Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.42 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, to the pressed soma mixed with milk, O Indra, with your two bay horses that favor us.
2. Come, Indra, to that intoxicating drink standing on the sacred grass, pressed with the stones — will you not take your fill of it?
3. Thus my songs, sent out from here, have gone toward Indra, for his turning back to drink the soma.
4. We call Indra here with praise-songs, to drink the soma; will he come at our recitations?
5. Indra, here are the pressed somas; take them into yourself, hundred-powered one, into your belly, lord of bounty.
6. For we know you as winner of the prize, bold in the contests, wise one; so we ask for your favor.
7. Drink this soma of ours, mixed with milk and mixed with barley, O Indra — come here with your bulls, to what has been pressed.
8. For you indeed, Indra, in your own home, I press out the soma for drinking; let this gladden your heart.
9. We, the Kuśikas, seeking your favor, call on you, ancient Indra, to drink of the pressed soma.
Translator's note: verse 8's "okye" (dwelling, home) is a rare and metrically irregular form; rendered conservatively as "in your own home." Verse 8's "rārantu" (a rare intensive/plural verb form applied to the singular "eṣa," this [soma]) is rendered simply as "let this gladden," following the sense rather than pressing the grammatical mismatch. Verse 9 names the Kuśikas, the seer-family traditionally credited with this hymn.
Colophon
Rigveda III.42 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.42
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.
upa naḥ sutam ā gahi somam indra gavāśiram |
haribhyāṁ yas te asmayuḥ || 1 ||
tam indra madam ā gahi barhiḥṣṭhāṁ grāvabhiḥ sutam |
kuvin nv asya tṛpṇavaḥ || 2 ||
indram itthā giro mamācchāgur iṣitā itaḥ |
āvṛte somapītaye || 3 ||
indraṁ somasya pītaye stomair iha havāmahe |
ukthebhiḥ kuvid āgamat || 4 ||
indra somāḥ sutā ime tān dadhiṣva śatakrato |
jaṭhare vājinīvaso || 5 ||
vidmā hi tvā dhanaṁjayaṁ vājeṣu dadhṛṣaṁ kave |
adhā te sumnam īmahe || 6 ||
imam indra gavāśiraṁ yavāśiraṁ ca naḥ piba |
āgatyā vṛṣabhiḥ sutam || 7 ||
tubhyed indra sva okye3 somaṁ codāmi pītaye |
eṣa rārantu te hṛdi || 8 ||
tvāṁ sutasya pītaye pratnam indra havāmahe |
kuśikāso avasyavaḥ || 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).