Hymn to Indra
Rigveda IV.31 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. With what help, O wondrous one, might the friend who ever strengthens us come to us — with what mightiest power surrounding him?
2. Who, truly, most generous amid the exhilarations, will gladden you with the soma-draught — you who break open even firm strongholds for their wealth?
3. Be indeed the protector of us, your friends, your singers — be a hundredfold with your helps.
4. Turn toward us, as a wheel turns, as a steed turns — with the yoked teams that belong to the peoples.
5. For swiftly, by the sweep of your mighty deeds, you come as if by footsteps; you have shared the offering together with the sun.
6. When your furies, O Indra, and the wheeling discs have run together — then it is in you, then it is in the sun.
7. And indeed they call you the bounteous one, O lord of power, the giver who never fails to give.
8. And indeed, on that very day, you bestow abundant, many goods on the one who labors at the rite and presses the soma.
9. Not even a hundred fools can hold back your bounty, nor hinder the mighty deeds of you who are about to act.
10. May your hundred helps protect us, your thousand helps protect us, all your favors protect us.
11. Choose us here for friendship, for well-being, for great, heaven-bright wealth.
12. Favor us always, O Indra, with abundant wealth — us, with all your helps.
13. Break open for us those cow-rich pens, stealthily as a thief, with your ever-new helps, O Indra.
14. Our chariot, bold, shining, unshaken, O Indra, speeds on seeking cattle, seeking horses.
15. Make our fame the highest among the gods, O Sun — loftiest, as if above the heaven itself.
Translator's note: Several verses (4–6, 9, 13) compress their syntax and images in ways typical of this hymn's style; renderings there are kept close to the Sanskrit word order rather than smoothed into fuller English sentences. Verse 15 addresses "sūrya" (the Sun) directly even though the hymn as a whole is reckoned a hymn to Indra; this shift is present in the Sanskrit and has been translated as it stands rather than resolved.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.31 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda IV.31
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.
kayā naś citra ā bhuvad ūtī sadāvṛdhaḥ sakhā |
kayā śaciṣṭhayā vṛtā || 1 ||
kas tvā satyo madānām maṁhiṣṭho matsad andhasaḥ |
dṛḻhā cid āruje vasu || 2 ||
abhī ṣu ṇaḥ sakhīnām avitā jaritṝṇām |
śatam bhavāsy ūtibhiḥ || 3 ||
abhī na ā vavṛtsva cakraṁ na vṛttam arvataḥ |
niyudbhiś carṣaṇīnām || 4 ||
pravatā hi kratūnām ā hā padeva gacchasi |
abhakṣi sūrye sacā || 5 ||
saṁ yat ta indra manyavaḥ saṁ cakrāṇi dadhanvire |
adha tve adha sūrye || 6 ||
uta smā hi tvām āhur in maghavānaṁ śacīpate |
dātāram avidīdhayum || 7 ||
uta smā sadya it pari śaśamānāya sunvate |
purū cin maṁhase vasu || 8 ||
nahi ṣmā te śataṁ cana rādho varanta āmuraḥ |
na cyautnāni kariṣyataḥ || 9 ||
asmām̐ avantu te śatam asmān sahasram ūtayaḥ |
asmān viśvā abhiṣṭayaḥ || 10 ||
asmām̐ ihā vṛṇīṣva sakhyāya svastaye |
maho rāye divitmate || 11 ||
asmām̐ aviḍḍhi viśvahendra rāyā parīṇasā |
asmān viśvābhir ūtibhiḥ || 12 ||
asmabhyaṁ tām̐ apā vṛdhi vrajām̐ asteva gomataḥ |
navābhir indrotibhiḥ || 13 ||
asmākaṁ dhṛṣṇuyā ratho dyumām̐ indrānapacyutaḥ |
gavyur aśvayur īyate || 14 ||
asmākam uttamaṁ kṛdhi śravo deveṣu sūrya |
varṣiṣṭhaṁ dyām ivopari || 15 ||
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).