Hymn to Heaven and Earth, and to Rākā, Sinīvālī, and Other Goddesses
Rigveda II.32 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 2 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 Heaven and Earth, be protectors of the speech of me, who follows the true order and seeks to win it. You two whose lifetime is the oldest — desiring wealth, I have offered this great praise to you, as before.
2. Let hidden deceivers not strike down our life; do not give us over to these misfortunes. Do not part from our friendship — know this about us — with a kindly mind we ask that of you.
3. With an ungrudging mind bring us your favor — the milking cow, swelling with milk, unfailing. Swift of foot and strong in speech, I urge you onward, much-invoked one, every day.
4. I call on Rākā, easy to invoke, with fitting praise. May the fortunate one hear us, may she herself take notice. May she sew her work with a needle that does not break, and may she grant us a hero worthy of a hundredfold gift, worthy of praise.
5. Those gracious favors of yours, Rākā, well-formed, by which you give riches to the one who offers — with those come to us today, kindly-minded, granting thousandfold abundance, O fortunate one.
6. O Sinīvālī, broad-tressed, you who are sister of the gods — accept the oblation that is offered; goddess, grant us offspring.
7. To her who is fair-armed, fair-fingered, fruitful, bringer-forth of many — to her, mistress of the people, Sinīvālī, offer the oblation.
8. She who is Guṅgū, who is Sinīvālī, who is Rākā, who is Sarasvatī — I have called Indrāṇī for help, and Varuṇānī for well-being.
Translator's note: verse 3 does not name its addressee directly, only the epithet "puruhūta" (much-invoked); the surrounding verses suggest a request made to a god on behalf of the household's prosperity, but the referent is left as the Sanskrit leaves it, unspecified. "Suṣūmā" in verse 7 (rendered "fruitful") and "bahusūvarī" ("bringer-forth of many") are compact compounds describing fertility/childbearing whose exact nuance is uncertain; the rendering is conservative.
Colophon
Rigveda II.32 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 II.32
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.
asya me dyāvāpṛthivī ṛtāyato bhūtam avitrī vacasaḥ siṣāsataḥ |
yayor āyuḥ prataraṁ te idam pura upastute vasūyur vām maho dadhe || 1 ||
mā no guhyā ripa āyor ahan dabhan mā na ābhyo rīradho ducchunābhyaḥ |
mā no vi yauḥ sakhyā viddhi tasya naḥ sumnāyatā manasā tat tvemahe || 2 ||
aheḻatā manasā śruṣṭim ā vaha duhānāṁ dhenum pipyuṣīm asaścatam |
padyābhir āśuṁ vacasā ca vājinaṁ tvāṁ hinomi puruhūta viśvahā || 3 ||
rākām ahaṁ suhavāṁ suṣṭutī huve śṛṇotu naḥ subhagā bodhatu tmanā |
sīvyatv apaḥ sūcyācchidyamānayā dadātu vīraṁ śatadāyam ukthyam || 4 ||
yās te rāke sumatayaḥ supeśaso yābhir dadāsi dāśuṣe vasūni |
tābhir no adya sumanā upāgahi sahasrapoṣaṁ subhage rarāṇā || 5 ||
sinīvāli pṛthuṣṭuke yā devānām asi svasā |
juṣasva havyam āhutam prajāṁ devi didiḍḍhi naḥ || 6 ||
yā subāhuḥ svaṅguriḥ suṣūmā bahusūvarī |
tasyai viśpatnyai haviḥ sinīvālyai juhotana || 7 ||
yā guṅgūr yā sinīvālī yā rākā yā sarasvatī |
indrāṇīm ahva ūtaye varuṇānīṁ svastaye || 8 ||
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).