Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.32 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 3 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. Indra, lord of soma, drink this soma — the pleasant midday pressing that is yours. Flaring your jaws, bounteous one, drinker of the pressed dregs, unyoke your two bay horses and be exhilarated here.
2. Drink, Indra, the bright soma mixed with milk and stirred — we have given it to you for your exhilaration. Together with the prayer-making troop of Maruts, in accord with the Rudras, drink your fill, showering forth.
3. Those Maruts who increased your fury, who increased your strength, who sang out your might, O Indra — at the midday pressing, O thunderbolt-handed one, drink with the Rudras, together with your troop, fair-jawed one.
4. They indeed, the inspired troop of Indra, the Maruts who stood with him — by whom, driven on, he found the vital spot of Vṛtra, who had thought himself without a vital spot.
5. Enjoying the pressing as in Manu's time, Indra, drink the soma for lasting strength. Turn here, tawny-horsed one, drawn by our sacrifices; you long to loose the racing floods of water.
6. You, having struck down Vṛtra, sent the waters running free like racehorses let loose to their course — Indra, striking with your roving weapon the godless one who lay coiled around the divine waters.
7. Let us worship with homage Indra grown great, the vast, the lofty, the unaging, the youthful — whose two dear ones held the worshipful one dear; the two world-halves cannot measure his greatness.
8. Indra's well-made deeds are many; all the gods do not violate his ordinances. He upheld this earth and that heaven, the skillful one who brought forth the sun and the dawn.
9. Guileless one, true is that greatness of yours — that as soon as born you drank the soma. Not the days, Indra, not the nights, nor the months, nor the years, can hold in your mighty strength.
10. As soon as born, Indra, you drank soma for exhilaration in the highest heaven. When you had entered heaven and earth, then you became the ancient sustainer of the singer.
11. You struck down the serpent lying coiled around the flood, growing ever stronger, mighty-born and mightier still. Heaven itself did not match your greatness, when with one haunch you set the earth in place.
12. For sacrifice, Indra, has been your strengthener, and dear to you is the offering of pressed soma. Being worthy of sacrifice, you furthered sacrifice through sacrifice; sacrifice aided your thunderbolt in the slaying of the serpent.
13. By sacrifice and by his favor I have drawn Indra near; may I turn him toward fresh grace — he who was magnified by the ancient praises, by the middling ones, and by the newest.
14. Since the insight that bore me has done its work, I would praise Indra before the day is decided, that he may carry us across distress — as those on both banks call out to one who goes like a boat.
15. Filled is his vessel — svāhā! — like a pourer he has poured soma into the bucket for drinking. The dear soma-drops have turned together toward Indra for his exhilaration, circling him on the right.
16. Neither the deep river, much-invoked one, nor the surrounding mountains can hold you back — so driven on for your friends' sake, Indra, you broke open even the firm-closed pen of cows.
17. May we call, for our good, upon bounteous Indra, most manly in this battle, in the winning of the prize — the fierce one who listens, for help in combat, who strikes down the Vṛtras and wins the spoils.
Translator's note: verse 7's "two dear ones" (priye) and verse 11's "one haunch" (anyayā sphigyā) are terse, image-dense phrases in the Sanskrit; they are rendered here literally rather than resolved into a smoother paraphrase. Verse 14's boat simile is likewise kept close to the compressed original.
Colophon
Rigveda III.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 III.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.
indra somaṁ somapate pibemam mādhyaṁdinaṁ savanaṁ cāru yat te |
prapruthyā śipre maghavann ṛjīṣin vimucyā harī iha mādayasva || 1 ||
gavāśiram manthinam indra śukram pibā somaṁ rarimā te madāya |
brahmakṛtā mārutenā gaṇena sajoṣā rudrais tṛpad ā vṛṣasva || 2 ||
ye te śuṣmaṁ ye taviṣīm avardhann arcanta indra marutas ta ojaḥ |
mādhyaṁdine savane vajrahasta pibā rudrebhiḥ sagaṇaḥ suśipra || 3 ||
ta in nv asya madhumad vivipra indrasya śardho maruto ya āsan |
yebhir vṛtrasyeṣito vivedāmarmaṇo manyamānasya marma || 4 ||
manuṣvad indra savanaṁ juṣāṇaḥ pibā somaṁ śaśvate vīryāya |
sa ā vavṛtsva haryaśva yajñaiḥ saraṇyubhir apo arṇā sisarṣi || 5 ||
tvam apo yad dha vṛtraṁ jaghanvām̐ atyām̐ iva prāsṛjaḥ sartavājau |
śayānam indra caratā vadhena vavrivāṁsam pari devīr adevam || 6 ||
yajāma in namasā vṛddham indram bṛhantam ṛṣvam ajaraṁ yuvānam |
yasya priye mamatur yajñiyasya na rodasī mahimānam mamāte || 7 ||
indrasya karma sukṛtā purūṇi vratāni devā na minanti viśve |
dādhāra yaḥ pṛthivīṁ dyām utemāṁ jajāna sūryam uṣasaṁ sudaṁsāḥ || 8 ||
adrogha satyaṁ tava tan mahitvaṁ sadyo yaj jāto apibo ha somam |
na dyāva indra tavasas ta ojo nāhā na māsāḥ śarado varanta || 9 ||
tvaṁ sadyo apibo jāta indra madāya somam parame vyoman |
yad dha dyāvāpṛthivī āviveśīr athābhavaḥ pūrvyaḥ kārudhāyāḥ || 10 ||
ahann ahim pariśayānam arṇa ojāyamānaṁ tuvijāta tavyān |
na te mahitvam anu bhūd adha dyaur yad anyayā sphigyā3 kṣām avasthāḥ || 11 ||
yajño hi ta indra vardhano bhūd uta priyaḥ sutasomo miyedhaḥ |
yajñena yajñam ava yajñiyaḥ san yajñas te vajram ahihatya āvat || 12 ||
yajñenendram avasā cakre arvāg ainaṁ sumnāya navyase vavṛtyām |
yaḥ stomebhir vāvṛdhe pūrvyebhir yo madhyamebhir uta nūtanebhiḥ || 13 ||
viveṣa yan mā dhiṣaṇā jajāna stavai purā pāryād indram ahnaḥ |
aṁhaso yatra pīparad yathā no nāveva yāntam ubhaye havante || 14 ||
āpūrṇo asya kalaśaḥ svāhā sekteva kośaṁ sisice pibadhyai |
sam u priyā āvavṛtran madāya pradakṣiṇid abhi somāsa indram || 15 ||
na tvā gabhīraḥ puruhūta sindhur nādrayaḥ pari ṣanto varanta |
itthā sakhibhya iṣito yad indrā dṛḻhaṁ cid arujo gavyam ūrvam || 16 ||
śunaṁ huvema maghavānam indram asmin bhare nṛtamaṁ vājasātau |
śṛṇvantam ugram ūtaye samatsu ghnantaṁ vṛtrāṇi saṁjitaṁ dhanānām || 17 ||
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).