Hymn to Vāta (the Wind)

Rigveda X.186 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 Wind blow here his healing balm, kindly and pleasant to our heart. May he stretch out our lifespans.

2. And Wind, you are a father to us, and a brother, and a friend. Make us fit to live.

3. That treasure of the deathless drink stored, Wind, in your house yonder — give us from it, that we may live.

Colophon

Rigveda X.186 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.186

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.

vāta ā vātu bheṣajaṁ śambhu mayobhu no hṛde |
pra ṇa āyūṁṣi tāriṣat || 1 ||

uta vāta pitāsi na uta bhrātota naḥ sakhā |
sa no jīvātave kṛdhi || 2 ||

yad ado vāta te gṛhe3 'mṛtasya nidhir hitaḥ |
tato no dehi jīvase || 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).