Hymn to Indra

Rigveda X.23 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. We worship Indra, the mace in his right hand, charioteer of the bay horses that run each their own course. He shook his beard forward and stood up tall, giving out gifts with his armies, giving out gifts with his bounty.

2. His are the two bay horses, found as wealth in the wood — Indra, bounteous with his bounties, became the slayer of Vṛtra. As Ṛbhu, as Vāja, as Ṛbhukṣan, he rules over his own strength: "I grind down even the name of the Dāsa."

3. When he takes up the golden mace, then he mounts the chariot that his two bay horses draw, going forth with the patrons — the bounteous one, of ancient fame, Indra, lord of the prize, of far-reaching renown.

4. He indeed, like rain that comes with its own herds of clouds, sprinkles his tawny beard. He seeks out the good dwelling; in the pressed soma's sweetness he shakes his beard up, as wind shakes a forest.

5. He who with his speech struck down the ill-speaking, the hostile-tongued, thousands of them, ill-omened — each such manly deed of his we proclaim, he who like a father has made his own strength, his might, grow great.

6. The Vimadas have generated for you, Indra, a hymn of praise unprecedented, most abundant, for you the good giver. For we know his nourishment, the mighty one's — that we should bring it to him as cowherds bring in their cattle.

7. Let nothing part us from this friendship, yours, Indra, and the seer Vimada's. For we know your forethought, god, as that of a kinsman; may your friendships, kind to us, remain with us.

Translator's note: verse 2's phrase "vane vide vasu" (literally "found as wealth in the wood") is compressed and obscure; it is kept literal rather than resolved into a specific claim about the horses' origin. Verse 4's "vṛṣṭir yūthyā" ("rain with its own herd") is likewise a compact image rendered conservatively rather than expanded.

Colophon

Rigveda X.23 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.23

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.

yajāmaha indraṁ vajradakṣiṇaṁ harīṇāṁ rathya1ṁ vivratānām |
pra śmaśru dodhuvad ūrdhvathā bhūd vi senābhir dayamāno vi rādhasā || 1 ||

harī nv asya yā vane vide vasv indro maghair maghavā vṛtrahā bhuvat |
ṛbhur vāja ṛbhukṣāḥ patyate śavo 'va kṣṇaumi dāsasya nāma cit || 2 ||

yadā vajraṁ hiraṇyam id athā rathaṁ harī yam asya vahato vi sūribhiḥ |
ā tiṣṭhati maghavā sanaśruta indro vājasya dīrghaśravasas patiḥ || 3 ||

so cin nu vṛṣṭir yūthyā3 svā sacām̐ indraḥ śmaśrūṇi haritābhi pruṣṇute |
ava veti sukṣayaṁ sute madhūd id dhūnoti vāto yathā vanam || 4 ||

yo vācā vivāco mṛdhravācaḥ purū sahasrāśivā jaghāna |
tat-tad id asya pauṁsyaṁ gṛṇīmasi piteva yas taviṣīṁ vāvṛdhe śavaḥ || 5 ||

stomaṁ ta indra vimadā ajījanann apūrvyam purutamaṁ sudānave |
vidmā hy asya bhojanam inasya yad ā paśuṁ na gopāḥ karāmahe || 6 ||

mākir na enā sakhyā vi yauṣus tava cendra vimadasya ca ṛṣeḥ |
vidmā hi te pramatiṁ deva jāmivad asme te santu sakhyā śivāni || 7 ||

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).