Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.52 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 hymn to Indra centers on food offerings — roasted grain (dhānā), grain-porridge (karambha), and rice-cake (puroḍāśa) — presented to him across the morning, midday, and third pressings of soma. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Indra, at dawn take delight in us — rich with roasted grain, with grain-porridge, with cake, with hymns of praise.
2. Delight, Indra, in the cooked rice-cake, and take it in — for you the offerings stream forth.
3. Eat our rice-cake, and take pleasure in our songs — as a suitor delights in a young woman.
4. Indra, famed of old, delight in our rice-cake at the morning pressing — for your power is vast.
5. Make ready here, Indra, the roasted grain and the lovely rice-cake of the midday pressing, when the praising singer, eager and swift to his purpose, bull-like, implores you with songs.
6. At the third pressing, much-praised one, grant us generously the roasted grain and the offered rice-cake. You, O sage, attended by the Ṛbhus and rich in strength — bearing our offerings, may we strive to win you with our devotions.
7. For you, who go with Pūṣan, we have made the grain-porridge; for you, tawny lord of tawny steeds, the roasted grain. Eat the cake together with your troop, with the Maruts; drink the soma, hero, slayer of Vṛtra, knowing one.
8. Bring quickly to him the roasted grain, the rice-cake, to the most heroic of men. Day by day, Indra, may these fitting offerings strengthen you, bold one, for the drinking of soma.
Translator's note: "gurasva" (v. 2) is read as an imperative from the root gṛ, "to swallow, take in"; the phrase is rendered "take it in." "Vṛddhy-artho" type compounds and "vṛṣāyamāṇa" (v. 5) — literally "behaving like a bull" — are rendered "bull-like" to preserve the image rather than smoothing it into an adverb like "eagerly" alone.
Colophon
Rigveda III.52 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.52
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.
dhānāvantaṁ karambhiṇam apūpavantam ukthinam |
indra prātar juṣasva naḥ || 1 ||
puroḻāśam pacatyaṁ juṣasvendrā gurasva ca |
tubhyaṁ havyāni sisrate || 2 ||
puroḻāśaṁ ca no ghaso joṣayāse giraś ca naḥ |
vadhūyur iva yoṣaṇām || 3 ||
puroḻāśaṁ sanaśruta prātaḥsāve juṣasva naḥ |
indra kratur hi te bṛhan || 4 ||
mādhyaṁdinasya savanasya dhānāḥ puroḻāśam indra kṛṣveha cārum |
pra yat stotā jaritā tūrṇyartho vṛṣāyamāṇa upa gīrbhir īṭṭe || 5 ||
tṛtīye dhānāḥ savane puruṣṭuta puroḻāśam āhutam māmahasva naḥ |
ṛbhumantaṁ vājavantaṁ tvā kave prayasvanta upa śikṣema dhītibhiḥ || 6 ||
pūṣaṇvate te cakṛmā karambhaṁ harivate haryaśvāya dhānāḥ |
apūpam addhi sagaṇo marudbhiḥ somam piba vṛtrahā śūra vidvān || 7 ||
prati dhānā bharata tūyam asmai puroḻāśaṁ vīratamāya nṛṇām |
dive-dive sadṛśīr indra tubhyaṁ vardhantu tvā somapeyāya dhṛṣṇo || 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).