Hymn to the Aśvins
Rigveda IV.45 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. This light rises up; the wandering chariot is yoked upon the ridge of heaven. Three pairs of vigorous steeds draw it, and a fourth — a skin brimming with honey — pours forth.
2. Your honey-laden steeds rise up, your chariots, your horses, at the breaking of the dawns, uncovering the darkness that wraps the world, spreading bright light through the sky like the sun.
3. Drink of the honey with your honey-drinking mouths, and yoke your beloved chariot for the honey. You quicken the winding road with honey; you two Aśvins carry the honey-filled skin.
4. Your swans — honey-sweet, unfailing, golden-winged, swift, waking at dawn — swim through the waters, exhilarating, touched by what exhilarates; like bees to honey you go to the pressed offerings.
5. The well-tended, honey-sweet fires blaze up at the approach of each dawn, O Aśvins, when the swift, far-seeing one, hands washed clean, has pressed the honeyed soma with the stones.
6. ...trembling through the days, spreading bright light through the sky like the sun. Even Sūrya, having yoked his horses, sets out; you two mark all paths by your own nature.
7. I have spoken this for you, O Aśvins, with devout thought — of the chariot with good horses that never ages, by which you travel at once around all regions to the generous, swift one who bears the offerings.
Translator's note: verse 6 opens with ākenipāsaḥ, a word of uncertain sense (perhaps describing the dawn-steeds or rays as "flickering" or "trembling") that has no settled English equivalent; it is left untranslated here rather than guessed at. Pṛkṣāsa (vv. 1, 2) is rendered "steeds," though it can also mean "nourishment" or "vigor" — the Aśvins' team and their sustaining power are treated as one image in this hymn. Haṁsāsa (v. 4), "swans" or "geese," is kept literal rather than resolved into a metaphor for horses or sunbeams, since the Sanskrit does not make that identification explicit.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.45 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.45
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.
eṣa sya bhānur ud iyarti yujyate rathaḥ parijmā divo asya sānavi |
pṛkṣāso asmin mithunā adhi trayo dṛtis turīyo madhuno vi rapśate || 1 ||
ud vām pṛkṣāso madhumanta īrate rathā aśvāsa uṣaso vyuṣṭiṣu |
aporṇuvantas tama ā parīvṛtaṁ sva1r ṇa śukraṁ tanvanta ā rajaḥ || 2 ||
madhvaḥ pibatam madhupebhir āsabhir uta priyam madhune yuñjāthāṁ ratham |
ā vartanim madhunā jinvathas patho dṛtiṁ vahethe madhumantam aśvinā || 3 ||
haṁsāso ye vām madhumanto asridho hiraṇyaparṇā uhuva uṣarbudhaḥ |
udapruto mandino mandinispṛśo madhvo na makṣaḥ savanāni gacchathaḥ || 4 ||
svadhvarāso madhumanto agnaya usrā jarante prati vastor aśvinā |
yan niktahastas taraṇir vicakṣaṇaḥ somaṁ suṣāva madhumantam adribhiḥ || 5 ||
ākenipāso ahabhir davidhvataḥ sva1r ṇa śukraṁ tanvanta ā rajaḥ |
sūraś cid aśvān yuyujāna īyate viśvām̐ anu svadhayā cetathas pathaḥ || 6 ||
pra vām avocam aśvinā dhiyaṁdhā rathaḥ svaśvo ajaro yo asti |
yena sadyaḥ pari rajāṁsi yātho haviṣmantaṁ taraṇim bhojam accha || 7 ||
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).