Hymn to Indra
Rigveda V.32 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 5 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. You split open the spring, you set loose its wide channels; you brought the floods of the pent-up waters to rest. When you, Indra, burst open the great mountain and released its streams, you struck down the Dānava.
2. You, O wielder of the vajra, made the pent-up springs flow in their due season, the udder of the mountain. Having slain the serpent that lay stretched out, O fierce one, Indra, you took on your full might.
3. Indra, with his mighty powers, struck down the weapon of that great wild beast — he who alone had thought himself unrivaled and unmatched. Then, in answer to him, another, mightier, arose.
4. That one exulting in his own strength among these, offspring of the mist, thriving, moving in darkness — him the vajra-wielder, bearing the strength of a bull, struck down with his vajra: Śuṣṇa, the fury of the Dānava.
5. That one who sat entrenched in his own power, having no vulnerable spot — yet Indra found his vital point. When, O good ruler, driven by the fury of your battle-frenzy, you placed the one eager to fight into a dark stronghold.
6. That despicable one, lying there, grown strong in the sunless dark — him indeed the bull Indra, exhilarated by the pressed soma, seized and struck down with a loud roar.
7. When Indra raised up his deadly weapon, his irresistible might, against the great Dānava — when he struck him down in the cast of the vajra, he made him the lowest of all creatures.
8. That surging, honey-drinking one lying there, the insatiable, vast coverer — the fierce one seized him. With his mighty weapon he cast the footless devourer, the scorner, down into his own evil den.
9. Who can withstand his fury, his might? Alone, unrivaled, he carries off the spoils. Even these two divine ones, before the onrush of Indra's power, shrink back in fear.
10. The divine earth bows low before him; the path yields to Indra like an eager one. When he gathers to himself all his strength with these powers, the peoples bow before the self-sustaining one.
11. I hear that you alone, the true lord of the five peoples, were born glorious among men. My hopes have seized upon you, ever new, calling upon Indra by night and at daybreak.
12. Thus indeed I hear of you, dispensing gifts in due season, giving riches to the inspired poets. What then do your friends the priests gain, O Indra, who have set their desire on you?
Translator's note: verse 6's "katpayam" is an obscure word of uncertain sense, rendered conservatively as "despicable"; verse 10's "devī svadhitiḥ" mixes grammatical gender in the source and is rendered cautiously as "the divine earth," following the verse's parallel with the yielding path; verse 9's "ime... devī" (dual, "these two divine ones") most likely refers to heaven and earth.
Colophon
Rigveda V.32 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 V.32
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.
adardar utsam asṛjo vi khāni tvam arṇavān badbadhānām̐ aramṇāḥ |
mahāntam indra parvataṁ vi yad vaḥ sṛjo vi dhārā ava dānavaṁ han || 1 ||
tvam utsām̐ ṛtubhir badbadhānām̐ araṁha ūdhaḥ parvatasya vajrin |
ahiṁ cid ugra prayutaṁ śayānaṁ jaghanvām̐ indra taviṣīm adhatthāḥ || 2 ||
tyasya cin mahato nir mṛgasya vadhar jaghāna taviṣībhir indraḥ |
ya eka id apratir manyamāna ād asmād anyo ajaniṣṭa tavyān || 3 ||
tyaṁ cid eṣāṁ svadhayā madantam miho napātaṁ suvṛdhaṁ tamogām |
vṛṣaprabharmā dānavasya bhāmaṁ vajreṇa vajrī ni jaghāna śuṣṇam || 4 ||
tyaṁ cid asya kratubhir niṣattam amarmaṇo vidad id asya marma |
yad īṁ sukṣatra prabhṛtā madasya yuyutsantaṁ tamasi harmye dhāḥ || 5 ||
tyaṁ cid itthā katpayaṁ śayānam asūrye tamasi vāvṛdhānam |
taṁ cin mandāno vṛṣabhaḥ sutasyoccair indro apagūryā jaghāna || 6 ||
ud yad indro mahate dānavāya vadhar yamiṣṭa saho apratītam |
yad īṁ vajrasya prabhṛtau dadābha viśvasya jantor adhamaṁ cakāra || 7 ||
tyaṁ cid arṇam madhupaṁ śayānam asinvaṁ vavram mahy ādad ugraḥ |
apādam atram mahatā vadhena ni duryoṇa āvṛṇaṅ mṛdhravācam || 8 ||
ko asya śuṣmaṁ taviṣīṁ varāta eko dhanā bharate apratītaḥ |
ime cid asya jrayaso nu devī indrasyaujaso bhiyasā jihāte || 9 ||
ny asmai devī svadhitir jihīta indrāya gātur uśatīva yeme |
saṁ yad ojo yuvate viśvam ābhir anu svadhāvne kṣitayo namanta || 10 ||
ekaṁ nu tvā satpatim pāñcajanyaṁ jātaṁ śṛṇomi yaśasaṁ janeṣu |
tam me jagṛbhra āśaso naviṣṭhaṁ doṣā vastor havamānāsa indram || 11 ||
evā hi tvām ṛtuthā yātayantam maghā viprebhyo dadataṁ śṛṇomi |
kiṁ te brahmāṇo gṛhate sakhāyo ye tvāyā nidadhuḥ kāmam indra || 12 ||
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).