Hymn to Indra
Rigveda IV.17 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 4 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. You are great, Indra. The earth and the sky have honored your dominion with generosity. You, having struck down Vṛtra with your might, released the rivers that the serpent had swallowed.
2. At the birth of your fiery power, the sky trembled, the earth trembled, in fear of your own wrath. The mighty mountains shook; the dry lands turned to marsh; the waters flowed.
3. He split the mountain with his strength, hurling the vajra, displaying his overpowering force. Exhilarated, he slew Vṛtra with the vajra; the waters flowed swiftly, their obstructing bull now slain.
4. Dyaus, deeming you rich in heroes, was your begetter — the most skillful maker of Indra, who brought him forth: heavenly, well-armed with the vajra, unshakable, firm as the ground of his own seat.
5. He alone shakes the wide earth — Indra, king of the peoples, invoked by many. Truly all beings rejoice in him, in the gift of the bounteous god who is praised.
6. All the soma-draughts together became his; together the great, most intoxicating exhilarations. You became at once the lord of all treasures; in your giving, Indra, you have set all the peoples in your charge.
7. You indeed, as soon as you were born, established all the peoples, Indra. You hewed apart with the vajra the serpent lying in wait on the slope, O bounteous one.
8. Indra, the all-conquering, the bold, the mighty, great, boundless, the bull well-armed with the vajra — he who is the slayer of Vṛtra and winner of the prize, the giver of gifts, the bounteous one of true bounty.
9. This one, though hedged about, scatters the massed foes — he who alone, the bounteous one, is renowned in the contests. He wins the prize that he seeks; may we stand dear in his friendship.
10. This one is renowned, conquering and slaying; this one also wins cattle by battle. When Indra makes his fury real, everything firm trembles and shakes before it.
11. Indra won cattle together, gold together, horses together — the bounteous one who won many of them indeed. With these men, the most manly, by his powers, he is the distributor of riches and gatherer of goods.
12. How much, indeed, does Indra owe to his mother, how much to his father, the begetter who begot him — he who stirs up his fury in sudden bursts, like the wind driven on by thundering clouds?
13. You turn the prospering into the unprospering; the bounteous one stirs up a whirling cloud of dust — a breaker of foes, like the sky armed with the lightning-bolt — and the bounteous one has set his praiser amid wealth.
14. This one set in motion the wheel of the sun; he made Etaśa, though running, come to rest. Indra strikes down the dark one, as he writhes, at the base of the hide, in the womb of this dusty realm.
15. ...on the Asiknī, like a sacrificer, like a hotar-priest...
16. Desiring cattle, we inspired ones call on Indra for friendship; desiring horses, we call on the bull, seeking the prize; desiring offspring, we call on the giver of offspring, of unfailing help — we draw him down, as one draws a bucket from a well.
17. Be our protector, our kinsman made visible, the renowned, gracious one among those worthy of soma — friend, father, most fatherly of fathers, who grants room to the one who desires it, the giver of vigor.
18. Be the helper of those who seek your friendship, our friend; being praised, Indra, grant vigor to the one who praises you. For we have indeed labored eagerly for you, honoring you, Indra, with these ritual works.
19. Indra the bounteous is praised, for he alone slays the many hostile forces that none can withstand. Dear to him is the singer in whose shelter neither gods nor mortals can restrain him.
20. Thus may Indra the bounteous, the abundant one, make our wishes true for us — the unassailed sustainer of peoples. You, king of all creation, bestow on us the mighty fame that is given to the singer.
21. Now praised, Indra, now extolled, swell forth abundance for the singer, like rivers in flood. A new sacred hymn has been made for you, lord of the bay horses. Through this devotion may we be charioteers, ever victorious.
Translator's note: Verse 15 survives in the source text as a single incomplete line ("asiknyāṁ yajamāno na hotā," referencing the Asiknī river and a sacrificer or hotar-priest) — it is reproduced and translated exactly as it stands, with no content added to complete it. Verse 14's phrase "tvaco budhne" ("at the base of the hide") is obscure and rendered conservatively; it likely refers to a mythic locale associated with the demon Kṛṣṇa rather than literal skin. Verse 4's "ame" is uncertain and has been left untranslated as a discrete word.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.17 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 IV.17
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.
tvam mahām̐ indra tubhyaṁ ha kṣā anu kṣatram maṁhanā manyata dyauḥ |
tvaṁ vṛtraṁ śavasā jaghanvān sṛjaḥ sindhūm̐r ahinā jagrasānān || 1 ||
tava tviṣo janiman rejata dyau rejad bhūmir bhiyasā svasya manyoḥ |
ṛghāyanta subhva1ḥ parvatāsa ārdan dhanvāni sarayanta āpaḥ || 2 ||
bhinad giriṁ śavasā vajram iṣṇann āviṣkṛṇvānaḥ sahasāna ojaḥ |
vadhīd vṛtraṁ vajreṇa mandasānaḥ sarann āpo javasā hatavṛṣṇīḥ || 3 ||
suvīras te janitā manyata dyaur indrasya kartā svapastamo bhūt |
ya īṁ jajāna svaryaṁ suvajram anapacyutaṁ sadaso na bhūma || 4 ||
ya eka ic cyāvayati pra bhūmā rājā kṛṣṭīnām puruhūta indraḥ |
satyam enam anu viśve madanti rātiṁ devasya gṛṇato maghonaḥ || 5 ||
satrā somā abhavann asya viśve satrā madāso bṛhato madiṣṭhāḥ |
satrābhavo vasupatir vasūnāṁ datre viśvā adhithā indra kṛṣṭīḥ || 6 ||
tvam adha prathamaṁ jāyamāno 'me viśvā adhithā indra kṛṣṭīḥ |
tvam prati pravata āśayānam ahiṁ vajreṇa maghavan vi vṛścaḥ || 7 ||
satrāhaṇaṁ dādhṛṣiṁ tumram indram mahām apāraṁ vṛṣabhaṁ suvajram |
hantā yo vṛtraṁ sanitota vājaṁ dātā maghāni maghavā surādhāḥ || 8 ||
ayaṁ vṛtaś cātayate samīcīr ya ājiṣu maghavā śṛṇva ekaḥ |
ayaṁ vājam bharati yaṁ sanoty asya priyāsaḥ sakhye syāma || 9 ||
ayaṁ śṛṇve adha jayann uta ghnann ayam uta pra kṛṇute yudhā gāḥ |
yadā satyaṁ kṛṇute manyum indro viśvaṁ dṛḻham bhayata ejad asmāt || 10 ||
sam indro gā ajayat saṁ hiraṇyā sam aśviyā maghavā yo ha pūrvīḥ |
ebhir nṛbhir nṛtamo asya śākai rāyo vibhaktā sambharaś ca vasvaḥ || 11 ||
kiyat svid indro adhy eti mātuḥ kiyat pitur janitur yo jajāna |
yo asya śuṣmam muhukair iyarti vāto na jūtaḥ stanayadbhir abhraiḥ || 12 ||
kṣiyantaṁ tvam akṣiyantaṁ kṛṇotīyarti reṇum maghavā samoham |
vibhañjanur aśanimām̐ iva dyaur uta stotāram maghavā vasau dhāt || 13 ||
ayaṁ cakram iṣaṇat sūryasya ny etaśaṁ rīramat sasṛmāṇam |
ā kṛṣṇa īṁ juhurāṇo jigharti tvaco budhne rajaso asya yonau || 14 ||
asiknyāṁ yajamāno na hotā || 15 ||
gavyanta indraṁ sakhyāya viprā aśvāyanto vṛṣaṇaṁ vājayantaḥ |
janīyanto janidām akṣitotim ā cyāvayāmo 'vate na kośam || 16 ||
trātā no bodhi dadṛśāna āpir abhikhyātā marḍitā somyānām |
sakhā pitā pitṛtamaḥ pitṝṇāṁ kartem u lokam uśate vayodhāḥ || 17 ||
sakhīyatām avitā bodhi sakhā gṛṇāna indra stuvate vayo dhāḥ |
vayaṁ hy ā te cakṛmā sabādha ābhiḥ śamībhir mahayanta indra || 18 ||
stuta indro maghavā yad dha vṛtrā bhūrīṇy eko apratīni hanti |
asya priyo jaritā yasya śarman nakir devā vārayante na martāḥ || 19 ||
evā na indro maghavā virapśī karat satyā carṣaṇīdhṛd anarvā |
tvaṁ rājā januṣāṁ dhehy asme adhi śravo māhinaṁ yaj jaritre || 20 ||
nū ṣṭuta indra nū gṛṇāna iṣaṁ jaritre nadyo3 na pīpeḥ |
akāri te harivo brahma navyaṁ dhiyā syāma rathyaḥ sadāsāḥ || 21 ||
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).