Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.22 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. Where is Indra known now? Among which people today is he heard of, like a friend — he who, whether dwelling among the seers or hidden from sight, is drawn out by song?
2. Here Indra is known; among us today he is praised, the mace-bearer, worthy of the hymn — he who, like a friend among the peoples, has made his fame complete, undivided.
3. He is the lord of great, undivided strength, the swift driver of great manly power, the bearer of the bold mace, like a father with his dear son.
4. Yoking the two roaring horses of Wind, god of the god, O mace-bearer — the two runners, set loose on the shining path — you shall be praised along the roads.
5. You yourself came to those same horses of Wind, the two swift ruddy ones, to drive them yourself — horses that no god, no mortal, can master; none is found fit to guide them.
6. Then, as you two came, Uśanā asked you: "For what reason have you come to our house? From the height of heaven and the breadth of earth you have come to a mortal."
7. Indra, may you delight in this raised prayer of ours. This we ask of you as your help: that you strike down Śuṣṇa, the inhuman one.
8. The Dasyu is a doer of no deeds, thoughtless toward us, of alien custom, inhuman — O slayer of enemies, break the weapon of that Dāsa.
9. Be with heroes for us, Indra the hero, and let us be aided by your strength. In many places your bounties resound, like clans crying out.
10. You urged those men on in the slaying of Vṛtra, for the Karpan, O hero mace-bearer, while Śuṣṇa lay hidden — the wise ones, the clans whose might reaches to the stars.
11. Swiftly came your gifts and your gains, Indra, hero mace-bearer, in the contest, when you and your companions shattered everything born of Śuṣṇa.
12. Let your good, favoring powers not turn away from us, Indra the hero. May each of us stand in the favor of these, O mace-bearer.
13. May these true blessings of yours, that do no harm, be ours, Indra. May we know their benefit, as one knows the benefit of milk-cows, O mace-bearer.
14. When the handless, footless earth grew strong through the powers of what is to be known, you struck Śuṣṇa down on every side, turning rightward, for the sake of every living thing.
15. Drink, drink the soma, Indra the hero; do no harm to us, you who, being good, are a winner of goods. And guard the singers and the generous patrons, and make us rich with great and abundant wealth.
Translator's note: verse 10's "Karpan" (kārpāṇe) and verse 14's description of the "handless, footless" earth are obscure in the Sanskrit and are rendered here conservatively, word for word, rather than resolved into a confident paraphrase.
Colophon
Rigveda X.22 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.22
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.
kuha śruta indraḥ kasminn adya jane mitro na śrūyate |
ṛṣīṇāṁ vā yaḥ kṣaye guhā vā carkṛṣe girā || 1 ||
iha śruta indro asme adya stave vajry ṛcīṣamaḥ |
mitro na yo janeṣv ā yaśaś cakre asāmy ā || 2 ||
maho yas patiḥ śavaso asāmy ā maho nṛmṇasya tūtujiḥ |
bhartā vajrasya dhṛṣṇoḥ pitā putram iva priyam || 3 ||
yujāno aśvā vātasya dhunī devo devasya vajrivaḥ |
syantā pathā virukmatā sṛjānaḥ stoṣy adhvanaḥ || 4 ||
tvaṁ tyā cid vātasyāśvāgā ṛjrā tmanā vahadhyai |
yayor devo na martyo yantā nakir vidāyyaḥ || 5 ||
adha gmantośanā pṛcchate vāṁ kadarthā na ā gṛham |
ā jagmathuḥ parākād divaś ca gmaś ca martyam || 6 ||
ā na indra pṛkṣase 'smākam brahmodyatam |
tat tvā yācāmahe 'vaḥ śuṣṇaṁ yad dhann amānuṣam || 7 ||
akarmā dasyur abhi no amantur anyavrato amānuṣaḥ |
tvaṁ tasyāmitrahan vadhar dāsasya dambhaya || 8 ||
tvaṁ na indra śūra śūrair uta tvotāso barhaṇā |
purutrā te vi pūrtayo navanta kṣoṇayo yathā || 9 ||
tvaṁ tān vṛtrahatye codayo nṝn kārpāṇe śūra vajrivaḥ |
guhā yadī kavīnāṁ viśāṁ nakṣatraśavasām || 10 ||
makṣū tā ta indra dānāpnasa ākṣāṇe śūra vajrivaḥ |
yad dha śuṣṇasya dambhayo jātaṁ viśvaṁ sayāvabhiḥ || 11 ||
mākudhryag indra śūra vasvīr asme bhūvann abhiṣṭayaḥ |
vayaṁ-vayaṁ ta āsāṁ sumne syāma vajrivaḥ || 12 ||
asme tā ta indra santu satyāhiṁsantīr upaspṛśaḥ |
vidyāma yāsām bhujo dhenūnāṁ na vajrivaḥ || 13 ||
ahastā yad apadī vardhata kṣāḥ śacībhir vedyānām |
śuṣṇam pari pradakṣiṇid viśvāyave ni śiśnathaḥ || 14 ||
pibā-pibed indra śūra somam mā riṣaṇyo vasavāna vasuḥ san |
uta trāyasva gṛṇato maghono mahaś ca rāyo revatas kṛdhī naḥ || 15 ||
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).