Hymn to Indra — His Birth
Rigveda IV.18 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. The hymn is built as a dialogue around the legend of Indra's unusual birth — refusing the ordinary birth-passage, emerging through his mother's side — and his subsequent slaying of Vṛtra to release the rivers.
1. This path has been found, the ancient one, by which all the gods were born. Let him too, grown strong, be born from it — let him not make his mother fall by that other way.
2. "I will not go out from here — this passage is hard. I will go out crosswise, through the side. Many deeds of mine are still undone, still to be done; with one foe I must fight, with another I must contend."
3. He looked back at his mother as she went away: "I will not follow the old paths, I will go by new ones." In Tvaṣṭar's house Indra drank the soma worth a hundred measures, pressed in the two bowls.
4. What could he do otherwise — he whom a thousand months and many years carried? Truly there is no equal to him among those born, or among those yet to be born.
5. Thinking it a disgrace, his mother hid Indra away, overborne by his own strength. Then he rose up on his own, clothing himself in a garment, and as he was born he filled the two world-halves.
6. These waters flow, crying out with joy, like the pious ones calling to one another. Ask them — what is this they are saying? For what do the waters break through the enclosing rock?
7. What is it these voices are telling him? The waters wish to seize on Indra's secret shame. "My son," he said, "having slain Vṛtra with his great weapon, has set the rivers loose."
8. Not by the young woman were you cast away; not by the pit-plant were you swallowed. Not by the waters was the child shown mercy — yet by his own strength Indra stood up.
9. Not by the shoulderless one, O bounteous one, were you struck down; struck at, he broke off its jaws instead. Wounded, he still rose the higher, and crushed the head of the Dāsa with his weapon.
10. A young cow bore a mature offspring; she came bearing you, unassailable, the bull, mighty Indra. The mother bore the unlicked calf, ready to go forth, itself already seeking its own path.
11. And the mother gazed after the mighty one: "These gods are forsaking you, my son." Then Indra, about to slay Vṛtra, said: "Friend Viṣṇu, stride out wider."
12. Who made your mother a widow? Who wished to kill you as you lay there, helpless? What god showed you favor when you struck down your father, seizing him by the foot?
13. Without a turning-spit I cooked a dog's entrails; I found no one among the gods to comfort me. I saw my wife going unhonored — then the falcon brought me the honey.
Translator's note: this hymn is a notoriously compressed dialogue built on a birth-legend whose other details are not spelled out in the text. Several words resist certain translation: "mamac cana" (vv. 8–9) is rendered here conservatively as "not by/not at all"; "kuṣavā" (v. 8) is an obscure term left close to its root sense of a pit or hollow; "vyaṁsa" ("shoulderless one," v. 9) and "dāsa" (v. 9) are left as the adversary-names the Sanskrit gives, without supplying an identity the text itself does not state. Verse 13 shifts abruptly into a first-person voice recalling a separate episode (the falcon/soma legend); the shift is preserved as it stands in the Sanskrit rather than smoothed over.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.18 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.18
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.
ayam panthā anuvittaḥ purāṇo yato devā udajāyanta viśve |
ataś cid ā janiṣīṣṭa pravṛddho mā mātaram amuyā pattave kaḥ || 1 ||
nāham ato nir ayā durgahaitat tiraścatā pārśvān nir gamāṇi |
bahūni me akṛtā kartvāni yudhyai tvena saṁ tvena pṛcchai || 2 ||
parāyatīm mātaram anv acaṣṭa na nānu gāny anu nū gamāni |
tvaṣṭur gṛhe apibat somam indraḥ śatadhanyaṁ camvoḥ sutasya || 3 ||
kiṁ sa ṛdhak kṛṇavad yaṁ sahasram māso jabhāra śaradaś ca pūrvīḥ |
nahī nv asya pratimānam asty antar jāteṣūta ye janitvāḥ || 4 ||
avadyam iva manyamānā guhākar indram mātā vīryeṇā nyṛṣṭam |
athod asthāt svayam atkaṁ vasāna ā rodasī apṛṇāj jāyamānaḥ || 5 ||
etā arṣanty alalābhavantīr ṛtāvarīr iva saṁkrośamānāḥ |
etā vi pṛccha kim idam bhananti kam āpo adrim paridhiṁ rujanti || 6 ||
kim u ṣvid asmai nivido bhanantendrasyāvadyaṁ didhiṣanta āpaḥ |
mamaitān putro mahatā vadhena vṛtraṁ jaghanvām̐ asṛjad vi sindhūn || 7 ||
mamac cana tvā yuvatiḥ parāsa mamac cana tvā kuṣavā jagāra |
mamac cid āpaḥ śiśave mamṛḍyur mamac cid indraḥ sahasod atiṣṭhat || 8 ||
mamac cana te maghavan vyaṁso nivividhvām̐ apa hanū jaghāna |
adhā nividdha uttaro babhūvāñ chiro dāsasya sam piṇag vadhena || 9 ||
gṛṣṭiḥ sasūva sthaviraṁ tavāgām anādhṛṣyaṁ vṛṣabhaṁ tumram indram |
arīḻhaṁ vatsaṁ carathāya mātā svayaṁ gātuṁ tanva icchamānam || 10 ||
uta mātā mahiṣam anv avenad amī tvā jahati putra devāḥ |
athābravīd vṛtram indro haniṣyan sakhe viṣṇo vitaraṁ vi kramasva || 11 ||
kas te mātaraṁ vidhavām acakrac chayuṁ kas tvām ajighāṁsac carantam |
kas te devo adhi mārḍīka āsīd yat prākṣiṇāḥ pitaram pādagṛhya || 12 ||
avartyā śuna āntrāṇi pece na deveṣu vivide marḍitāram |
apaśyaṁ jāyām amahīyamānām adhā me śyeno madhv ā jabhāra || 13 ||
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).