Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.74 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. Desiring to sacrifice, I draw near for the sake of the Vasus, with thought or with sacrifices, to the two world-halves; or to the wealth-bearing steeds in the winning-contest; or to those who, themselves well-hearing, have set up the eager one who is renowned.
2. May their call reach heaven, the mighty lord; with a mind eager for glory, may they kiss the earth — where the gods, looking toward fair passage, adorn themselves with their own choice things, as heaven adorns itself with its own.
3. This is the song of these immortals, in its entirety, who yearn for treasure. Accomplishing both the prayer and the sacrifice, may they grant us wealth undiminished.
4. Let the Āyus praise that of yours, Indra — they who long to break through the cow-filled enclosure, who wish to milk the great one who, having borne but once, has many offspring, the vast one flowing with a thousand streams.
5. Mighty ones, summon Indra for help — the unbending one who subdues the warring foes, lord of the Ṛbhus, the bounteous one, worthy of well-wrought praise, who bears the manly thunderbolt, rich in abundance.
6. What the ancient conqueror won as his greatest prize — Indra, the slayer of Vṛtra, filled up his names with that. He has been known as the lord of overpowering strength, the mighty one. What we wish him to do, that he shall do.
Translator's note: this hymn (attributed to Vasukra) is among the most lexically difficult in the Rigveda. Several forms are genuinely obscure and are rendered conservatively rather than confidently: verse 1's carkṛṣe ("I draw/strive toward," from the root kṛṣ) and vanuṁ...suśruṇaṁ (an "eager, renowned one" of uncertain referent); verse 4's sakṛtsvam ("she who, having borne once, [has many offspring]," describing the cosmic cow); and verse 5's śacīvaḥ (a vocative plural, "mighty ones," of uncertain addressee — possibly the Maruts or the worshippers generally). Where the Sanskrit itself resists a single certain reading, the English follows the most literal sense of the roots involved.
Colophon
Rigveda X.74 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.74
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.
vasūnāṁ vā carkṛṣa iyakṣan dhiyā vā yajñair vā rodasyoḥ |
arvanto vā ye rayimantaḥ sātau vanuṁ vā ye suśruṇaṁ suśruto dhuḥ || 1 ||
hava eṣām asuro nakṣata dyāṁ śravasyatā manasā niṁsata kṣām |
cakṣāṇā yatra suvitāya devā dyaur na vārebhiḥ kṛṇavanta svaiḥ || 2 ||
iyam eṣām amṛtānāṁ gīḥ sarvatātā ye kṛpaṇanta ratnam |
dhiyaṁ ca yajñaṁ ca sādhantas te no dhāntu vasavya1m asāmi || 3 ||
ā tat ta indrāyavaḥ panantābhi ya ūrvaṁ gomantaṁ titṛtsān |
sakṛtsva1ṁ ye puruputrām mahīṁ sahasradhārām bṛhatīṁ dudukṣan || 4 ||
śacīva indram avase kṛṇudhvam anānataṁ damayantam pṛtanyūn |
ṛbhukṣaṇam maghavānaṁ suvṛktim bhartā yo vajraṁ naryam purukṣuḥ || 5 ||
yad vāvāna purutamam purāṣāḻ ā vṛtrahendro nāmāny aprāḥ |
aceti prāsahas patis tuviṣmān yad īm uśmasi kartave karat tat || 6 ||
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).