Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.27 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. It shall truly be with a rushing force, O singer, when I strive to aid the one who presses the soma and sacrifices. I am the smiter of the one who gives no milk-offering, of the resourceless one who deceives truth and acts crookedly.
2. When I gather together for battle those undevoted to the gods, who blaze up in their bodies, then at home I shall cook for you a mighty bull, and pour out the sharp pressed soma, fifteenfold.
3. I do not know the one who speaks so — not until he has slain the godless in battle. Only when he has beheld the raging battle do the mighty ones then declare it to me.
4. When I dwelt among unknown peoples, all who were generous there were mine. Even one at rest in security I destroy, the resourceless one — I struck him down on the mountain, seizing him by the foot.
5. Neither enclosures hem me in, nor mountains, when my mind is set elsewhere. At my roar even the one with the shrunken ear takes fright — so too, day by day, the dust shall stir in my track.
6. Let them now behold here those who drink the boiled milk yet hold no place for Indra, those who carve out their portions and lord themselves over the spear — or those who scorned their own ardent friend: let the chariot-wheels roll over them.
7. You have arisen, you have grown, you have reached your full span. Let the one before now see it, and the one behind shall see it too. Nothing has equaled the one who has labored to the far shore of this realm of dust.
8. The cows, turned loose, ate the stranger's grain — I saw them wandering, along with their herdsman. Cries of the stranger rose from every side: how long will their own lord still delight in them?
9. When we, grazers of the people's herds, gather together — I, a grazer, within the wide pasture — then the one yoked here shall seek to be unyoked, and the one who has prevailed shall harness the unyoked.
10. Then indeed you will think my word true, when I bring together the two-footed and the four-footed. Whoever fights the bull with women at his side — without a fight I shall divide up his wealth.
11. Whose daughter was born blind — who, knowing her blindness, would still desire her? Which of the two shall bear the penalty for it: the one who takes her as wife, or the one who would only have chosen her?
12. How different is the maiden, delighted with a rich and desirable gift, from the young man merely eager for a bride! The bride becomes fortunate when she is well adorned; she herself wins a companion, even among strangers.
13. Afoot he has swallowed, he devours what lies before him; head to head he has laid down his covering. Sitting, he consumes the upright one in his lap; bending low, he moves along the outstretched earth.
14. The tall courser stood, shadeless and leafless; the mother stands still while her young one feeds freely. Licking a calf not her own, she lowed — by what means did the milk-cow bare her udder?
15. Seven men rose up from below; eight came together from above. Nine came from behind, carrying their loads; ten from the east pass over the ridge of the rock.
16. One of the ten, tawny, shared by all — him they urge on for the decisive deed. The mother carries the embryo, well-placed in her womb; contenting him though he asks for nothing, she bears him.
17. The men cooked a fat ram; the dice lay cast for their game. Two, amid the great expanse of waters, move about with their strainers, purifying.
18. Crying out, they scattered, each his own way — one half shall cook, the other shall not. This is what the god Savitar has told me: only the one who feeds on wood, and the one who feeds on ghee, shall prevail.
19. I saw a host being carried along from afar, moving without a wheel by its own power. It follows close upon the generations of the people, at once shearing away what is old, ever renewing itself.
20. These two oxen of mine stand yoked for the Pounder — do not drive them off, delight them a moment more. Even the waters lose their course before him, and the sun becomes the striker, arising after.
21. This mace, which has turned in many ways, comes down from the vast expanse of the great sun. There is, beyond this, another glory — to that, unshaken, even old age passes over.
22. Bound to every tree, the cow bellows; from her let the man-eating birds fly forth. Then let this whole world take fright — yet let it press soma for Indra, and give to the seer.
23. The first ones stood in the measure of the gods; the later ones of them rose from the place of division. Three warm the well-watered earth; two bear the flood to the stammering one.
24. That is your life-breath — know it as such; do not hide such a thing away in the contest. He reveals the sun, he conceals the mist; his foot is not freed from its garment.
Translator's note: verses 13–24 are a sequence of traditional Vedic riddle-verses (likely touching Agni, the year, the sun, and ritual fire) whose imagery is deliberately cryptic even in Sanskrit. Several words have no settled meaning: ābhu (v.1, 4, rendered "resourceless one"), kṛdhukarṇa (v.5, "the one with the shrunken ear"), bāhukṣad (v.6, "carve out their portions"), dhanu (v.17, "expanse of waters," possibly a sandy tract), drvanna and sarpirannaḥ (v.18, "feeds on wood" / "feeds on ghee"), śiśnā (v.19, "shearing away," a disputed reading), pramara/marka (v.20, "the Pounder" / "the striker"), and bṛbūka (v.23, "the stammering one," possibly a proper name). These are translated conservatively, following the most literal sense of each root, rather than resolved into a confident narrative the Sanskrit does not clearly support.
Colophon
Rigveda X.27 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.27
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.
asat su me jaritaḥ sābhivego yat sunvate yajamānāya śikṣam |
anāśīrdām aham asmi prahantā satyadhvṛtaṁ vṛjināyantam ābhum || 1 ||
yadīd ahaṁ yudhaye saṁnayāny adevayūn tanvā3 śūśujānān |
amā te tumraṁ vṛṣabham pacāni tīvraṁ sutam pañcadaśaṁ ni ṣiñcam || 2 ||
nāhaṁ taṁ veda ya iti bravīty adevayūn samaraṇe jaghanvān |
yadāvākhyat samaraṇam ṛghāvad ād id dha me vṛṣabhā pra bruvanti || 3 ||
yad ajñāteṣu vṛjaneṣv āsaṁ viśve sato maghavāno ma āsan |
jināmi vet kṣema ā santam ābhum pra taṁ kṣiṇām parvate pādagṛhya || 4 ||
na vā u māṁ vṛjane vārayante na parvatāso yad aham manasye |
mama svanāt kṛdhukarṇo bhayāta eved anu dyūn kiraṇaḥ sam ejāt || 5 ||
darśan nv atra śṛtapām̐ anindrān bāhukṣadaḥ śarave patyamānān |
ghṛṣuṁ vā ye niniduḥ sakhāyam adhy ū nv eṣu pavayo vavṛtyuḥ || 6 ||
abhūr v aukṣīr vy u1 āyur ānaḍ darśan nu pūrvo aparo nu darśat |
dve pavaste pari taṁ na bhūto yo asya pāre rajaso viveṣa || 7 ||
gāvo yavam prayutā aryo akṣan tā apaśyaṁ sahagopāś carantīḥ |
havā id aryo abhitaḥ sam āyan kiyad āsu svapatiś chandayāte || 8 ||
saṁ yad vayaṁ yavasādo janānām ahaṁ yavāda urvajre antaḥ |
atrā yukto 'vasātāram icchād atho ayuktaṁ yunajad vavanvān || 9 ||
atred u me maṁsase satyam uktaṁ dvipāc ca yac catuṣpāt saṁsṛjāni |
strībhir yo atra vṛṣaṇam pṛtanyād ayuddho asya vi bhajāni vedaḥ || 10 ||
yasyānakṣā duhitā jātv āsa kas tāṁ vidvām̐ abhi manyāte andhām |
kataro menim prati tam mucāte ya īṁ vahāte ya īṁ vā vareyāt || 11 ||
kiyatī yoṣā maryato vadhūyoḥ pariprītā panyasā vāryeṇa |
bhadrā vadhūr bhavati yat supeśāḥ svayaṁ sā mitraṁ vanute jane cit || 12 ||
patto jagāra pratyañcam atti śīrṣṇā śiraḥ prati dadhau varūtham |
āsīna ūrdhvām upasi kṣiṇāti nyaṅṅ uttānām anv eti bhūmim || 13 ||
bṛhann acchāyo apalāśo arvā tasthau mātā viṣito atti garbhaḥ |
anyasyā vatsaṁ rihatī mimāya kayā bhuvā ni dadhe dhenur ūdhaḥ || 14 ||
sapta vīrāso adharād ud āyann aṣṭottarāttāt sam ajagmiran te |
nava paścātāt sthivimanta āyan daśa prāk sānu vi tiranty aśnaḥ || 15 ||
daśānām ekaṁ kapilaṁ samānaṁ taṁ hinvanti kratave pāryāya |
garbham mātā sudhitaṁ vakṣaṇāsv avenantaṁ tuṣayantī bibharti || 16 ||
pīvānam meṣam apacanta vīrā nyuptā akṣā anu dīva āsan |
dvā dhanum bṛhatīm apsv a1ntaḥ pavitravantā carataḥ punantā || 17 ||
vi krośanāso viṣvañca āyan pacāti nemo nahi pakṣad ardhaḥ |
ayam me devaḥ savitā tad āha drvanna id vanavat sarpirannaḥ || 18 ||
apaśyaṁ grāmaṁ vahamānam ārād acakrayā svadhayā vartamānam |
siṣakty aryaḥ pra yugā janānāṁ sadyaḥ śiśnā pramināno navīyān || 19 ||
etau me gāvau pramarasya yuktau mo ṣu pra sedhīr muhur in mamandhi |
āpaś cid asya vi naśanty arthaṁ sūraś ca marka uparo babhūvān || 20 ||
ayaṁ yo vajraḥ purudhā vivṛtto 'vaḥ sūryasya bṛhataḥ purīṣāt |
śrava id enā paro anyad asti tad avyathī jarimāṇas taranti || 21 ||
vṛkṣe-vṛkṣe niyatā mīmayad gaus tato vayaḥ pra patān pūruṣādaḥ |
athedaṁ viśvam bhuvanam bhayāta indrāya sunvad ṛṣaye ca śikṣat || 22 ||
devānām māne prathamā atiṣṭhan kṛntatrād eṣām uparā ud āyan |
trayas tapanti pṛthivīm anūpā dvā bṛbūkaṁ vahataḥ purīṣam || 23 ||
sā te jīvātur uta tasya viddhi mā smaitādṛg apa gūhaḥ samarye |
āviḥ svaḥ kṛṇute gūhate busaṁ sa pādur asya nirṇijo na mucyate || 24 ||
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).