Charm for the Return of Strayed Cattle
Rigveda X.19 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. Turn back — do not go further from us. Follow us, you rich ones. O Agni and Soma, who bring back what was lost, hold our wealth fast for us.
2. Turn them back again, bring them back again. Let Indra hold them still; let Agni drive them near.
3. Let them turn back again; let them thrive here, under this lord of the herd. Right here, O Agni, hold them fast — let the wealth that is ours stay here.
4. The way down, the going in, the mutual recognition, the way out — the turning toward, the turning back: whoever is herdsman of that, him too I call.
5. He who went forth by wandering away, he who went forth by departing — let the herdsman too turn back, by the turning-toward, by the turning-back.
6. Turn here, turn back. Give us the cows again, Indra. Let us enjoy them together with the living.
7. I have set around you, on every side, strength, ghee, milk. Whatever gods there are, worthy of the rite, let them join us together with wealth.
8. O Turning-back, turn them here; O Turning-back, turn them down. The earth has four quarters — from all of these, turn them back to us.
Translator's note: verse 5's "udānaṭ" (from ud + an, "to breathe/go forth") is rendered conservatively as "went forth"; its precise sense — escape, wandering, or something nearer to death — is not settled from the verse alone. Verses 4 and 8 use "nivartana" ("turning back") both as an abstract action and, in verse 8, as a direct address, treated here as a personified vocative in keeping with the verse's grammar.
Colophon
Rigveda X.19 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.19
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.
ni vartadhvam mānu gātāsmān siṣakta revatīḥ |
agnīṣomā punarvasū asme dhārayataṁ rayim || 1 ||
punar enā ni vartaya punar enā ny ā kuru |
indra eṇā ni yacchatv agnir enā upājatu || 2 ||
punar etā ni vartantām asmin puṣyantu gopatau |
ihaivāgne ni dhārayeha tiṣṭhatu yā rayiḥ || 3 ||
yan niyānaṁ nyayanaṁ saṁjñānaṁ yat parāyaṇam |
āvartanaṁ nivartanaṁ yo gopā api taṁ huve || 4 ||
ya udānaḍ vyayanaṁ ya udānaṭ parāyaṇam |
āvartanaṁ nivartanam api gopā ni vartatām || 5 ||
ā nivarta ni vartaya punar na indra gā dehi |
jīvābhir bhunajāmahai || 6 ||
pari vo viśvato dadha ūrjā ghṛtena payasā |
ye devāḥ ke ca yajñiyās te rayyā saṁ sṛjantu naḥ || 7 ||
ā nivartana vartaya ni nivartana vartaya |
bhūmyāś catasraḥ pradiśas tābhya enā ni vartaya || 8 ||
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).