Hymn to the Viśvedevas
Rigveda V.45 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. Knowing heaven, loosening the rock with hymns, the radiant ones came at the approach of dawn. The cow-pens were thrown open, the sun went up; the god opened wide the doors for men.
2. Sūrya spread out his light, not his dimness; the mother of the cows came knowing, out of the wide fold. The rivers of the dry land became flood-bearing streams; heaven was made firm like a well-fixed pillar.
3. For this hymn, the mountain's own offspring came forth at the ancient birth of the great ones. The mountain opened wide, heaven made it succeed; seeking to win it, they worked the earth.
4. With well-formed hymns, words dear to the gods, Indra and Agni are now to be called on for help. For with hymns the poets, skilled at sacrifice, worship the Maruts, seeking their favor.
5. Come, let us be of good mind today; let us drive misfortune far off, further away. Let us set hostilities aside, far away; let us go forward to the one who sacrifices.
6. Let us, friends, shape this prayer, by which the cow's stall was opened, by which Manu conquered Viśiśipra, by which the trader Vaṅku won his wealth.
7. Here the rock, driven by hands, resounded, by which the Navagvas sang for ten months. Saramā, following the true path, found the cows; the Aṅgiras made everything true.
8. At the dawning of this great one, all the Aṅgirasas roared together with the cows. Their spring lay in the highest meeting-place; by the path of truth Saramā found the cows.
9. May Sūrya come with his seven horses to the field, where his course runs wide and long. The swift falcon flies toward the dark plant; the young sage shines, moving among the cows.
10. Sūrya climbed the bright flood, when he yoked his tawny mares with sleek backs. The wise led him like a boat through water; the obedient waters stood still before him.
11. I have set for you in the waters a hymn that wins the sun, by which the Navagvas crossed the ten months. By this hymn may we be guarded by the gods; by this hymn may we pass safely beyond distress.
Translator's note: Verse 6 names Viśiśipra and Vaṅku, figures otherwise unknown to us outside this line; they are kept as proper names rather than translated. "Navagvas" and "Aṅgirasas" (verses 7, 8, 11) are the mythic singers credited with splitting the Vala rock to release the dawn and the cows — the myth this hymn as a whole recalls. Several verbal forms (e.g. "dīrghayāthe" in verse 9) are grammatically ambiguous in the source; they are rendered conservatively for sense rather than resolved to a single certain parsing.
Colophon
Rigveda V.45 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda V.45
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.
vidā divo viṣyann adrim ukthair āyatyā uṣaso arcino guḥ |
apāvṛta vrajinīr ut svar gād vi duro mānuṣīr deva āvaḥ || 1 ||
vi sūryo amatiṁ na śriyaṁ sād orvād gavām mātā jānatī gāt |
dhanvarṇaso nadya1ḥ khādoarṇāḥ sthūṇeva sumitā dṛṁhata dyauḥ || 2 ||
asmā ukthāya parvatasya garbho mahīnāṁ januṣe pūrvyāya |
vi parvato jihīta sādhata dyaur āvivāsanto dasayanta bhūma || 3 ||
sūktebhir vo vacobhir devajuṣṭair indrā nv a1gnī avase huvadhyai |
ukthebhir hi ṣmā kavayaḥ suyajñā āvivāsanto maruto yajanti || 4 ||
eto nv a1dya sudhyo3 bhavāma pra ducchunā minavāmā varīyaḥ |
āre dveṣāṁsi sanutar dadhāmāyāma prāñco yajamānam accha || 5 ||
etā dhiyaṁ kṛṇavāmā sakhāyo 'pa yā mātām̐ ṛṇuta vrajaṁ goḥ |
yayā manur viśiśipraṁ jigāya yayā vaṇig vaṅkur āpā purīṣam || 6 ||
anūnod atra hastayato adrir ārcan yena daśa māso navagvāḥ |
ṛtaṁ yatī saramā gā avindad viśvāni satyāṅgirāś cakāra || 7 ||
viśve asyā vyuṣi māhināyāḥ saṁ yad gobhir aṅgiraso navanta |
utsa āsām parame sadhastha ṛtasya pathā saramā vidad gāḥ || 8 ||
ā sūryo yātu saptāśvaḥ kṣetraṁ yad asyorviyā dīrghayāthe |
raghuḥ śyenaḥ patayad andho acchā yuvā kavir dīdayad goṣu gacchan || 9 ||
ā sūryo aruhac chukram arṇo 'yukta yad dharito vītapṛṣṭhāḥ |
udnā na nāvam anayanta dhīrā āśṛṇvatīr āpo arvāg atiṣṭhan || 10 ||
dhiyaṁ vo apsu dadhiṣe svarṣāṁ yayātaran daśa māso navagvāḥ |
ayā dhiyā syāma devagopā ayā dhiyā tuturyāmāty aṁhaḥ || 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).