Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.39 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. The thought, stirring from the heart, moves toward Indra its lord, shaped by our praise-song — wakeful, spoken forth in the assembly. Indra, know this: whatever is born in it is born for you.
2. Born already of old, from heaven itself, wakeful, spoken forth in the assembly, wearing bright, shining garments — this is our thought, ancient, handed down from the fathers.
3. Here the twin bore twins; it fell forward onto the tip of the tongue and stood there. Born as a pair, these wondrous forms cling together, darkness-slayers, from the base of the burning one.
4. None of these are blamed among mortals — our fathers who were warriors over the cows. Indra, mighty and full of power, broke open their strongholds and set the herds free.
5. There the comrade, with his comrades the Navagvas, with the warriors, going on bent knee, tracked the cows. This is the truth: Indra, with the ten Daśagvas, found the sun dwelling in darkness.
6. Indra found the sweetness gathered in the cow, footed and hoofed, in her bent stall — hidden in secret, concealed in the waters. The generous one took it into his right hand.
7. Let him choose the light, discerning it from the darkness; may we be far from distress, close to you. Enjoy these songs, O soma-drinker grown strong on soma — Indra, delight in the songs of your most devoted singer.
8. May light follow the two world-halves for the sake of the sacrifice; may we be far from great distress. For truly, of the mortal who presses forward, the good ones stand ready, with power, to carry him safely across.
9. Let us call, for our prosperity, on bounteous Indra, most manly, in this contest, in the winning of the prize — the fierce one who hears, for help in the frays, who strikes down the obstacles and conquers the spoils.
Translator's note: Verse 3 (the twin who bore twins, standing at the tip of the tongue) is one of the most cryptic verses in the Rigveda; it is rendered here as literally as the Sanskrit allows rather than resolved into a single interpretation. Verses 4–6 draw on the Vala myth, in which Indra and the Aṅgiras clans (here named the Navagvas and Daśagvas) recover cattle and the hidden sun from a cave of darkness; "sweetness" in verse 6 (madhu) likely figures milk or the sun's light hidden within the cow.
Colophon
Rigveda III.39 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.39
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.
indram matir hṛda ā vacyamānācchā patiṁ stomataṣṭā jigāti |
yā jāgṛvir vidathe śasyamānendra yat te jāyate viddhi tasya || 1 ||
divaś cid ā pūrvyā jāyamānā vi jāgṛvir vidathe śasyamānā |
bhadrā vastrāṇy arjunā vasānā seyam asme sanajā pitryā dhīḥ || 2 ||
yamā cid atra yamasūr asūta jihvāyā agram patad ā hy asthāt |
vapūṁṣi jātā mithunā sacete tamohanā tapuṣo budhna etā || 3 ||
nakir eṣāṁ ninditā martyeṣu ye asmākam pitaro goṣu yodhāḥ |
indra eṣāṁ dṛṁhitā māhināvān ud gotrāṇi sasṛje daṁsanāvān || 4 ||
sakhā ha yatra sakhibhir navagvair abhijñv ā satvabhir gā anugman |
satyaṁ tad indro daśabhir daśagvaiḥ sūryaṁ viveda tamasi kṣiyantam || 5 ||
indro madhu sambhṛtam usriyāyām padvad viveda śaphavan name goḥ |
guhā hitaṁ guhyaṁ gūḻham apsu haste dadhe dakṣiṇe dakṣiṇāvān || 6 ||
jyotir vṛṇīta tamaso vijānann āre syāma duritād abhīke |
imā giraḥ somapāḥ somavṛddha juṣasvendra purutamasya kāroḥ || 7 ||
jyotir yajñāya rodasī anu ṣyād āre syāma duritasya bhūreḥ |
bhūri cid dhi tujato martyasya supārāso vasavo barhaṇāvat || 8 ||
śunaṁ huvema maghavānam indram asmin bhare nṛtamaṁ vājasātau |
śṛṇvantam ugram ūtaye samatsu ghnantaṁ vṛtrāṇi saṁjitaṁ dhanānām || 9 ||
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).