Hymn to Indra

Rigveda IV.23 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 addressed to Indra and is built almost entirely from rhetorical questions asking how the god grows strong, hears his worshippers, and gives friendship — before turning, in its middle verses, to praise ṛta, the cosmic and moral order that underlies sacrifice, truth, and right action.

1. How did the great one grow strong — delighting in whose priest's sacrifice, drawn toward the flow of soma? Drinking, eager, savoring the draught, the lofty one grew great, toward shining wealth.

2. What hero of his has won the shared feast? Who has reached him through good thoughts? What wonder of his is known? What, through his help, has brought increase to the toiling worshipper who sacrifices?

3. How does Indra hear the one who calls him? Hearing, how does he come to know this one's need for help? What are his many ancient favors? How do they call him "the fulfiller" to the singer?

4. How, though hard-pressed, may the one laboring for him, striving in thought, reach wealth? May the god come to know my true acts; may he grasp the homage in which he takes delight.

5. How, and in what way, at this dawn's breaking, does the god take pleasure in friendship with a mortal? What is his friendship toward his friends, who have fixed in him a well-yoked desire?

6. What then is this boundless friendship for his friends? When shall we proclaim your brotherhood? For splendor, his fair form's outpourings — like heaven's light, most wondrous — flow as nourishment from the cow.

7. Wishing to slay the deceit, the destructive foe who has no Indra in him, he sharpens his sharp weapons to strike. There, fierce as one pursuing a debt against debts, he has driven the unknown ones far off, away from the dawns.

8. For ṛta has many ancient bounties; the insight of ṛta strikes down crooked deeds. The call of ṛta has pierced even deaf ears, awakening the shining hearing of the living man.

9. Firm are the foundations of ṛta; many and radiant are its beautiful forms. Through ṛta they pour out abundance that lasts long; through ṛta the cows have entered into ṛta.

10. Holding fast to ṛta, one wins only ṛta; the strength of ṛta is swift, and it hungers for cattle. For ṛta the two broad, ample, deep ones stand; for ṛta the two milk-cows yield their milk in the highest place.

11. Now praised, Indra, now lauded — swell nourishment for the singer, as rivers swell. A new hymn has been made for you, lord of the bay horses; through this hymn may we be charioteers, ever triumphant.

Translator's note: verses 6 and 7 contain compressed, disputed phrasing (amatraṁ, "boundless" or "vessel-less"; ṛṇā... ṛṇayā, an image of debt-pursuit applied to Indra's pursuit of a foe). Both are rendered conservatively, following the most literal sense of the Sanskrit rather than a smoothed paraphrase.

Colophon

Rigveda IV.23 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.23

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.

kathā mahām avṛdhat kasya hotur yajñaṁ juṣāṇo abhi somam ūdhaḥ |
pibann uśāno juṣamāṇo andho vavakṣa ṛṣvaḥ śucate dhanāya || 1 ||

ko asya vīraḥ sadhamādam āpa sam ānaṁśa sumatibhiḥ ko asya |
kad asya citraṁ cikite kad ūtī vṛdhe bhuvac chaśamānasya yajyoḥ || 2 ||

kathā śṛṇoti hūyamānam indraḥ kathā śṛṇvann avasām asya veda |
kā asya pūrvīr upamātayo ha kathainam āhuḥ papuriṁ jaritre || 3 ||

kathā sabādhaḥ śaśamāno asya naśad abhi draviṇaṁ dīdhyānaḥ |
devo bhuvan navedā ma ṛtānāṁ namo jagṛbhvām̐ abhi yaj jujoṣat || 4 ||

kathā kad asyā uṣaso vyuṣṭau devo martasya sakhyaṁ jujoṣa |
kathā kad asya sakhyaṁ sakhibhyo ye asmin kāmaṁ suyujaṁ tatasre || 5 ||

kim ād amatraṁ sakhyaṁ sakhibhyaḥ kadā nu te bhrātram pra bravāma |
śriye sudṛśo vapur asya sargāḥ sva1r ṇa citratamam iṣa ā goḥ || 6 ||

druhaṁ jighāṁsan dhvarasam anindrāṁ tetikte tigmā tujase anīkā |
ṛṇā cid yatra ṛṇayā na ugro dūre ajñātā uṣaso babādhe || 7 ||

ṛtasya hi śurudhaḥ santi pūrvīr ṛtasya dhītir vṛjināni hanti |
ṛtasya śloko badhirā tatarda karṇā budhānaḥ śucamāna āyoḥ || 8 ||

ṛtasya dṛḻhā dharuṇāni santi purūṇi candrā vapuṣe vapūṁṣi |
ṛtena dīrgham iṣaṇanta pṛkṣa ṛtena gāva ṛtam ā viveśuḥ || 9 ||

ṛtaṁ yemāna ṛtam id vanoty ṛtasya śuṣmas turayā u gavyuḥ |
ṛtāya pṛthvī bahule gabhīre ṛtāya dhenū parame duhāte || 10 ||

nū ṣṭuta indra nū gṛṇāna iṣaṁ jaritre nadyo3 na pīpeḥ |
akāri te harivo brahma navyaṁ dhiyā syāma rathyaḥ sadāsāḥ || 11 ||

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).