Hymn to Savitṛ
Rigveda IV.54 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. The god Savitṛ has now become one to be praised, to be invoked by men at this hour of the day — he who distributes treasures to men, that he may here bestow on us the best wealth.
2. For first, to the gods worthy of worship, you grant immortality as the highest portion; then, O Savitṛ, you reveal your bounty — successive lifespans for men.
3. Whatever we have done unwittingly against the divine folk, through feeble powers, through excess, through mere human nature — among the gods, O Savitṛ, and among men, may you here impel us to be without fault.
4. That decree of divine Savitṛ is not to be set aside — how he will uphold the whole world. What the fair-handed one sends forth across the breadth of the earth, at the height of heaven — that is his truth.
5. With Indra as chief, from the great mountains, you grant these people dwellings, giving them homesteads. However far the moving creatures spread out, just so they came to rest, O Savitṛ, at your impelling.
6. Your impulsions, O Savitṛ, which three times a day, day after day, send forth good fortune — may Indra, Heaven and Earth, the River with its waters, together with the Ādityas, and Aditi, grant us shelter.
Translator's note: "svaṅguri" (v. 4), literally "having good/beautiful fingers or rays," is rendered "fair-handed," a conventional epithet for a god who dispenses gifts; "patayantaḥ" (v. 5), "the flying/moving ones," is rendered "moving creatures," referring to living beings that range abroad and come to rest at Savitṛ's command.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.54 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.54
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.
abhūd devaḥ savitā vandyo nu na idānīm ahna upavācyo nṛbhiḥ |
vi yo ratnā bhajati mānavebhyaḥ śreṣṭhaṁ no atra draviṇaṁ yathā dadhat || 1 ||
devebhyo hi prathamaṁ yajñiyebhyo 'mṛtatvaṁ suvasi bhāgam uttamam |
ād id dāmānaṁ savitar vy ūrṇuṣe 'nūcīnā jīvitā mānuṣebhyaḥ || 2 ||
acittī yac cakṛmā daivye jane dīnair dakṣaiḥ prabhūtī pūruṣatvatā |
deveṣu ca savitar mānuṣeṣu ca tvaṁ no atra suvatād anāgasaḥ || 3 ||
na pramiye savitur daivyasya tad yathā viśvam bhuvanaṁ dhārayiṣyati |
yat pṛthivyā varimann ā svaṅgurir varṣman divaḥ suvati satyam asya tat || 4 ||
indrajyeṣṭhān bṛhadbhyaḥ parvatebhyaḥ kṣayām̐ ebhyaḥ suvasi pastyāvataḥ |
yathā-yathā patayanto viyemira evaiva tasthuḥ savitaḥ savāya te || 5 ||
ye te trir ahan savitaḥ savāso dive-dive saubhagam āsuvanti |
indro dyāvāpṛthivī sindhur adbhir ādityair no aditiḥ śarma yaṁsat || 6 ||
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).