Hymn to Indra
Rigveda V.35 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. Indra, bring to us that power of yours most effective for help — the one that masters the peoples, that wins, unsurpassed in the contests for strength.
2. Whatever fourfold help is yours, Indra, or threefold, hero, or the help belonging to the five tribes — bring that help here to us, well.
3. We call here your most desirable help, the help of your mightiest, bull-like strength. For you were born driven by that bull-force, Indra, victorious together with your helpers.
4. You are a bull for giving generously; your strength was born bull-like. Your mind rules itself and is bold, Indra — your manly power wins outright, every time.
5. Indra, wielder of the stone, come down upon that mortal who plays the enemy — with all your chariots, hundred-powered one, lord of might.
6. You alone, best slayer of the obstructer, do the people call, having spread the sacred grass — the fierce one, foremost among many, for the winning of the prize.
7. Indra, protect our chariot — unsurpassable, going out ahead of us into the contests, keeping pace with us in every fight for the stakes, driving us on to the prize.
8. Indra, come to us; protect our chariot with abundance. May we, mightiest one, establish desirable fame in heaven; may we compose a hymn of praise in heaven.
Translator's note: "catasro" / "tisraḥ" (four / three) in verse 2 and "pañca kṣitīnām" (of the five tribes) are terse numeral references to Indra's helps or the tribes of men; the Sanskrit does not specify what the four or three are, so the rendering stays literal. "Puraṁdhyā" in verse 8 (abundance/bounty, sometimes personified) is rendered by its general sense.
Colophon
Rigveda V.35 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.35
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.
yas te sādhiṣṭho 'vasa indra kratuṣ ṭam ā bhara |
asmabhyaṁ carṣaṇīsahaṁ sasniṁ vājeṣu duṣṭaram || 1 ||
yad indra te catasro yac chūra santi tisraḥ |
yad vā pañca kṣitīnām avas tat su na ā bhara || 2 ||
ā te 'vo vareṇyaṁ vṛṣantamasya hūmahe |
vṛṣajūtir hi jajñiṣa ābhūbhir indra turvaṇiḥ || 3 ||
vṛṣā hy asi rādhase jajñiṣe vṛṣṇi te śavaḥ |
svakṣatraṁ te dhṛṣan manaḥ satrāham indra pauṁsyam || 4 ||
tvaṁ tam indra martyam amitrayantam adrivaḥ |
sarvarathā śatakrato ni yāhi śavasas pate || 5 ||
tvām id vṛtrahantama janāso vṛktabarhiṣaḥ |
ugram pūrvīṣu pūrvyaṁ havante vājasātaye || 6 ||
asmākam indra duṣṭaram puroyāvānam ājiṣu |
sayāvānaṁ dhane-dhane vājayantam avā ratham || 7 ||
asmākam indrehi no ratham avā puraṁdhyā |
vayaṁ śaviṣṭha vāryaṁ divi śravo dadhīmahi divi stomam manāmahe || 8 ||
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).