Hymn to the Mystic Bird (Pataṅga)
Rigveda X.177 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. A short riddle hymn, it addresses a mystic flying bird (pataṅga) as an emblem of speech and light — a figure the tradition associates with the sun and with Vāc, the goddess of speech.
1. The wise, the inspired, see with heart and with mind the bird anointed by the power of the mighty lord. Within the ocean the seers behold it; the sages seek the track of the light-rays.
2. The bird bears speech within its mind; the Gandharva spoke it inside the womb. That shining, resonant insight the seers guard in the seat of truth.
3. I saw the herdsman who never rests, moving on paths both toward and away. Clothed in what draws together and what scatters apart, he turns and turns again within the worlds.
Translator's note: "asurasya māyayā" (1) is rendered "by the power of the mighty lord" — asura here carries its older sense of a mighty divine lord, not the later demonic sense. "sadhrīcīḥ ... viṣūcīr vasāna" (3), literally "wearing [garments] that go together and that go every which way," is rendered "clothed in what draws together and what scatters apart," likely a figure for converging and diverging rays of light.
Colophon
Rigveda X.177 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda X.177
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.
pataṁgam aktam asurasya māyayā hṛdā paśyanti manasā vipaścitaḥ |
samudre antaḥ kavayo vi cakṣate marīcīnām padam icchanti vedhasaḥ || 1 ||
pataṁgo vācam manasā bibharti tāṁ gandharvo 'vadad garbhe antaḥ |
tāṁ dyotamānāṁ svaryam manīṣām ṛtasya pade kavayo ni pānti || 2 ||
apaśyaṁ gopām anipadyamānam ā ca parā ca pathibhiś carantam |
sa sadhrīcīḥ sa viṣūcīr vasāna ā varīvarti bhuvaneṣv antaḥ || 3 ||
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).