Hymn to Vāc
Rigveda X.71 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. O Brihaspati, this was the first beginning of speech, when the sages, giving names, sent it forth. What was best in them and flawless — that, hidden deep within them, was revealed through love.
2. Where the wise fashioned speech with the mind, purifying it like grain through a sieve — there friends come to know their friendships; their fair mark is set upon speech.
3. By the sacrifice they went along the track of speech; they found it, entered into the seers. Having brought it forth, they set it out in many places; the seven singers cry out to it together.
4. And one, though seeing, has not seen speech; and one, though hearing, does not hear it. But to another she opens herself fully, like a loving wife, well-dressed, to her husband.
5. And one they call steady in friendship — him they do not spur on, even in the contests. He goes about with the guile of a barren cow; this one, having heard speech, gets no fruit and no flower from it.
6. Whoever has abandoned the friend who shares his knowledge — he has no portion in speech. What he hears, he hears in vain, for he does not know the path of the well-made rite.
7. Friends with eyes, friends with ears, are yet unequal in the swiftness of their minds. Some are like waters reaching only to the navel or the armpit; others appear like deep pools fit for bathing.
8. In the mind's swift impulses shaped by the heart, when priest-friends join together in the rite, there some indeed fall short despite their learning, while others go about as brahmins only in name.
9. These who move neither near nor far, who are neither priests nor pressers of soma — these, having come upon speech wrongly, stretch out a warp of watery threads, bringing no offspring, no understanding.
10. All the friends rejoice, through friendship, in the one who comes clothed in glory, who prevails in the assembly. He is a remover of guilt, a giver of food for them; he indeed becomes well fitted for the contest of strength.
11. One sits nourishing the growth of verses; another sings the gāyatra chant among the śakvarī melodies. The brahmin priest speaks forth the lore of origins; and another measures out the full measure of the rite.
Translator's note: several phrases in this hymn are notoriously compressed and debated among Sanskritists. In verse 5, "sthirapītam" (rendered "steady in friendship") and the image of "the guile of a barren cow" (adhenvā māyayā) are obscure idioms whose exact sense is uncertain; they are translated conservatively, image for image. In verse 8, "ohabrahmāṇaḥ" ("brahmins only in name") is a rare compound rendered by its most literal sense — one who merely carries the title of brahmin. In verse 9, "sirīs tantram" ("a warp of watery threads") keeps the weaving image of the Sanskrit rather than resolving it into a smoother English idiom.
Colophon
Rigveda X.71 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.71
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.
bṛhaspate prathamaṁ vāco agraṁ yat prairata nāmadheyaṁ dadhānāḥ |
yad eṣāṁ śreṣṭhaṁ yad aripram āsīt preṇā tad eṣāṁ nihitaṁ guhāviḥ || 1 ||
saktum iva titaünā punanto yatra dhīrā manasā vācam akrata |
atrā sakhāyaḥ sakhyāni jānate bhadraiṣāṁ lakṣmīr nihitādhi vāci || 2 ||
yajñena vācaḥ padavīyam āyan tām anv avindann ṛṣiṣu praviṣṭām |
tām ābhṛtyā vy adadhuḥ purutrā tāṁ sapta rebhā abhi saṁ navante || 3 ||
uta tvaḥ paśyan na dadarśa vācam uta tvaḥ śṛṇvan na śṛṇoty enām |
uto tvasmai tanva1ṁ vi sasre jāyeva patya uśatī suvāsāḥ || 4 ||
uta tvaṁ sakhye sthirapītam āhur nainaṁ hinvanty api vājineṣu |
adhenvā carati māyayaiṣa vācaṁ śuśruvām̐ aphalām apuṣpām || 5 ||
yas tityāja sacividaṁ sakhāyaṁ na tasya vācy api bhāgo asti |
yad īṁ śṛṇoty alakaṁ śṛṇoti nahi praveda sukṛtasya panthām || 6 ||
akṣaṇvantaḥ karṇavantaḥ sakhāyo manojaveṣv asamā babhūvuḥ |
ādaghnāsa upakakṣāsa u tve hradā iva snātvā u tve dadṛśre || 7 ||
hṛdā taṣṭeṣu manaso javeṣu yad brāhmaṇāḥ saṁyajante sakhāyaḥ |
atrāha tvaṁ vi jahur vedyābhir ohabrahmāṇo vi caranty u tve || 8 ||
ime ye nārvāṅ na paraś caranti na brāhmaṇāso na sutekarāsaḥ |
ta ete vācam abhipadya pāpayā sirīs tantraṁ tanvate aprajajñayaḥ || 9 ||
sarve nandanti yaśasāgatena sabhāsāhena sakhyā sakhāyaḥ |
kilbiṣaspṛt pituṣaṇir hy eṣām araṁ hito bhavati vājināya || 10 ||
ṛcāṁ tvaḥ poṣam āste pupuṣvān gāyatraṁ tvo gāyati śakvarīṣu |
brahmā tvo vadati jātavidyāṁ yajñasya mātrāṁ vi mimīta u tvaḥ || 11 ||
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).