The Birth of the Gods
Rigveda X.72 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. Now let us proclaim, with eager praise, the births of the gods, so that someone in a later age may see them, when these hymns are being recited.
2. Brahmaṇaspati fused these things together, like a smith at his bellows. In that earliest age of the gods, being was born from non-being.
3. In the first age of the gods, being was born from non-being. After that the directions were born; that came from Uttānapad.
4. The earth was born from Uttānapad, and from the earth the directions were born. From Aditi, Dakṣa was born, and from Dakṣa, Aditi in turn.
5. For Aditi was born, Dakṣa, she who is your daughter. After her the gods were born, the blessed ones, kin to immortality.
6. When you gods stood there in the water, tightly bound together, a sharp cloud of dust flew off from you, as from dancers whirling.
7. When you gods, like the Yatis, made the worlds swell with life, then you drew out the sun that lay hidden in the sea.
8. Eight sons were born from Aditi's body. With seven she went forth among the gods; she cast Mārtāṇḍa aside.
9. With seven sons Aditi went forth into the ancient age. For the sake of offspring and for death, from you she brought Mārtāṇḍa back again.
Translator's note: "Uttānapada" (literally "he whose feet are stretched out") and "Mārtāṇḍa" (literally "born of a dead egg") are treated here as proper names rather than translated descriptively, following the hymn's own usage; Mārtāṇḍa is the eighth, initially rejected son of Aditi, later identified in later Vedic and Puranic tradition with Vivasvat, the sun, and the ancestor of Manu. Verses 3–4 describe a chain of cosmogonic births — non-being to being, being to the directions, the directions to Uttānapad and the earth — rendered as literally as the Sanskrit syntax allows. Verse 9's "tvat" (ablative "from you") is a recognized unresolved crux: the Sanskrit addresses an unnamed "you" in the singular, and no consensus exists on who is meant — proposals include Dakṣa, the world, or an implied divine addressee carried over from the plural "you gods" of verses 6–7. The translation preserves the ablative rather than silently resolving it.
Colophon
Rigveda X.72 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.72
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.
devānāṁ nu vayaṁ jānā pra vocāma vipanyayā |
uktheṣu śasyamāneṣu yaḥ paśyād uttare yuge || 1 ||
brahmaṇas patir etā saṁ karmāra ivādhamat |
devānām pūrvye yuge 'sataḥ sad ajāyata || 2 ||
devānāṁ yuge prathame 'sataḥ sad ajāyata |
tad āśā anv ajāyanta tad uttānapadas pari || 3 ||
bhūr jajña uttānapado bhuva āśā ajāyanta |
aditer dakṣo ajāyata dakṣād v aditiḥ pari || 4 ||
aditir hy ajaniṣṭa dakṣa yā duhitā tava |
tāṁ devā anv ajāyanta bhadrā amṛtabandhavaḥ || 5 ||
yad devā adaḥ salile susaṁrabdhā atiṣṭhata |
atrā vo nṛtyatām iva tīvro reṇur apāyata || 6 ||
yad devā yatayo yathā bhuvanāny apinvata |
atrā samudra ā gūḻham ā sūryam ajabhartana || 7 ||
aṣṭau putrāso aditer ye jātās tanva1s pari |
devām̐ upa prait saptabhiḥ parā mārtāṇḍam āsyat || 8 ||
saptabhiḥ putrair aditir upa prait pūrvyaṁ yugam |
prajāyai mṛtyave tvat punar mārtāṇḍam ābharat || 9 ||
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).