Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.41 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. Come here to us, Indra, turning our way, called for the drinking of soma. Come with your two bay horses, O lord of the pressing stones.
2. Our priest, timely to the rite, is seated; the sacred grass has been spread out in order. The pressing stones have been set to work at dawn.
3. These prayers are being made, O you who are carried by prayer. Sit down on the sacred grass; enjoy, hero, the rice-cake offering.
4. Delight, slayer of Vṛtra, in these pressings of ours, in these hymns of praise, in the recitations, Indra, lover of songs.
5. Our hymns lick the vast soma-drinker, the lord of might — Indra — as mother cows lick their calf.
6. So delight yourself with the soma-juice, in your whole body, for great bounty. Do not hand your praiser over to scorn.
7. We, Indra, longing for you, bearing oblations, sing out to you. And may you, good one, in turn desire us.
8. Do not go far away, releasing yourself from us — lover of your bay horses, come toward us. Indra, master of your own power, be exhilarated here.
9. Let your two maned horses, dripping with ghee, carry you here, Indra, in your easy chariot, to sit down on the sacred grass.
Translator's note: verse 8's opening ("māre asmad vi mumuco") is read as "mā āre asmat vi mumucaḥ" — "do not release yourself far away from us" — the standard resolution of this sandhi; "haripriyā" is taken as vocative, "lover of the bay horses," addressed to Indra rather than as an epithet of the horses themselves.
Colophon
Rigveda III.41 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.41
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.
ā tū na indra madryag ghuvānaḥ somapītaye |
haribhyāṁ yāhy adrivaḥ || 1 ||
satto hotā na ṛtviyas tistire barhir ānuṣak |
ayujran prātar adrayaḥ || 2 ||
imā brahma brahmavāhaḥ kriyanta ā barhiḥ sīda |
vīhi śūra puroḻāśam || 3 ||
rārandhi savaneṣu ṇa eṣu stomeṣu vṛtrahan |
uktheṣv indra girvaṇaḥ || 4 ||
matayaḥ somapām uruṁ rihanti śavasas patim |
indraṁ vatsaṁ na mātaraḥ || 5 ||
sa mandasvā hy andhaso rādhase tanvā mahe |
na stotāraṁ nide karaḥ || 6 ||
vayam indra tvāyavo haviṣmanto jarāmahe |
uta tvam asmayur vaso || 7 ||
māre asmad vi mumuco haripriyārvāṅ yāhi |
indra svadhāvo matsveha || 8 ||
arvāñcaṁ tvā sukhe rathe vahatām indra keśinā |
ghṛtasnū barhir āsade || 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).