Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.43 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 forward, standing on your chariot-seat — the soma-drink has been yours since ancient days. Unyoke your dear companions at the sacred grass; these bearers of the offering call for you.
2. Come, past the many peoples, to our devoted longings, with your two bay steeds. For these thoughts, shaped into praise-songs, call you, Indra, delighting in friendship.
3. Come quickly with your bay horses, god Indra, in one accord, to our sacrifice that grows strong through homage. I call you again and again with my hymns, bringing ghee, at the shared feast of the sweet draughts.
4. And may these two bull-strong bay horses carry you here, well-yoked companions, fair of limb. May Indra, delighting in the soma-pressing with its grain-offering, hear as a friend the praises of his friend.
5. Will you make me the guardian of the people? Will you make me a king, bounteous one, drinker of the ṛjīṣa? Will you make me a seer who has drunk of the pressed soma? Will you grant me a share of the immortal wealth?
6. May your mighty bay horses, yoked, carry you here, Indra, together with your feast-companions — those horses that speed forth from heaven, driven on, well-groomed, the very forms of the bull.
7. Indra, drink of the mighty soma stirred by the bull, which the eagle brought for you in its eagerness. In whose intoxication you set the peoples moving; in whose intoxication you threw open the cattle-stalls.
8. May we call, for our prosperity, on bounteous Indra, most manly in this contest, in the winning of the prize — the mighty one who listens, for help in the fights, who slays the obstacles, who wins the riches.
Translator's note: verse 6 (pra ye dvitā diva ṛñjanty ātāḥ / susammṛṣṭāso vṛṣabhasya mūrāḥ) is textually dense and its exact sense — the horses' relation to "the forms of the bull" — is uncertain; rendered conservatively, close to the word order. "ṛjīṣin" (v. 5) is left in its literal sense, "drinker of the ṛjīṣa" (the soma dregs/residue offered in a further pressing), a standard Indra epithet.
Colophon
Rigveda III.43 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.43
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 yāhy arvāṅ upa vandhureṣṭhās taved anu pradivaḥ somapeyam |
priyā sakhāyā vi mucopa barhis tvām ime havyavāho havante || 1 ||
ā yāhi pūrvīr ati carṣaṇīr ām̐ arya āśiṣa upa no haribhyām |
imā hi tvā matayaḥ stomataṣṭā indra havante sakhyaṁ juṣāṇāḥ || 2 ||
ā no yajñaṁ namovṛdhaṁ sajoṣā indra deva haribhir yāhi tūyam |
ahaṁ hi tvā matibhir johavīmi ghṛtaprayāḥ sadhamāde madhūnām || 3 ||
ā ca tvām etā vṛṣaṇā vahāto harī sakhāyā sudhurā svaṅgā |
dhānāvad indraḥ savanaṁ juṣāṇaḥ sakhā sakhyuḥ śṛṇavad vandanāni || 4 ||
kuvin mā gopāṁ karase janasya kuvid rājānam maghavann ṛjīṣin |
kuvin ma ṛṣim papivāṁsaṁ sutasya kuvin me vasvo amṛtasya śikṣāḥ || 5 ||
ā tvā bṛhanto harayo yujānā arvāg indra sadhamādo vahantu |
pra ye dvitā diva ṛñjanty ātāḥ susammṛṣṭāso vṛṣabhasya mūrāḥ || 6 ||
indra piba vṛṣadhūtasya vṛṣṇa ā yaṁ te śyena uśate jabhāra |
yasya made cyāvayasi pra kṛṣṭīr yasya made apa gotrā vavartha || 7 ||
śunaṁ huvema maghavānam indram asmin bhare nṛtamaṁ vājasātau |
śṛṇvantam ugram ūtaye samatsu ghnantaṁ vṛtrāṇi saṁjitaṁ dhanānām || 8 ||
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).