Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.50 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. May Indra drink, svāhā — he to whom this soma belongs — the vast bull, tawny, accompanied by the Maruts, having come. Wide-ranging one, let him be satisfied with these foods; fulfill the desire of this offering, of the body.
2. I yoke for you, for speed, the two attendants whose readiness to serve you have long favored. Here may the bay steeds bring you, fair-cheeked one — drink now of this well-pressed, lovely soma.
3. With milk they have prepared Indra, the good ferryman, to be mixed with soma, praising him for supremacy, for nourishment. Gladdened, having drunk the soma, lord of the soma-dregs, send us cattle abundantly — drive them our way.
4. Satisfy this desire with cattle, with horses, and spread abundance with your shining bounty. Seeking the light of heaven, with their hymns, the inspired poets — the Kuśikas — have made this offering for you, Indra.
5. May we call, for our prosperity, on bounteous Indra, most manly, in this contest, in the winning of the prize — the fierce one who listens, for our aid, in battles, who slays the obstructing foes, conqueror of spoils.
Translator's note: verse 1 mixes third-person description ("may Indra drink") with a second-person address ("fulfill the desire," "of the body") in the source Sanskrit itself — this grammatical shift is preserved rather than smoothed over. "Wide-ranging one" renders uruvyacāḥ ("of wide extent"); "lord of the soma-dregs" renders the epithet ṛjīṣin, whose precise sense is debated among Vedic scholars. "Slays the obstructing foes" renders ghnantaṁ vṛtrāṇi, where vṛtrāṇi is the common-noun plural ("obstacles, enemies") rather than the proper name Vṛtra.
Colophon
Rigveda III.50 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda III.50
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.
indraḥ svāhā pibatu yasya soma āgatyā tumro vṛṣabho marutvān |
oruvyacāḥ pṛṇatām ebhir annair āsya havis tanva1ḥ kāmam ṛdhyāḥ || 1 ||
ā te saparyū javase yunajmi yayor anu pradivaḥ śruṣṭim āvaḥ |
iha tvā dheyur harayaḥ suśipra pibā tv a1sya suṣutasya cāroḥ || 2 ||
gobhir mimikṣuṁ dadhire supāram indraṁ jyaiṣṭhyāya dhāyase gṛṇānāḥ |
mandānaḥ somam papivām̐ ṛjīṣin sam asmabhyam purudhā gā iṣaṇya || 3 ||
imaṁ kāmam mandayā gobhir aśvaiś candravatā rādhasā paprathaś ca |
svaryavo matibhis tubhyaṁ viprā indrāya vāhaḥ kuśikāso akran || 4 ||
śunaṁ huvema maghavānam indram asmin bhare nṛtamaṁ vājasātau |
śṛṇvantam ugram ūtaye samatsu ghnantaṁ vṛtrāṇi saṁjitaṁ dhanānām || 5 ||
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).