anumatyā u śarmaṇi |
tavāham adya maghavann upastutau dhātar vidhātaḥ kalaśām̐ abhakṣayam || 3 ||
prasūto bhakṣam akaraṁ carāv api stomaṁ cemam prathamaḥ sūrir un mṛje |
sute sātena yady āgamaṁ vām prati viśvāmitrajamadagnī dame || 4 ||
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).