Hymn to Indra

Rigveda X.179 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. Stand up, look here — behold Indra's seasonal share. If it is cooked, offer it! If it is not yet cooked, rejoice all the same.

2. The oblation is cooked; come quickly, Indra! The sun has reached the middle of its path. Your comrades sit around you with their stores, as a household's head waits for the herd's master as he makes his rounds.

3. Cooked in the udder, I think, and cooked on the fire — well-cooked, I deem it, that offering ever new. Drink, O Indra, wielder of the mace, doer of many deeds, taking your pleasure in the curds of the midday pressing.

Colophon

This hymn is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation, translated 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.179

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.

ut tiṣṭhatāva paśyatendrasya bhāgam ṛtviyam |
yadi śrāto juhotana yady aśrāto mamattana || 1 ||

śrātaṁ havir o ṣv indra pra yāhi jagāma sūro adhvano vimadhyam |
pari tvāsate nidhibhiḥ sakhāyaḥ kulapā na vrājapatiṁ carantam || 2 ||

śrātam manya ūdhani śrātam agnau suśrātam manye tad ṛtaṁ navīyaḥ |
mādhyaṁdinasya savanasya dadhnaḥ pibendra vajrin purukṛj juṣāṇaḥ || 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).