Hymn to Vāyu
Rigveda IV.48 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. Partake of the offerings, not yet tasted, like the wealth of a generous patron given to the sage. O Vāyu, come here with your shining chariot, to drink the pressed soma.
2. Driving off curses, with your team of niyut-steeds, with Indra as your charioteer — O Vāyu, come here with your shining chariot, to drink the pressed soma.
3. The two dark, wealth-bearing, richly-colored ones have stretched themselves out together. O Vāyu, come here with your shining chariot, to drink the pressed soma.
4. Let your ninety-nine steeds, yoked by a thought, harnessed, carry you. O Vāyu, come here with your shining chariot, to drink the pressed soma.
5. O Vāyu, yoke for yourself a hundred thriving bay steeds — or else let your thousandfold chariot come here in its full might.
Translator's note: verse 1's opening line ("hotrā avītā... vipo na rāyo aryaḥ") is compressed and its exact syntax uncertain; it is rendered conservatively as a comparison between the yet-untasted offerings and a patron's gift to a sage. Verse 3's dual forms ("kṛṣṇe... vasudhitī... viśvapeśasā") most likely describe the two dark, richly-adorned steeds or reins of Vāyu's chariot, though the Sanskrit does not name them outright — the rendering follows the sense of two paired, wealth-bringing, ornamented things drawing forward together.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.48 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.48
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.
vihi hotrā avītā vipo na rāyo aryaḥ |
vāyav ā candreṇa rathena yāhi sutasya pītaye || 1 ||
niryuvāṇo aśastīr niyutvām̐ indrasārathiḥ |
vāyav ā candreṇa rathena yāhi sutasya pītaye || 2 ||
anu kṛṣṇe vasudhitī yemāte viśvapeśasā |
vāyav ā candreṇa rathena yāhi sutasya pītaye || 3 ||
vahantu tvā manoyujo yuktāso navatir nava |
vāyav ā candreṇa rathena yāhi sutasya pītaye || 4 ||
vāyo śataṁ harīṇāṁ yuvasva poṣyāṇām |
uta vā te sahasriṇo ratha ā yātu pājasā || 5 ||
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).