Funeral Hymn

Rigveda X.18 is the burial hymn of the Veda, and among the most humane poems of the ancient world. It orders Death onto his own separate road, sets a boundary stone between the dead and the living, sends the mourners back "forward to dance and to laughter," raises the widow back into the world of the living, and lowers the dead into the ground with the gentlest verse in the whole book: "As a mother covers her son with the fold of her skirt, so cover him, Earth."

This hymn belongs to the funeral rite: it turns Death away from the living, sends the mourners back toward life, and commits the dead into the keeping of Mother Earth. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.

1. Go away, Death, along your own separate path, the one different from the road the gods travel. I say this to you who see and hear: do not harm our children, and do not harm our men.

2. Effacing the track of Death as you go forward, taking on a longer, farther span of life, growing full with offspring and wealth — become clean, become pure, fit for the sacrifice.

3. These living ones have turned away from the dead; our calling on the gods has gone well for us today. We have gone forward to dance and to laughter, taking on a longer, farther span of life.

4. I set this boundary for the living; let none of them reach that goal before their time. Let them live a hundred plentiful autumns, and let them lay death away behind a mountain.

5. As the days come one after another in order, as the seasons follow the seasons rightly, as the later one does not overtake the earlier — so, Ordainer, arrange the lifespans of these.

6. Climb up toward long life, choosing old age, each of you striving in due order, one after another. Here Tvaṣṭar, of fair birth, in accord with the gods, makes a long life for your living.

7. Let these women, not widowed, with good husbands, come forward anointed with salve and with ghee. Let the wives, without tears, free of affliction, well adorned with their jewels, be the first to go up to their place.

8. Rise, woman, toward the world of the living. Come — you are lying beside one whose breath has gone. You have come into the wifehood of this man who takes your hand and desires you.

9. Taking the bow from the dead man's hand, for our dominion, our splendor, our strength — stay right here; and here may we, rich in strong men, overcome all rival forces and every hostile power.

10. Creep toward this mother, Earth here, wide-reaching, most kindly. Soft as wool, a young woman toward the one who gives — let her protect you from the lap of Dissolution.

11. Open wide, Earth; do not press down upon him. Be easy for him to approach, easy to yield to him. As a mother covers her son with the fold of her skirt, so cover him, Earth.

12. Let Earth, as she opens, stand firm; let a thousand pillars be raised over her. Let those dwellings drip with ghee; let them be shelters for him here, always.

13. I raise the earth up around you, setting down this clod, so that I do you no harm. Let the fathers hold up this post for you; let Yama fix your dwelling-place here.

14. On this turned-back day they have laid me down like a feather. I have caught hold of the answering word, as one takes a horse by the rein.

Translator's note: verse 14 is textually obscure — the words ahanīṣvāḥ and the exact sense of "the turned-back day" and "the answering word" have no settled reading. The rendering above keeps close to the individual Sanskrit words rather than smoothing them into a confident claim.

Colophon

Rigveda X.18 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.18

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.

param mṛtyo anu parehi panthāṁ yas te sva itaro devayānāt |
cakṣuṣmate śṛṇvate te bravīmi mā naḥ prajāṁ rīriṣo mota vīrān || 1 ||

mṛtyoḥ padaṁ yopayanto yad aita drāghīya āyuḥ prataraṁ dadhānāḥ |
āpyāyamānāḥ prajayā dhanena śuddhāḥ pūtā bhavata yajñiyāsaḥ || 2 ||

ime jīvā vi mṛtair āvavṛtrann abhūd bhadrā devahūtir no adya |
prāñco agāma nṛtaye hasāya drāghīya āyuḥ prataraṁ dadhānāḥ || 3 ||

imaṁ jīvebhyaḥ paridhiṁ dadhāmi maiṣāṁ nu gād aparo artham etam |
śataṁ jīvantu śaradaḥ purūcīr antar mṛtyuṁ dadhatām parvatena || 4 ||

yathāhāny anupūrvam bhavanti yatha ṛtava ṛtubhir yanti sādhu |
yathā na pūrvam aparo jahāty evā dhātar āyūṁṣi kalpayaiṣām || 5 ||

ā rohatāyur jarasaṁ vṛṇānā anupūrvaṁ yatamānā yati ṣṭha |
iha tvaṣṭā sujanimā sajoṣā dīrgham āyuḥ karati jīvase vaḥ || 6 ||

imā nārīr avidhavāḥ supatnīr āñjanena sarpiṣā saṁ viśantu |
anaśravo 'namīvāḥ suratnā ā rohantu janayo yonim agre || 7 ||

ud īrṣva nāry abhi jīvalokaṁ gatāsum etam upa śeṣa ehi |
hastagrābhasya didhiṣos tavedam patyur janitvam abhi sam babhūtha || 8 ||

dhanur hastād ādadāno mṛtasyāsme kṣatrāya varcase balāya |
atraiva tvam iha vayaṁ suvīrā viśvāḥ spṛdho abhimātīr jayema || 9 ||

upa sarpa mātaram bhūmim etām uruvyacasam pṛthivīṁ suśevām |
ūrṇamradā yuvatir dakṣiṇāvata eṣā tvā pātu nirṛter upasthāt || 10 ||

uc chvañcasva pṛthivi mā ni bādhathāḥ sūpāyanāsmai bhava sūpavañcanā |
mātā putraṁ yathā sicābhy enam bhūma ūrṇuhi || 11 ||

ucchvañcamānā pṛthivī su tiṣṭhatu sahasram mita upa hi śrayantām |
te gṛhāso ghṛtaścuto bhavantu viśvāhāsmai śaraṇāḥ santv atra || 12 ||

ut te stabhnāmi pṛthivīṁ tvat parīmaṁ logaṁ nidadhan mo ahaṁ riṣam |
etāṁ sthūṇām pitaro dhārayantu te 'trā yamaḥ sādanā te minotu || 13 ||

pratīcīne mām ahanīṣvāḥ parṇam ivā dadhuḥ |
pratīcīṁ jagrabhā vācam aśvaṁ raśanayā yathā || 14 ||

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).