Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.174 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. With the overwhelming oblation by which Indra once prevailed — with that same oblation, O Lord of the Sacred Word, turn us toward dominion.
2. Having overcome our rivals, overcome the enmities set against us; stand against the one who wars on us, against the one who is hostile to us.
3. God Savitar has turned toward you, Soma has turned toward you; all beings have turned toward you, so that you may be the Overwhelming One.
4. With the oblation by which Indra, acting with it, became most brilliant — this same oblation I have now made, O gods; truly I have become one without rival.
5. Without rival, slayer of rivals, ruler of the realm, all-conquering — so that I may hold sway over these beings, and over the people of the land.
Translator's note: "abhivarta" (the hymn's key term, "overwhelming, rolling-over, victory-bringing") has no single-word English equivalent and is rendered contextually as "overwhelming" or "victory-bringing" rather than by one fixed gloss.
Colophon
Rigveda X.174 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.174
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.
abhīvartena haviṣā yenendro abhivāvṛte |
tenāsmān brahmaṇas pate 'bhi rāṣṭrāya vartaya || 1 ||
abhivṛtya sapatnān abhi yā no arātayaḥ |
abhi pṛtanyantaṁ tiṣṭhābhi yo na irasyati || 2 ||
abhi tvā devaḥ savitābhi somo avīvṛtat |
abhi tvā viśvā bhūtāny abhīvarto yathāsasi || 3 ||
yenendro haviṣā kṛtvy abhavad dyumny uttamaḥ |
idaṁ tad akri devā asapatnaḥ kilābhuvam || 4 ||
asapatnaḥ sapatnahābhirāṣṭro viṣāsahiḥ |
yathāham eṣām bhūtānāṁ virājāni janasya ca || 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).