Hymn to the Ṛbhus
Rigveda IV.34 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. Ṛbhu, Vibhvan, Vāja, Indra — come to this sacrifice of ours, you givers of treasure. For now the divine Dhiṣaṇā of the days has set out the drink; may the exhilarations gather together for you.
2. Knowing your own birth, O Ṛbhus rich in strength and treasure, rejoice also with the seasons. May the exhilarations gather to you, and abundance too; send to us wealth rich in good sons.
3. This sacrifice, O Ṛbhus, has been made for you, the one you have held from ancient times, as in the manner of Manu. Delighting in it, our praises have gone out to you; you have become the foremost of all, and the Vājas too.
4. There has now come to be, for the worshipper, the gift of treasure — for the mortal who has offered. Drink, O Vājas, O Ṛbhus; the great third pressing has been given to you for exhilaration.
5. Come, O Vājas, come to us, O Ṛbhukṣan, great men, praised for your wealth. May these your drinks come at the meeting of the days, homeward, like lowing cattle to the stall.
6. Come, O grandsons of strength, to this sacrifice, being called with homage. Being of one accord, you are the wise patrons to whom it belongs — drink of the mead, treasure-givers, accompanied by Indra.
7. In accord with Varuṇa, O Indra, drink the soma; in accord with the Maruts, O lover of praise-songs, drink; in accord with the first-drinking goddesses, with the season-drinking ones, in accord with the wives of the gods, the treasure-givers — in accord, drink.
8. In accord with the Ādityas, rejoice; in accord, O Ṛbhus, with the mountains; in accord with divine Savitar; in accord with the treasure-giving rivers.
9. You who made the Aśvins, who through your help made the aged parents young again, who fashioned the cow, O Ṛbhus, who fashioned the horses; who made the shoulder-harness, who set the two world-halves apart, who, O Vibhvan and your fellow craftsmen, made all things of good offspring.
10. You who bestow wealth rich in cattle, rich in strength, rich in good heroes, rich in goods, abundant in food — you, O Ṛbhus, first-drinkers, in your exhilaration, bestow that wealth on us, and on those who praise your giving.
11. You have not stayed away, nor have we let you go thirsting unpraised at this sacrifice, O Ṛbhus. Rejoice together with Indra, together with the Maruts, together with the kingly gods, for the giving of treasure.
Translator's note: this hymn is dense with terse epithets and elliptical references to the Ṛbhu myth-cycle (rejuvenating their aged parents, fashioning a cow, horses, and other things from a single hide or material — told more fully elsewhere in the Rigveda) rather than narrating it outright. Verse 9's "aṁsatrā" (rendered here conservatively as "shoulder-harness") is an obscure term whose exact referent is uncertain. Verse 5's "navasva iva" is likewise uncertain and is rendered here as "lowing," following its likely connection to a root meaning "to bellow, roar."
Colophon
Rigveda IV.34 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.34
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.
ṛbhur vibhvā vāja indro no acchemaṁ yajñaṁ ratnadheyopa yāta |
idā hi vo dhiṣaṇā devy ahnām adhāt pītiṁ sam madā agmatā vaḥ || 1 ||
vidānāso janmano vājaratnā uta ṛtubhir ṛbhavo mādayadhvam |
saṁ vo madā agmata sam puraṁdhiḥ suvīrām asme rayim erayadhvam || 2 ||
ayaṁ vo yajña ṛbhavo 'kāri yam ā manuṣvat pradivo dadhidhve |
pra vo 'cchā jujuṣāṇāso asthur abhūta viśve agriyota vājāḥ || 3 ||
abhūd u vo vidhate ratnadheyam idā naro dāśuṣe martyāya |
pibata vājā ṛbhavo dade vo mahi tṛtīyaṁ savanam madāya || 4 ||
ā vājā yātopa na ṛbhukṣā maho naro draviṇaso gṛṇānāḥ |
ā vaḥ pītayo 'bhipitve ahnām imā astaṁ navasva iva gman || 5 ||
ā napātaḥ śavaso yātanopemaṁ yajñaṁ namasā hūyamānāḥ |
sajoṣasaḥ sūrayo yasya ca stha madhvaḥ pāta ratnadhā indravantaḥ || 6 ||
sajoṣā indra varuṇena somaṁ sajoṣāḥ pāhi girvaṇo marudbhiḥ |
agrepābhir ṛtupābhiḥ sajoṣā gnāspatnībhī ratnadhābhiḥ sajoṣāḥ || 7 ||
sajoṣasa ādityair mādayadhvaṁ sajoṣasa ṛbhavaḥ parvatebhiḥ |
sajoṣaso daivyenā savitrā sajoṣasaḥ sindhubhī ratnadhebhiḥ || 8 ||
ye aśvinā ye pitarā ya ūtī dhenuṁ tatakṣur ṛbhavo ye aśvā |
ye aṁsatrā ya ṛdhag rodasī ye vibhvo naraḥ svapatyāni cakruḥ || 9 ||
ye gomantaṁ vājavantaṁ suvīraṁ rayiṁ dhattha vasumantam purukṣum |
te agrepā ṛbhavo mandasānā asme dhatta ye ca rātiṁ gṛṇanti || 10 ||
nāpābhūta na vo 'tītṛṣāmāniḥśastā ṛbhavo yajñe asmin |
sam indreṇa madatha sam marudbhiḥ saṁ rājabhī ratnadheyāya devāḥ || 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).