Hymn to the Maruts
Rigveda II.34 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. Maruts of the streams, bold in strength, fearsome like wild beasts, blazing with your powers, glowing like fires, drinkers of the pressed soma — blowing forth the whirlwind, you uncovered the cows.
2. Adorned, they shine like the heavens with stars; like storm-clouds the rain-showers flash. When Rudra, O Maruts of the gleaming breastplates — the bull — was begotten in Pṛśni's bright udder.
3. They water their horses as racers in the contests, speeding on with the swift ears of the roaring one. Golden-cheeked, quivering Maruts, of one fury, you drive on to strength with your dappled mares.
4. For strength all these worlds have grown mighty, always through friendship, ever swift in bounty. With dappled horses, their gifts never withheld, they sit upon the yoke like eagles swift in flight upon their courses.
5. With glowing milch-cows of full udders, by dustless paths, spears gleaming — come like swans to your feeding-grounds, O Maruts of one fury, for the joy of the sweet draught.
6. Come to our prayers, O Maruts of one fury; come to the pressings as at the call of men. Fill our hymn as a mare's udder is filled with milk; make for the singer a song adorned with strength.
7. Give us, O Maruts, that prize-winning strength for our chariot; may our prayer be marked at each libation, day by day. Give nourishment to the praisers, to the poet among the people — gain, unharmed insight, unconquerable might.
8. When the Maruts of the gleaming breastplates, the bountiful ones, yoke their horses to the chariots, bringing fortune — like a milch-cow swelling with milk for her calf in due season, they swell great abundance for the man who has offered oblation.
9. Whatever mortal enemy, O Maruts, sets himself against us in wolfish hostility — O Vasus, guard us from harm. Turn your burning wheel upon him; strike down, O Rudras, with your weapon the reviler.
10. Wondrous is that course of yours, O Maruts, well known — when your kinsfolk milked the udder of Pṛśni; or when, O sons of Rudra, against the scorn of the bellowing one, you, undeceivable ones, roused Trita to praise.
11. Those great, swift-moving Maruts of yours we call upon at the sacrificial feast of swift Viṣṇu — the golden-hued, the lofty ones — with ladles outstretched, praying devoutly, we beg for praiseworthy bounty.
12. They, the Daśagvas, first bore up the sacrifice; may they speed us at the breaking of the dawns — as Dawn uncovers her dark veils with her ruddy rays, with great, radiant light, with a flood of light.
13. They, their hosts gleaming like ruddy ornaments, the Rudras, have grown strong in the seats of Order; raining down with the vigor of a steed, they have taken on a bright, beautifully adorned hue.
14. Seeking from them great protection for our aid, we praise them with this homage — those whom, like Trita, for succor, the five priests called upon, who turned the lower ones hither with their wheel, for help.
15. By that help through which you carry the helpless one across distress, by which you free the worshipper from reproach — may that help of yours, O Maruts, come toward us; may your favor come swiftly, like a lowing cow to her calf.
Translator's note: Verses 10 and 14 refer to Trita (Trita Āptya), a minor Vedic figure associated with the Maruts in obscure myth-fragments whose precise narrative content is not fully recoverable from the text alone; "roused Trita to praise" (v. 10) and "turned the lower ones hither with their wheel" (v. 14) are conservative renderings of grammatically ambiguous lines rather than confident narrative claims.
Colophon
Rigveda II.34 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda II.34
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.
dhārāvarā maruto dhṛṣṇvojaso mṛgā na bhīmās taviṣībhir arcinaḥ |
agnayo na śuśucānā ṛjīṣiṇo bhṛmiṁ dhamanto apa gā avṛṇvata || 1 ||
dyāvo na stṛbhiś citayanta khādino vy a1bhriyā na dyutayanta vṛṣṭayaḥ |
rudro yad vo maruto rukmavakṣaso vṛṣājani pṛśnyāḥ śukra ūdhani || 2 ||
ukṣante aśvām̐ atyām̐ ivājiṣu nadasya karṇais turayanta āśubhiḥ |
hiraṇyaśiprā maruto davidhvataḥ pṛkṣaṁ yātha pṛṣatībhiḥ samanyavaḥ || 3 ||
pṛkṣe tā viśvā bhuvanā vavakṣire mitrāya vā sadam ā jīradānavaḥ |
pṛṣadaśvāso anavabhrarādhasa ṛjipyāso na vayuneṣu dhūrṣadaḥ || 4 ||
indhanvabhir dhenubhī rapśadūdhabhir adhvasmabhiḥ pathibhir bhrājadṛṣṭayaḥ |
ā haṁsāso na svasarāṇi gantana madhor madāya marutaḥ samanyavaḥ || 5 ||
ā no brahmāṇi marutaḥ samanyavo narāṁ na śaṁsaḥ savanāni gantana |
aśvām iva pipyata dhenum ūdhani kartā dhiyaṁ jaritre vājapeśasam || 6 ||
taṁ no dāta maruto vājinaṁ ratha āpānam brahma citayad dive-dive |
iṣaṁ stotṛbhyo vṛjaneṣu kārave sanim medhām ariṣṭaṁ duṣṭaraṁ sahaḥ || 7 ||
yad yuñjate maruto rukmavakṣaso 'śvān ratheṣu bhaga ā sudānavaḥ |
dhenur na śiśve svasareṣu pinvate janāya rātahaviṣe mahīm iṣam || 8 ||
yo no maruto vṛkatāti martyo ripur dadhe vasavo rakṣatā riṣaḥ |
vartayata tapuṣā cakriyābhi tam ava rudrā aśaso hantanā vadhaḥ || 9 ||
citraṁ tad vo maruto yāma cekite pṛśnyā yad ūdhar apy āpayo duhuḥ |
yad vā nide navamānasya rudriyās tritaṁ jarāya juratām adābhyāḥ || 10 ||
tān vo maho maruta evayāvno viṣṇor eṣasya prabhṛthe havāmahe |
hiraṇyavarṇān kakuhān yatasruco brahmaṇyantaḥ śaṁsyaṁ rādha īmahe || 11 ||
te daśagvāḥ prathamā yajñam ūhire te no hinvantūṣaso vyuṣṭiṣu |
uṣā na rāmīr aruṇair aporṇute maho jyotiṣā śucatā goarṇasā || 12 ||
te kṣoṇībhir aruṇebhir nāñjibhī rudrā ṛtasya sadaneṣu vāvṛdhuḥ |
nimeghamānā atyena pājasā suścandraṁ varṇaṁ dadhire supeśasam || 13 ||
tām̐ iyāno mahi varūtham ūtaya upa ghed enā namasā gṛṇīmasi |
trito na yān pañca hotṝn abhiṣṭaya āvavartad avarāñ cakriyāvase || 14 ||
yayā radhram pārayathāty aṁho yayā nido muñcatha vanditāram |
arvācī sā maruto yā va ūtir o ṣu vāśreva sumatir jigātu || 15 ||
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).