Hymn to the Viśvedevas
Rigveda III.56 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. Not even the cunning, not even the wise, can diminish the gods' laws — the first, the fixed ones. The two world-halves, free of deceit, do not bend under any cleverness, nor do the standing mountains bow down.
2. One who moves alone carries six burdens; the highest world-order — the cows have come near it. Three greater ones stand below like swift mares; two are hidden, one alone is visible.
3. The bull of triple form, showing every shape, three-uddered, manifold, rich in offspring; three-faced, he rules in his greatness — he, the bull, is the seed-giver of the many.
4. Among them the tracker of their path has awakened; I have called the lovely name of the Ādityas. Even the divine waters came to rest for him; moving each their own way, they turned and circled around him.
5. Three are the dwelling-places of the rivers, three belong to the seers, and threefold-measured is the sovereign at the sacrificial gatherings; three truthful watery maidens rule three times from heaven at the rite.
6. Three times from heaven, Savitar, send down the things to be desired — day after day, and three times in a day, send them for us. Send down threefold wealth and goods; Bhaga, protector, Dhiṣaṇā — grant it to us for our gain.
7. Three times from heaven Savitar impels his blessings; so too the two fair-handed kings Mitra and Varuṇa. Even the waters, even the two wide world-halves, beg for the treasure meant for Savitar's impelling.
8. Threefold are the highest realms of light, hard to reach; three heroes of the Asura rule. Truthful, vigorous, impossible to deceive — may the gods be present three times from heaven at the sacred gathering.
Translator's note: This hymn is a riddle-hymn built on the numbers three and six (tri-, ṣaḍ-), likely encoding calendrical or cosmological divisions (seasons, world-regions, or ritual times) that were transparent to the original audience but are opaque today. Verse 2's "six burdens carried by one who moves alone" and verse 4's "tracker of their path" (padavīḥ) are rendered conservatively, close to the Sanskrit, rather than resolved into a specific interpretation.
Colophon
Rigveda III.56 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.56
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.
na tā minanti māyino na dhīrā vratā devānām prathamā dhruvāṇi |
na rodasī adruhā vedyābhir na parvatā niname tasthivāṁsaḥ || 1 ||
ṣaḍ bhārām̐ eko acaran bibharty ṛtaṁ varṣiṣṭham upa gāva āguḥ |
tisro mahīr uparās tasthur atyā guhā dve nihite darśy ekā || 2 ||
tripājasyo vṛṣabho viśvarūpa uta tryudhā purudha prajāvān |
tryanīkaḥ patyate māhināvān sa retodhā vṛṣabhaḥ śaśvatīnām || 3 ||
abhīka āsām padavīr abodhy ādityānām ahve cāru nāma |
āpaś cid asmā aramanta devīḥ pṛthag vrajantīḥ pari ṣīm avṛñjan || 4 ||
trī ṣadhasthā sindhavas triḥ kavīnām uta trimātā vidatheṣu samrāṭ |
ṛtāvarīr yoṣaṇās tisro apyās trir ā divo vidathe patyamānāḥ || 5 ||
trir ā divaḥ savitar vāryāṇi dive-diva ā suva trir no ahnaḥ |
tridhātu rāya ā suvā vasūni bhaga trātar dhiṣaṇe sātaye dhāḥ || 6 ||
trir ā divaḥ savitā soṣavīti rājānā mitrāvaruṇā supāṇī |
āpaś cid asya rodasī cid urvī ratnam bhikṣanta savituḥ savāya || 7 ||
trir uttamā dūṇaśā rocanāni trayo rājanty asurasya vīrāḥ |
ṛtāvāna iṣirā dūḻabhāsas trir ā divo vidathe santu devāḥ || 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).