Hymn to the Omen-Bird
Rigveda II.43 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. The singers praise it, circling to the right; the birds call out, each in its own season. It utters both sounds like a Sāman-chanter; it rules over both the Gāyatra and the Traiṣṭubha meter.
2. Like an udgātṛ, O bird, you sing the sāman; like a priest's son, you speak out at the soma-pressings. Like a stallion approaching the mares with their young — from every side, O bird, speak good fortune to us; from all directions, O bird, speak blessing to us.
3. Whether calling out, O bird, speak good fortune to us, or sitting silent, discern good will for us. When, flying up, you cry out like a karkari, may we, rich in fine sons, speak with power in the assembly.
Translator's note: "karkari" (v.3) names a stringed instrument, likely a lute or harp; its exact form is uncertain, so it is rendered conservatively as "karkari." "śiśumatīḥ" (v.2), literally "having young ones," is read as mares accompanied by their foals.
Colophon
Rigveda II.43 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.43
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.
pradakṣiṇid abhi gṛṇanti kāravo vayo vadanta ṛtuthā śakuntayaḥ |
ubhe vācau vadati sāmagā iva gāyatraṁ ca traiṣṭubhaṁ cānu rājati || 1 ||
udgāteva śakune sāma gāyasi brahmaputra iva savaneṣu śaṁsasi |
vṛṣeva vājī śiśumatīr apītyā sarvato naḥ śakune bhadram ā vada viśvato naḥ śakune puṇyam ā vada || 2 ||
āvadam̐s tvaṁ śakune bhadram ā vada tūṣṇīm āsīnaḥ sumatiṁ cikiddhi naḥ |
yad utpatan vadasi karkarir yathā bṛhad vadema vidathe suvīrāḥ || 3 ||
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).