Hymn to Bṛhaspati

Rigveda X.182 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. Let Bṛhaspati lead us across hard, impassable places; let him not send our prayer back again into the hands of the man of evil speech.
He casts out the curse, strikes down ill will; then he makes well-being and safety for the one who offers the sacrifice.

2. Let Narāśaṃsa favor us at the forward offering; let there be well-being for us at the after-offering, in our invocations.
He casts out the curse, strikes down ill will; then he makes well-being and safety for the one who offers the sacrifice.

3. Let the flame-headed one burn the demons, those who hate sacred speech — let them be slain by his arrow.
He casts out the curse, strikes down ill will; then he makes well-being and safety for the one who offers the sacrifice.

Translator's note: "the flame-headed one" (tapurmūrdhā) in verse 3 is a fierce epithet, not a named deity in the Sanskrit itself; it is rendered literally rather than resolved to a specific god.

Colophon

Rigveda X.182 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.182

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.

bṛhaspatir nayatu durgahā tiraḥ punar neṣad aghaśaṁsāya manma |
kṣipad aśastim apa durmatiṁ hann athā karad yajamānāya śaṁ yoḥ || 1 ||

narāśaṁso no 'vatu prayāje śaṁ no astv anuyājo haveṣu |
kṣipad aśastim apa durmatiṁ hann athā karad yajamānāya śaṁ yoḥ || 2 ||

tapurmūrdhā tapatu rakṣaso ye brahmadviṣaḥ śarave hantavā u |
kṣipad aśastim apa durmatiṁ hann athā karad yajamānāya śaṁ yoḥ || 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).