Hymn to Indra

Rigveda X.171 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. You, Indra, furthered that chariot of the hastening one, the soma-presser — you heard the call of the soma-man.

2. You carried off the head of raging Makha from his skin; you went to the house of the soma-presser.

3. You, Indra, loosened that mortal Venya, again and again, for Āstrabudhna, for the one who desired it.

4. You, Indra, make that sun which stood behind stand in front — even against the will of the gods.

Translator's note: verse 2's "Makha" and verse 3's "Venya" and "Āstrabudhna" are proper names whose narrative context is lost outside this hymn; they are rendered as names rather than expanded into unattested story. "tiraḥ vaśam" in verse 4 (literally "across/against the will") is rendered "against the will" as the most direct sense.

Colophon

Rigveda X.171 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.171

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.

tvaṁ tyam iṭato ratham indra prāvaḥ sutāvataḥ |
aśṛṇoḥ somino havam || 1 ||

tvam makhasya dodhataḥ śiro 'va tvaco bharaḥ |
agacchaḥ somino gṛham || 2 ||

tvaṁ tyam indra martyam āstrabudhnāya venyam |
muhuḥ śrathnā manasyave || 3 ||

tvaṁ tyam indra sūryam paścā santam puras kṛdhi |
devānāṁ cit tiro vaśam || 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).