Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.38 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. I have pondered a thought as a craftsman shapes his work, bounding forth like a well-yoked, spirited courser. Reaching for dear and distant things, I, wise in mind, seek to see the poet-seers.
2. Ask the mighty one about the births of the poet-seers, the mind-firm, skillful ones who fashioned heaven. These growing leaders of yours, swift as the mind's wind, have now gone to their appointed place.
3. Placing secret things down here, they anointed the two world-halves together for dominion. They measured them out with their measures, held the two wide ones in check, and set them, between the two great ones, in their meeting, for sustenance.
4. All beings attended him as he stood firm; clad in splendor, self-luminous, he moves. Great is that name of the bull, the mighty lord — all-formed, he has taken his stand among the immortal ones.
5. The elder, greater bull has brought forth; these many bounties are his, from of old. The two sons of heaven, by the insights of the sacred assembly — the two kings — hold dominion, as from ancient days.
6. The two kings, in the sacred assembly, adorn all their three abundant seats. There, having gone in thought, I saw the Gandharvas at their task, their hair the wind.
7. That indeed, now, is the bull's and the milch-cow's — by names they measured the cow's true nature. Clothing themselves, one form after another, in lordly power, the magic-wielding ones fashioned their shape within this one.
8. No one can grasp that golden device of this Savitar, which he has set in place. With fitting praise for the two world-halves that impel all things — like a maiden behind her veil, she has hidden her births.
9. You two accomplish the work of the ancient great one, so that divine well-being may surround us. All the crafty ones see the varied deeds of him who stands with the tongue of a herdsman.
10. May we call, for our weal, bounteous Indra, most heroic in this battle, at the winning of the prize — the mighty one who listens, for our help, in the combats, who slays the obstructing foes, the conqueror of the prizes.
Translator's note: this hymn is one of the Rigveda's notoriously compressed "riddle" compositions — its syntax is elliptical and several terms (e.g. "sakmyam" in verse 7, "gopājihvasya" in verse 9) have no settled meaning in the tradition. Renderings of these are kept deliberately conservative and close to the root sense of each word rather than resolved into confident paraphrase.
Colophon
Rigveda III.38 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.38
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.
abhi taṣṭeva dīdhayā manīṣām atyo na vājī sudhuro jihānaḥ |
abhi priyāṇi marmṛśat parāṇi kavīm̐r icchāmi saṁdṛśe sumedhāḥ || 1 ||
inota pṛccha janimā kavīnām manodhṛtaḥ sukṛtas takṣata dyām |
imā u te praṇyo3 vardhamānā manovātā adha nu dharmaṇi gman || 2 ||
ni ṣīm id atra guhyā dadhānā uta kṣatrāya rodasī sam añjan |
sam mātrābhir mamire yemur urvī antar mahī samṛte dhāyase dhuḥ || 3 ||
ātiṣṭhantam pari viśve abhūṣañ chriyo vasānaś carati svarociḥ |
mahat tad vṛṣṇo asurasya nāmā viśvarūpo amṛtāni tasthau || 4 ||
asūta pūrvo vṛṣabho jyāyān imā asya śurudhaḥ santi pūrvīḥ |
divo napātā vidathasya dhībhiḥ kṣatraṁ rājānā pradivo dadhāthe || 5 ||
trīṇi rājānā vidathe purūṇi pari viśvāni bhūṣathaḥ sadāṁsi |
apaśyam atra manasā jaganvān vrate gandharvām̐ api vāyukeśān || 6 ||
tad in nv asya vṛṣabhasya dhenor ā nāmabhir mamire sakmyaṁ goḥ |
anyad-anyad asurya1ṁ vasānā ni māyino mamire rūpam asmin || 7 ||
tad in nv asya savitur nakir me hiraṇyayīm amatiṁ yām aśiśret |
ā suṣṭutī rodasī viśvaminve apīva yoṣā janimāni vavre || 8 ||
yuvam pratnasya sādhatho maho yad daivī svastiḥ pari ṇaḥ syātam |
gopājihvasya tasthuṣo virūpā viśve paśyanti māyinaḥ kṛtāni || 9 ||
śunaṁ huvema maghavānam indram asmin bhare nṛtamaṁ vājasātau |
śṛṇvantam ugram ūtaye samatsu ghnantaṁ vṛtrāṇi saṁjitaṁ dhanānām || 10 ||
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).