Hymn to Manyu (Wrath)
Rigveda X.84 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. With you, O Wrath, riding on one chariot, crushing, exulting, bold, O you who go with the Maruts — sharp-arrowed, sharpening their weapons, let the men whose form is fire go forth.
2. Blazing like fire, O Wrath, be victorious. Be our army-leader when called, O powerful one. Having slain the enemies, divide their wealth; measuring out your might, drive off the scorners.
3. Overpower, O Wrath, the hostility against us; breaking, crushing, utterly crushing, advance against the enemies. Your fierce power — indeed none has ever checked it. Master of your own will, you lead others to your will; you alone are self-born.
4. You alone are invoked by many, O Wrath, when praised; sharpen every tribe for battle. With you as our ally, unbroken in splendor, we raise a resounding war-cry for victory.
5. Victory-maker, blameless like Indra, be here our overlord, O Wrath. We proclaim your dear name, O mighty one; we know the source from which you have arisen.
6. O mace, O dart, born together with your own might, you bear strength — O all-overpowering one, supreme. With your resolve, O Wrath, be our ally in the clash, O much-invoked one, for the great prize at stake in the onset.
7. Let Varuna and Wrath together grant us the mingled wealth, both kinds, gathered together. Let our enemies, holding fear in their hearts, defeated, crouch away and hide.
Translator's note: "manyo" (vocative of manyu, "wrath/fury") is the deity addressed throughout and is rendered "Wrath" (capitalized as a proper name) to mark it as the personified god of battle-fury, not the common noun. Verse 6 addresses Manyu directly as "mace" (vajra) and "dart" (sāyaka), identifying the god with the weapons he wields; this apposition is kept literal rather than smoothed into simile.
Colophon
Rigveda X.84 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.84
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.
tvayā manyo saratham ārujanto harṣamāṇāso dhṛṣitā marutvaḥ |
tigmeṣava āyudhā saṁśiśānā abhi pra yantu naro agnirūpāḥ || 1 ||
agnir iva manyo tviṣitaḥ sahasva senānīr naḥ sahure hūta edhi |
hatvāya śatrūn vi bhajasva veda ojo mimāno vi mṛdho nudasva || 2 ||
sahasva manyo abhimātim asme rujan mṛṇan pramṛṇan prehi śatrūn |
ugraṁ te pājo nanv ā rurudhre vaśī vaśaṁ nayasa ekaja tvam || 3 ||
eko bahūnām asi manyav īḻito viśaṁ-viśaṁ yudhaye saṁ śiśādhi |
akṛttaruk tvayā yujā vayaṁ dyumantaṁ ghoṣaṁ vijayāya kṛṇmahe || 4 ||
vijeṣakṛd indra ivānavabravo3 'smākam manyo adhipā bhaveha |
priyaṁ te nāma sahure gṛṇīmasi vidmā tam utsaṁ yata ābabhūtha || 5 ||
ābhūtyā sahajā vajra sāyaka saho bibharṣy abhibhūta uttaram |
kratvā no manyo saha medy edhi mahādhanasya puruhūta saṁsṛji || 6 ||
saṁsṛṣṭaṁ dhanam ubhayaṁ samākṛtam asmabhyaṁ dattāṁ varuṇaś ca manyuḥ |
bhiyaṁ dadhānā hṛdayeṣu śatravaḥ parājitāso apa ni layantām || 7 ||
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).