Hymn to Dadhikrāvan
Rigveda IV.38 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. And indeed there are also former gifts of you two — which you gave to the Pūrus, to Trasadasyu, for their support: you gave lands, fertile fields, a mace, a fierce overpowering force against the Dasyus.
2. And you two also gave the steed, the vanquisher of many, Dadhikrā, known to all peoples — swift-swooping like a falcon, speckle-bodied, fleet, celebrated, like a brave hero of a noble lord.
3. Running like water down a slope — at him every Pūru rejoices, exulting: eager with his feet, like a hero craving the contest, swift-charioted, rushing on like the wind.
4. He who, holding back the enemy's spoil in battles, moves apart, going among the cattle-herds; open and straight, perceiving the sacred assemblies, passing beyond the foe, around the waters of Āyu.
5. And the peoples cry out after him in the battles as after a thief tearing at garments — as he swoops down like a hungry falcon, toward fame and toward the herd rich in cattle.
6. And, first among them about to race, he darts about with the ranks of chariots, making himself a garland like a bridegroom in his splendor, licking up the dust, scattering his sheen of dust as he goes.
7. And that steed, overpowering, true to order, attentive in his body in the contest — outrunning the swift among those who hasten, straight-swooping, flings dust up over his brows, straining forward.
8. And his assailants fear him, raging as at the thunder of the sky; when he has fought against a thousand, he becomes hard to withstand, fearsome, straining on.
9. And the peoples, moving among the tribes, marvel at his onrush, the overpowering force of the swift one; and scattering in the clash they say of him: "Dadhikrā has outrun a thousand."
10. Dadhikrā, by his might, has spread over the five peoples, like the sun with its light spreading over the waters. May the steed, winner of thousands, winner of hundreds, fill these words with honeyed sweetness.
Translator's note: several phrases resist certainty. "Nitośe" (v.1) is obscure and rendered conservatively as "for their support." "Āvirṛjīko vidathā nicikyat tiro aratim pary āpa āyoḥ" (v.4) is a difficult compound run; the rendering here is literal rather than confident. "Kiraṇaṁ dadaśvān" (v.6) — "giving forth a ray/scattering" — is likewise uncertain and rendered as the horse's dust catching light. The dual addressees of verses 1–2 are not named in the Sanskrit; tradition takes the hymn's deity throughout as Dadhikrāvan, the horse himself.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.38 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.38
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.
uto hi vāṁ dātrā santi pūrvā yā pūrubhyas trasadasyur nitośe |
kṣetrāsāṁ dadathur urvarāsāṁ ghanaṁ dasyubhyo abhibhūtim ugram || 1 ||
uta vājinam puruniṣṣidhvānaṁ dadhikrām u dadathur viśvakṛṣṭim |
ṛjipyaṁ śyenam pruṣitapsum āśuṁ carkṛtyam aryo nṛpatiṁ na śūram || 2 ||
yaṁ sīm anu pravateva dravantaṁ viśvaḥ pūrur madati harṣamāṇaḥ |
paḍbhir gṛdhyantam medhayuṁ na śūraṁ rathaturaṁ vātam iva dhrajantam || 3 ||
yaḥ smārundhāno gadhyā samatsu sanutaraś carati goṣu gacchan |
āvirṛjīko vidathā nicikyat tiro aratim pary āpa āyoḥ || 4 ||
uta smainaṁ vastramathiṁ na tāyum anu krośanti kṣitayo bhareṣu |
nīcāyamānaṁ jasuriṁ na śyenaṁ śravaś cācchā paśumac ca yūtham || 5 ||
uta smāsu prathamaḥ sariṣyan ni veveti śreṇibhī rathānām |
srajaṁ kṛṇvāno janyo na śubhvā reṇuṁ rerihat kiraṇaṁ dadaśvān || 6 ||
uta sya vājī sahurir ṛtāvā śuśrūṣamāṇas tanvā samarye |
turaṁ yatīṣu turayann ṛjipyo 'dhi bhruvoḥ kirate reṇum ṛñjan || 7 ||
uta smāsya tanyator iva dyor ṛghāyato abhiyujo bhayante |
yadā sahasram abhi ṣīm ayodhīd durvartuḥ smā bhavati bhīma ṛñjan || 8 ||
uta smāsya panayanti janā jūtiṁ kṛṣṭipro abhibhūtim āśoḥ |
utainam āhuḥ samithe viyantaḥ parā dadhikrā asarat sahasraiḥ || 9 ||
ā dadhikrāḥ śavasā pañca kṛṣṭīḥ sūrya iva jyotiṣāpas tatāna |
sahasrasāḥ śatasā vājy arvā pṛṇaktu madhvā sam imā vacāṁsi || 10 ||
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).