Hymn to the Aśvins
Rigveda X.40 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 your chariot going? Who, among men, attends the shining one for our welfare — the morning-traveler, far-reaching to every clan, borne at every dawn with devotion and effort?
2. Where indeed in the evening, where at dawn, O Aśvins? Where do you make your approach? Where did you two pass the night? Who draws you to your resting place, as a widow draws her husband's brother, as a young woman draws her lover, to the shared dwelling?
3. At dawn you two are roused, like an aged pair with their poor helper; worthy of worship, you go to the house at every dawn. Whose vanishing ones do you become? Or to whose house do you go, O men, like king's sons to the soma-pressing?
4. Like hunters after a wild beast, we call you down at evening and at dawn with our oblation. You come, O men, to the one who offers it in its season; you bring nourishment to the people, lords of splendor.
5. Ghoṣā, going about you, O Aśvins, the king's daughter spoke: "I ask you, O men — be with me by day and be with me by night; grant strength to the one with horses and chariot, to the steed."
6. You two poets circle round the chariot, O Aśvins; like Kutsa among the clans, you bring it to the singer. Your bee carries honey close in her mouth, as a maiden goes to her appointed tryst.
7. You indeed came to Bhujyu, you, O Aśvins, to Vaśa, you to Śiñjāra, to Uśanā, you drew near. The generous ones dwell in friendship with you; I too desire your favor, with your help.
8. You indeed set free Kṛśa, you, O Aśvins, Śayu; you protect the worshipper and the widow. You, O Aśvins, opened for the seekers of gain the thundering enclosure with its seven mouths.
9. The young woman is born, the young boy darts forth; the plants grow up in their many forms by your wondrous working. To him the rivers flow as to a lowland; that, day by day, becomes the state of marriage.
10. They weep for the living one, they exchange gifts at the rite; the men have devised this after a long-extending plan. It is a precious thing to the fathers, who brought this about — joy to husbands, for wives to embrace.
11. We do not know this — declare it well to us: how does the young man dwell in the young woman's womb? May we go to the house of the dear ruddy bull, full of seed — O Aśvins, this we desire.
12. Your favor has come to us, O you rich in prize-wealth; O Aśvins, desires have settled in our hearts. You two have become the paired guardians, lords of splendor; may we obtain the dear dwelling of Aryaman.
13. Rejoicing in the house of Manu, bestow wealth with heroic sons on the eloquent one. Make a ford good for crossing, lords of splendor; strike away the stump standing on the path — strike away the ill will.
14. Where indeed today, among which clans, O Aśvins, do the wondrous lords of splendor take their delight? Who has held them fast? To whose house have they gone — the sage's, or the sacrificer's?
Translator's note: X.40 is one of the Rigveda's most riddling hymns, and several phrases resist a single confident rendering. Verse 2's "as a widow her husband's brother" refers to the levirate custom of a widow turning to her late husband's brother; it is kept literal rather than smoothed over. Verse 5's "grant strength to the one with horses and chariot, to the steed" and verse 7's "the generous ones" (rarāvā) are translated conservatively where the Sanskrit itself is compressed and ambiguous. Verses 9–10, which liken plant growth and ritual mourning to marriage, are notoriously oblique in the original and are rendered as literally as English allows rather than resolved into a tidier sense.
Colophon
Rigveda X.40 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda X.40
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.
rathaṁ yāntaṁ kuha ko ha vāṁ narā prati dyumantaṁ suvitāya bhūṣati |
prātaryāvāṇaṁ vibhvaṁ viśe-viśe vastor-vastor vahamānaṁ dhiyā śami || 1 ||
kuha svid doṣā kuha vastor aśvinā kuhābhipitvaṁ karataḥ kuhoṣatuḥ |
ko vāṁ śayutrā vidhaveva devaram maryaṁ na yoṣā kṛṇute sadhastha ā || 2 ||
prātar jarethe jaraṇeva kāpayā vastor-vastor yajatā gacchatho gṛham |
kasya dhvasrā bhavathaḥ kasya vā narā rājaputreva savanāva gacchathaḥ || 3 ||
yuvām mṛgeva vāraṇā mṛgaṇyavo doṣā vastor haviṣā ni hvayāmahe |
yuvaṁ hotrām ṛtuthā juhvate nareṣaṁ janāya vahathaḥ śubhas patī || 4 ||
yuvāṁ ha ghoṣā pary aśvinā yatī rājña ūce duhitā pṛcche vāṁ narā |
bhūtam me ahna uta bhūtam aktave 'śvāvate rathine śaktam arvate || 5 ||
yuvaṁ kavī ṣṭhaḥ pary aśvinā rathaṁ viśo na kutso jaritur naśāyathaḥ |
yuvor ha makṣā pary aśvinā madhv āsā bharata niṣkṛtaṁ na yoṣaṇā || 6 ||
yuvaṁ ha bhujyuṁ yuvam aśvinā vaśaṁ yuvaṁ śiñjāram uśanām upārathuḥ |
yuvo rarāvā pari sakhyam āsate yuvor aham avasā sumnam ā cake || 7 ||
yuvaṁ ha kṛśaṁ yuvam aśvinā śayuṁ yuvaṁ vidhantaṁ vidhavām uruṣyathaḥ |
yuvaṁ sanibhyaḥ stanayantam aśvināpa vrajam ūrṇuthaḥ saptāsyam || 8 ||
janiṣṭa yoṣā patayat kanīnako vi cāruhan vīrudho daṁsanā anu |
āsmai rīyante nivaneva sindhavo 'smā ahne bhavati tat patitvanam || 9 ||
jīvaṁ rudanti vi mayante adhvare dīrghām anu prasitiṁ dīdhiyur naraḥ |
vāmam pitṛbhyo ya idaṁ samerire mayaḥ patibhyo janayaḥ pariṣvaje || 10 ||
na tasya vidma tad u ṣu pra vocata yuvā ha yad yuvatyāḥ kṣeti yoniṣu |
priyosriyasya vṛṣabhasya retino gṛhaṁ gamemāśvinā tad uśmasi || 11 ||
ā vām agan sumatir vājinīvasū ny aśvinā hṛtsu kāmā ayaṁsata |
abhūtaṁ gopā mithunā śubhas patī priyā aryamṇo duryām̐ aśīmahi || 12 ||
tā mandasānā manuṣo duroṇa ā dhattaṁ rayiṁ sahavīraṁ vacasyave |
kṛtaṁ tīrthaṁ suprapāṇaṁ śubhas patī sthāṇum patheṣṭhām apa durmatiṁ hatam || 13 ||
kva svid adya katamāsv aśvinā vikṣu dasrā mādayete śubhas patī |
ka īṁ ni yeme katamasya jagmatur viprasya vā yajamānasya vā gṛham || 14 ||
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).