Hymn to Indra
Rigveda III.53 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. III.53 is unusually composite: it opens as a hymn to Indra and Parvata together, turns to Indra alone and to the seer Viśvāmitra's dealings with King Sudās and the Kuśika clan, includes a verse naming the Kīkaṭa people and one Pramaganda, two verses about a figure called Sasarparī, a short charm for repairing a chariot on the road, and closing verses about the sons of Bharata. Tradition assigns the whole to the seer Viśvāmitra Gāthina, with Indra as the presiding deity throughout except verse 1 (Indra-Parvata).
1. O Indra and Parvata, bring us, with your great chariot, desirable refreshment together with good sons. Enjoy the offerings at the rites, O gods; grow strong through our songs, rejoicing in the food set out for you.
2. Stand still a moment, bounteous one — do not go away; let me now worship you with well-pressed soma. Like a son grasping his father's garment, I grasp yours, O Indra, mighty one, with the sweetest song.
3. Let us speak together, O adhvaryu priest — answer me in turn; let the two of us make an offering pleasing to Indra. Sit here on the sacred grass of the one who sacrifices, and let the hymn recited be spoken for Indra.
4. Let your wife stay at home, bounteous one — that indeed is her place; let your yoked bay horses carry you here instead. Whenever we press the soma, let Agni run to you as our swift messenger.
5. Go forth, bounteous one, and come back again, Indra — your purpose, brother, lies on both sides — to where the great chariot is set down, where the strong-running donkey is unyoked.
6. Having drunk the soma, go home, Indra; your lovely wife takes delight in your house — to where the great chariot is set down, where the strong-running one is unyoked, at the place rich in gifts.
7. These generous Aṅgirases, of many forms, sons of heaven, heroes of the mighty lord — giving their gifts to Viśvāmitra, at the thousandfold pressing they extend his span of life.
8. The bounteous one takes on shape after shape, fashioning illusions around his own body; when three times in a moment he crosses through heaven, drinking out of season yet true to order, by his own spells.
9. The great seer, born of the gods and driven by the gods, who sees all men, held back the surging river — when Viśvāmitra carried Sudās across, Indra grew displeased on account of the Kuśikas.
10. Like swans, raise a resounding cry with the pressing-stones, rejoicing in song at the rite together with the pressed soma. O inspired seers who see all men, drink deep together with the gods, O Kuśikas, the sweet soma-drink.
11. Go forward, O Kuśikas, take heed; release the horse of Sudās for the sake of wealth. Let the king strike down the obstacle to the east, the west, and the north, and then let him sacrifice at the finest place of the earth.
12. I who have praised Indra, lord of these two worlds — this sacred formula of Viśvāmitra protects the Bharata people.
13. The Viśvāmitras have offered a sacred formula to Indra, wielder of the thunderbolt: may he make us truly prosperous.
14. What do your cows accomplish among the Kīkaṭas? They give no milk to mix for the offering, they heat no oblation-vessel. Bring us the wealth of Pramaganda; subdue Naicāśākha to us, bounteous one.
15. Sasarparī, driving away want, bellowed loud — given by Jamadagni. The daughter of Sūrya has stretched out fame among the gods, undying and unaging.
16. Sasarparī quickly brought fame to these people among the five tribes — she of the flock, bearing new life, whom Palasti and Jamadagni gave to me.
17. Let the two oxen stand steady, let the axle be firm; let nothing tear loose, let the yoke not break apart. Let Indra grant protection at the breaking-point; O chariot of unharmed rim, stay with us.
18. Place strength in our bodies, Indra, strength in our draft-oxen; strength in our children and their children, for life — for you are the giver of strength.
19. Clothe yourself in the strength of the khadira wood; put vigor into the swaying shaft of śiṁśapā wood. O axle, firm one, made firm — hold yourself firm; do not let us be thrown from this journey.
20. May this lord of the forest neither forsake us nor do us harm; may we come safely, with your help, to our homes, to the place of unyoking.
21. With your many, best forms of help, Indra, quicken us today, bounteous and mighty one. Whoever hates us, let him fall, brought low; and whomever we hate, let his breath leave him.
22. Even the axe wears through it; even the śimbala tree it splits apart. Even the cooking-vessel, Indra, when set boiling and stirred, throws off foam.
23. People do not perceive the nature of the weapon; taking it for mere cattle, they lead the beast away. They do not set the ordinary horse laughing at the prize-winner; they do not put the donkey ahead of the horses.
24. These sons of Bharata, Indra, know division, not homecoming. They drive the horse on as though it were not their own but everlasting; they lead the swift one around in the contest.
Translator's note: several verses in this hymn are among the most obscure in the Rigveda and resist certainty. Verse 9's "apriyāyata" (rendered here "grew displeased") could instead mean something closer to "grew attached"; both readings appear in scholarship and the Sanskrit itself is ambiguous. Verses 15–16, concerning a figure named Sasarparī and the seers Jamadagni and Palasti, and verse 22, an apparently proverbial fragment about an axe, a tree, and a boiling vessel, are notoriously difficult and are translated here conservatively, word for word, without smoothing over the obscurity. Verse 24's compound "jyāvājam" (literally "bowstring-swift" or "bow-prize") has no settled English equivalent and is rendered loosely as "the swift one." Ritual and technical terms — gharma (a heated milk-vessel), khadira and śiṁśapā (types of wood used for chariot parts), anaḍvāh (draft ox) — are translated by their closest general sense rather than assigned specialized ritual vocabulary.
Colophon
Rigveda III.53 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.53
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.
indrāparvatā bṛhatā rathena vāmīr iṣa ā vahataṁ suvīrāḥ |
vītaṁ havyāny adhvareṣu devā vardhethāṁ gīrbhir iḻayā madantā || 1 ||
tiṣṭhā su kam maghavan mā parā gāḥ somasya nu tvā suṣutasya yakṣi |
pitur na putraḥ sicam ā rabhe ta indra svādiṣṭhayā girā śacīvaḥ || 2 ||
śaṁsāvādhvaryo prati me gṛṇīhīndrāya vāhaḥ kṛṇavāva juṣṭam |
edam barhir yajamānasya sīdāthā ca bhūd uktham indrāya śastam || 3 ||
jāyed astam maghavan sed u yonis tad it tvā yuktā harayo vahantu |
yadā kadā ca sunavāma somam agniṣ ṭvā dūto dhanvāty accha || 4 ||
parā yāhi maghavann ā ca yāhīndra bhrātar ubhayatrā te artham |
yatrā rathasya bṛhato nidhānaṁ vimocanaṁ vājino rāsabhasya || 5 ||
apāḥ somam astam indra pra yāhi kalyāṇīr jāyā suraṇaṁ gṛhe te |
yatrā rathasya bṛhato nidhānaṁ vimocanaṁ vājino dakṣiṇāvat || 6 ||
ime bhojā aṅgiraso virūpā divas putrāso asurasya vīrāḥ |
viśvāmitrāya dadato maghāni sahasrasāve pra tiranta āyuḥ || 7 ||
rūpaṁ-rūpam maghavā bobhavīti māyāḥ kṛṇvānas tanva1m pari svām |
trir yad divaḥ pari muhūrtam āgāt svair mantrair anṛtupā ṛtāvā || 8 ||
mahām̐ ṛṣir devajā devajūto 'stabhnāt sindhum arṇavaṁ nṛcakṣāḥ |
viśvāmitro yad avahat sudāsam apriyāyata kuśikebhir indraḥ || 9 ||
haṁsā iva kṛṇutha ślokam adribhir madanto gīrbhir adhvare sute sacā |
devebhir viprā ṛṣayo nṛcakṣaso vi pibadhvaṁ kuśikāḥ somyam madhu || 10 ||
upa preta kuśikāś cetayadhvam aśvaṁ rāye pra muñcatā sudāsaḥ |
rājā vṛtraṁ jaṅghanat prāg apāg udag athā yajāte vara ā pṛthivyāḥ || 11 ||
ya ime rodasī ubhe aham indram atuṣṭavam |
viśvāmitrasya rakṣati brahmedam bhārataṁ janam || 12 ||
viśvāmitrā arāsata brahmendrāya vajriṇe |
karad in naḥ surādhasaḥ || 13 ||
kiṁ te kṛṇvanti kīkaṭeṣu gāvo nāśiraṁ duhre na tapanti gharmam |
ā no bhara pramagandasya vedo naicāśākham maghavan randhayā naḥ || 14 ||
sasarparīr amatim bādhamānā bṛhan mimāya jamadagnidattā |
ā sūryasya duhitā tatāna śravo deveṣv amṛtam ajuryam || 15 ||
sasarparīr abharat tūyam ebhyo 'dhi śravaḥ pāñcajanyāsu kṛṣṭiṣu |
sā pakṣyā3 navyam āyur dadhānā yām me palastijamadagnayo daduḥ || 16 ||
sthirau gāvau bhavatāṁ vīḻur akṣo meṣā vi varhi mā yugaṁ vi śāri |
indraḥ pātalye dadatāṁ śarītor ariṣṭaneme abhi naḥ sacasva || 17 ||
balaṁ dhehi tanūṣu no balam indrānaḻutsu naḥ |
balaṁ tokāya tanayāya jīvase tvaṁ hi baladā asi || 18 ||
abhi vyayasva khadirasya sāram ojo dhehi spandane śiṁśapāyām |
akṣa vīḻo vīḻita vīḻayasva mā yāmād asmād ava jīhipo naḥ || 19 ||
ayam asmān vanaspatir mā ca hā mā ca rīriṣat |
svasty ā gṛhebhya āvasā ā vimocanāt || 20 ||
indrotibhir bahulābhir no adya yācchreṣṭhābhir maghavañ chūra jinva |
yo no dveṣṭy adharaḥ sas padīṣṭa yam u dviṣmas tam u prāṇo jahātu || 21 ||
paraśuṁ cid vi tapati śimbalaṁ cid vi vṛścati |
ukhā cid indra yeṣantī prayastā phenam asyati || 22 ||
na sāyakasya cikite janāso lodhaṁ nayanti paśu manyamānāḥ |
nāvājinaṁ vājinā hāsayanti na gardabham puro aśvān nayanti || 23 ||
ima indra bharatasya putrā apapitvaṁ cikitur na prapitvam |
hinvanty aśvam araṇaṁ na nityaṁ jyāvājam pari ṇayanty ājau || 24 ||
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).