Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda III.61 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. O Uṣas, mighty with strength, wise one — accept the praise-hymn of the singer, O bountiful one. Ancient goddess, yet ever young, full of abundance, you follow your own law, O you who hold all boons.
2. O Uṣas, immortal goddess, shine forth, with your shining chariot, sending out your glad bounties. Let your well-controlled horses, broad in power, carry you here, golden-hued one.
3. O Uṣas, facing all beings, you stand aloft, the banner of the immortal. Traveling the same course, like a wheel, ever new, turn back again to us.
4. Unwinding herself like a thread, the bounteous Uṣas comes, mistress of the morning pasture. Bringing forth the light, auspicious, skillful in her works, she has spread from the edge of heaven to the edge of earth.
5. Offer to the goddess Uṣas, shining forth, your well-wrought praise with homage. The honey-giving one has set her radiance aloft in heaven; she has made the luminous realms shine, lovely to behold.
6. The truthful one has awakened by the rays of heaven; the wealthy one has stood forth wondrously over the two worlds. O Agni, as she comes, the shining Uṣas, you approach her, seeking precious wealth.
7. At the foundation of cosmic order, urging on the dawns, the mighty bull has entered the two great worlds. The great wondrous power of Mitra and Varuṇa has spread her light, like the moon's, in many places.
Translator's note: several terms admit more than one defensible rendering and are given conservatively — puraṁdhi (1) as "full of abundance" (an epithet of bounty/plenty); syūma (4) as "thread," describing Uṣas unrolling herself across the sky like an unwound seam; budhna (7) as "foundation," and māyā (7) as "power" in its older sense of wondrous or creative skill rather than "illusion." Verse 6 shifts address from Uṣas to Agni mid-verse, a feature of the Sanskrit itself, not an error in this translation — Agni is here pictured approaching the newly risen dawn to seek the wealth she brings.
Colophon
Rigveda III.61 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.61
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.
uṣo vājena vājini pracetāḥ stomaṁ juṣasva gṛṇato maghoni |
purāṇī devi yuvatiḥ puraṁdhir anu vrataṁ carasi viśvavāre || 1 ||
uṣo devy amartyā vi bhāhi candrarathā sūnṛtā īrayantī |
ā tvā vahantu suyamāso aśvā hiraṇyavarṇām pṛthupājaso ye || 2 ||
uṣaḥ pratīcī bhuvanāni viśvordhvā tiṣṭhasy amṛtasya ketuḥ |
samānam arthaṁ caraṇīyamānā cakram iva navyasy ā vavṛtsva || 3 ||
ava syūmeva cinvatī maghony uṣā yāti svasarasya patnī |
sva1r janantī subhagā sudaṁsā āntād divaḥ papratha ā pṛthivyāḥ || 4 ||
acchā vo devīm uṣasaṁ vibhātīm pra vo bharadhvaṁ namasā suvṛktim |
ūrdhvam madhudhā divi pājo aśret pra rocanā ruruce raṇvasaṁdṛk || 5 ||
ṛtāvarī divo arkair abodhy ā revatī rodasī citram asthāt |
āyatīm agna uṣasaṁ vibhātīṁ vāmam eṣi draviṇam bhikṣamāṇaḥ || 6 ||
ṛtasya budhna uṣasām iṣaṇyan vṛṣā mahī rodasī ā viveśa |
mahī mitrasya varuṇasya māyā candreva bhānuṁ vi dadhe purutrā || 7 ||
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).