Hymn to the Aśvins

Rigveda X.41 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. That same much-invoked chariot, worthy of the hymn, three-wheeled, forever going to the soma-pressings — circling the whole earth, fit for the sacrificial assembly — we call it with well-woven songs at the break of dawn.

2. O Nāsatyas, you two mount your early-yoked chariot, early-traveling, carrying honey in its wake, by which you go to the sacrificing clans, O heroes — even to the sacrifice of the humble poet, the sacrifice that has its own Hotar, O Aśvins.

3. Whether to the Adhvaryu, honey in hand, skillful-handed, or to the Agnidh, steady in his craft, keeper of the household, or to wherever the pressings of the inspired poet take you — from there come, O Aśvins, to drink the honey.

Colophon

Rigveda X.41 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.41

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.

samānam u tyam puruhūtam ukthya1ṁ rathaṁ tricakraṁ savanā ganigmatam |
parijmānaṁ vidathyaṁ suvṛktibhir vayaṁ vyuṣṭā uṣaso havāmahe || 1 ||

prātaryujaṁ nāsatyādhi tiṣṭhathaḥ prātaryāvāṇam madhuvāhanaṁ ratham |
viśo yena gacchatho yajvarīr narā kīreś cid yajñaṁ hotṛmantam aśvinā || 2 ||

adhvaryuṁ vā madhupāṇiṁ suhastyam agnidhaṁ vā dhṛtadakṣaṁ damūnasam |
viprasya vā yat savanāni gacchatho 'ta ā yātam madhupeyam aśvinā || 3 ||

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).