Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.55 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. Far off, in the distance, is that hidden name by which the two, frightened, called upon you to grant strength. You propped apart earth and heaven in that encounter, growing fierce against the sons of your brother, O bounteous one.
2. Great is that hidden name, reaching far and wide, by which you bring into being what has been, and by which what is to come. The ancient-born light that is dear to him — the five beloved ones have entered into it together.
3. He filled the two world-halves and the space between them, and the five gods, seven by seven, in their seasons. With the thirty-four he shines forth in many ways — one light in form, though of differing courses.
4. When you shone, O Dawn, first among the shining ones, you brought forth the nourishment of the nourished. Your kinship — the nearer bond with the one far off — is the sole great godhead of the great one.
5. The moon, racing among the many in their course, though young — the hoary one swallowed him. Behold the god's wondrous craft, in its greatness: today he has died, yet yesterday he breathed.
6. Mighty through his might, the ruddy eagle, who from ancient times has been a great hero without a nest — what he perceives is true indeed, not false. He is both winner and giver of desirable wealth.
7. By these he took on his bullish powers, by which the mace-bearer waxed strong for the slaying of Vṛtra — the gods who, through the greatness of the deed being done, sprang into being without prior deed.
8. Generating deeds together with his ally, all-powerful, destroyer of curses, all-minded, overpowering the strong — having drunk of the soma and grown mighty through heaven, the hero blew the Dasyus away in battle.
Translator's note: This is one of the Rigveda's riddle hymns (brahmodya), where the "hidden name" is never spoken outright and the imagery shifts between figures — Indra's world-propping and Vṛtra-slaying frame the hymn, but verse 4 addresses Dawn (Uṣas) and verse 5 describes the moon, as emblems of the same concealed power the hymn circles around. "Vidhu" in verse 5 is rendered "the moon," its most common sense, though the word can also mean "the lonely wanderer." "Anīḻaḥ" in verse 6 ("without a nest") is a difficult compound; it is translated conservatively by its most literal sense.
Colophon
Rigveda X.55 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.55
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.
dūre tan nāma guhyam parācair yat tvā bhīte ahvayetāṁ vayodhai |
ud astabhnāḥ pṛthivīṁ dyām abhīke bhrātuḥ putrān maghavan titviṣāṇaḥ || 1 ||
mahat tan nāma guhyam puruspṛg yena bhūtaṁ janayo yena bhavyam |
pratnaṁ jātaṁ jyotir yad asya priyam priyāḥ sam aviśanta pañca || 2 ||
ā rodasī apṛṇād ota madhyam pañca devām̐ ṛtuśaḥ sapta-sapta |
catustriṁśatā purudhā vi caṣṭe sarūpeṇa jyotiṣā vivratena || 3 ||
yad uṣa aucchaḥ prathamā vibhānām ajanayo yena puṣṭasya puṣṭam |
yat te jāmitvam avaram parasyā mahan mahatyā asuratvam ekam || 4 ||
vidhuṁ dadrāṇaṁ samane bahūnāṁ yuvānaṁ santam palito jagāra |
devasya paśya kāvyam mahitvādyā mamāra sa hyaḥ sam āna || 5 ||
śākmanā śāko aruṇaḥ suparṇa ā yo mahaḥ śūraḥ sanād anīḻaḥ |
yac ciketa satyam it tan na moghaṁ vasu spārham uta jetota dātā || 6 ||
aibhir dade vṛṣṇyā pauṁsyāni yebhir aukṣad vṛtrahatyāya vajrī |
ye karmaṇaḥ kriyamāṇasya mahna ṛtekarmam udajāyanta devāḥ || 7 ||
yujā karmāṇi janayan viśvaujā aśastihā viśvamanās turāṣāṭ |
pītvī somasya diva ā vṛdhānaḥ śūro nir yudhādhamad dasyūn || 8 ||
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).