Hymn to the Dawns
Rigveda IV.51 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. Now that widest light has arisen in front, out of the darkness, full of guiding signs. Now the daughters of heaven, the shining Dawns, make a path for humankind.
2. The bright Dawns have risen in front, like sacrificial posts set up at the rites. Shining forth, pure and radiant, they have thrown open the doors of the dark enclosure.
3. Shining forth today, may the bountiful Dawns rouse the generous patrons to give their bounty. Let the Paṇis sleep on, unaware, unwakened, in the depths of darkness.
4. O goddesses, is your course today the old one, or a new one — the course by which, rich Dawn, you dawned richly for the Navagva, the Aṅgiras, the Daśagva, the seven-mouthed one?
5. You, O goddesses, drive swiftly around all the worlds in a single day with horses yoked to the cosmic order. Awakening every sleeping living thing, two-footed or four-footed, Dawns, to go about its way.
6. Which of these is the oldest, by whom the ordinances of the Ṛbhus were established? As the bright Dawns move in their splendor, they cannot be told apart — alike, undecaying.
7. Those same auspicious Dawns existed of old, splendid with help, true and born of the cosmic order — dawns in whose time the one who sacrifices, labors, praises with hymns, and proclaims, has obtained wealth at once.
8. They move forward together, from the east, uniformly, spreading out from the same place. Goddesses awaking from the seat of the cosmic order, the Dawns are praised like streams of released cattle.
9. So indeed, alike and the same, of unfading color, the Dawns move on — hiding the formless dark with their bright rays, pure and shining, with bright bodies.
10. Daughters of heaven, shining Dawns, bestow on us wealth rich in offspring, O goddesses. Waking at your approach from a comfortable bed, may we become masters of noble strength.
11. This I declare to you, daughters of heaven, shining Dawns, banner of the sacrifice: may we be renowned among people — may Heaven grant this, and goddess Earth.
Translator's note: "ṛta" (verses 5, 7, 8) is rendered "cosmic order," the standard conservative gloss for this untranslatable term denoting truth, right order, and the rhythm of the cosmos together. Verse 4's "seven-mouthed" (saptāsye) and the Navagva/Aṅgiras/Daśagva names are kept as the Sanskrit gives them — these refer to ancient priestly lineages and rites whose precise sense is debated; they are translated literally rather than expanded upon.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.51 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.51
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.
idam u tyat purutamam purastāj jyotis tamaso vayunāvad asthāt |
nūnaṁ divo duhitaro vibhātīr gātuṁ kṛṇavann uṣaso janāya || 1 ||
asthur u citrā uṣasaḥ purastān mitā iva svaravo 'dhvareṣu |
vy ū vrajasya tamaso dvārocchantīr avrañ chucayaḥ pāvakāḥ || 2 ||
ucchantīr adya citayanta bhojān rādhodeyāyoṣaso maghonīḥ |
acitre antaḥ paṇayaḥ sasantv abudhyamānās tamaso vimadhye || 3 ||
kuvit sa devīḥ sanayo navo vā yāmo babhūyād uṣaso vo adya |
yenā navagve aṅgire daśagve saptāsye revatī revad ūṣa || 4 ||
yūyaṁ hi devīr ṛtayugbhir aśvaiḥ pariprayātha bhuvanāni sadyaḥ |
prabodhayantīr uṣasaḥ sasantaṁ dvipāc catuṣpāc carathāya jīvam || 5 ||
kva svid āsāṁ katamā purāṇī yayā vidhānā vidadhur ṛbhūṇām |
śubhaṁ yac chubhrā uṣasaś caranti na vi jñāyante sadṛśīr ajuryāḥ || 6 ||
tā ghā tā bhadrā uṣasaḥ purāsur abhiṣṭidyumnā ṛtajātasatyāḥ |
yāsv ījānaḥ śaśamāna ukthaiḥ stuvañ chaṁsan draviṇaṁ sadya āpa || 7 ||
tā ā caranti samanā purastāt samānataḥ samanā paprathānāḥ |
ṛtasya devīḥ sadaso budhānā gavāṁ na sargā uṣaso jarante || 8 ||
tā in nv e3va samanā samānīr amītavarṇā uṣasaś caranti |
gūhantīr abhvam asitaṁ ruśadbhiḥ śukrās tanūbhiḥ śucayo rucānāḥ || 9 ||
rayiṁ divo duhitaro vibhātīḥ prajāvantaṁ yacchatāsmāsu devīḥ |
syonād ā vaḥ pratibudhyamānāḥ suvīryasya patayaḥ syāma || 10 ||
tad vo divo duhitaro vibhātīr upa bruva uṣaso yajñaketuḥ |
vayaṁ syāma yaśaso janeṣu tad dyauś ca dhattām pṛthivī ca devī || 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).