Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.73 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. You were born mighty, for surpassing strength, joyous, most powerful, filled with abundant pride. The Maruts themselves strengthened Indra here, when the mother — most bountiful in bringing forth — bore the hero.
2. Pṛśni, settled amid deceit, by her own courses — with much praise they strengthened you, Indra. As if enveloped by the great footstep, out of darkness, out of the advancing dawn, the unborn ones rose up.
3. Lofty are your feet when you stride forth; the Vājas too, whoever they are, grew strong here. You, Indra, seized a thousand wolves in your mouth — may you turn the Aśvins this way.
4. Swiftly, together, you approach the sacrifice; bring the Nāsatyas here in friendship. In the good dwelling, Indra, you held a thousand; the two Aśvins, O hero, gave their gifts.
5. Rejoicing, from the order of truth, for the sake of offspring, Indra went with his vigorous friends toward the goal. By these powers he approached the Dasyu; he scattered the darknesses of the murky mist.
6. Even the two who bore one name you struck down for him, Indra, like Dawn's own chariot. You went with lofty, eager friends; together, at one stroke, you struck the roots of his heart.
7. You slew Namuci, who lusted for battle, and stripped the wily Dāsa of his powers, for the seer's sake. You made straight paths for Manu, roads leading to the gods as if directly.
8. You have fulfilled these many names; ruling, Indra, you hold them in your hand. The gods rejoice in your might, following after you; you made the rooted trees stand overturned.
9. When his wheel sank down in the waters, that seemed sweet to him like honey. The udder that stretched over the earth — you placed its milk in cows and in growing plants.
10. When they say "he came from a horse" — I think him rather born of strength. He came from fury; he dwelt in strongholds — from where he was born, Indra alone knows.
11. Fair-feathered birds have settled beside Indra — the Priyamedha seers, imploring him. Uncover the darkness, fill our eyes with sight; release us, bound as if in a snare.
Translator's note: Several images in this hymn are notoriously compressed and mythologically allusive — Pṛśni's role in verse 2, the "two of one name" struck down in verse 6, and the sunken wheel of verse 9 (widely read as a solar image) — and are rendered here conservatively, following the Sanskrit word order rather than any smoothing paraphrase.
Colophon
Rigveda X.73 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.73
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.
janiṣṭhā ugraḥ sahase turāya mandra ojiṣṭho bahulābhimānaḥ |
avardhann indram marutaś cid atra mātā yad vīraṁ dadhanad dhaniṣṭhā || 1 ||
druho niṣattā pṛśanī cid evaiḥ purū śaṁsena vāvṛdhuṣ ṭa indram |
abhīvṛteva tā mahāpadena dhvāntāt prapitvād ud aranta garbhāḥ || 2 ||
ṛṣvā te pādā pra yaj jigāsy avardhan vājā uta ye cid atra |
tvam indra sālāvṛkān sahasram āsan dadhiṣe aśvinā vavṛtyāḥ || 3 ||
samanā tūrṇir upa yāsi yajñam ā nāsatyā sakhyāya vakṣi |
vasāvyām indra dhārayaḥ sahasrāśvinā śūra dadatur maghāni || 4 ||
mandamāna ṛtād adhi prajāyai sakhibhir indra iṣirebhir artham |
ābhir hi māyā upa dasyum āgān mihaḥ pra tamrā avapat tamāṁsi || 5 ||
sanāmānā cid dhvasayo ny asmā avāhann indra uṣaso yathānaḥ |
ṛṣvair agacchaḥ sakhibhir nikāmaiḥ sākam pratiṣṭhā hṛdyā jaghantha || 6 ||
tvaṁ jaghantha namucim makhasyuṁ dāsaṁ kṛṇvāna ṛṣaye vimāyam |
tvaṁ cakartha manave syonān patho devatrāñjaseva yānān || 7 ||
tvam etāni papriṣe vi nāmeśāna indra dadhiṣe gabhastau |
anu tvā devāḥ śavasā madanty uparibudhnān vaninaś cakartha || 8 ||
cakraṁ yad asyāpsv ā niṣattam uto tad asmai madhv ic cacchadyāt |
pṛthivyām atiṣitaṁ yad ūdhaḥ payo goṣv adadhā oṣadhīṣu || 9 ||
aśvād iyāyeti yad vadanty ojaso jātam uta manya enam |
manyor iyāya harmyeṣu tasthau yataḥ prajajña indro asya veda || 10 ||
vayaḥ suparṇā upa sedur indram priyamedhā ṛṣayo nādhamānāḥ |
apa dhvāntam ūrṇuhi pūrdhi cakṣur mumugdhy a1smān nidhayeva baddhān || 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).