Hymn to the Viśvedevas
Rigveda V.50 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. Every mortal chooses the friendship of the god who leads. Everyone longs for riches; let him choose splendor, so that he may thrive.
2. Those, O god, O leader, are yours who here obey you. With wealth may we join ourselves to them, bound in fellowship, in companionship.
3. From here, show honor to our men and to our guests; from here, favor our wives. Far away let the one who stands guard on every path drive off, the driver-off of hatred.
4. Where the bearer, once urged on, ran like cattle from the wooden vat — manly-minded, of heroic dwelling, like a wise winner of the flood.
5. This, O god, is your leader, lord of the chariot — may wealth be kindly. Kindly for riches, kindly for well-being: praised with our offerings, we meditate; praised by the god, we meditate.
Translator's note: verse 4 is among the most syntactically compressed in the hymn; "vahni" (bearer/charioteer), "droṇyaḥ paśuḥ" (cattle of/from the wooden vat), and "dhīreva sanitā" (like a wise winner/gainer) resist a fully certain construal. The rendering above stays close to the Sanskrit word order rather than smoothing it into a confident narrative. "Netṛ" (leader/guide), addressed throughout, is kept as "leader" rather than assigned to a specific named deity, since the Sanskrit itself does not name one.
Colophon
Rigveda V.50 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.50
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.
viśvo devasya netur martaḥ vurīta sakhyam |
viśvo rāya iṣudhyati dyumnaṁ vṛṇīta puṣyase || 1 ||
te te deva netar ye cemām̐ anuśase |
te rāyā te hy ā3pṛce sacemahi sacathyaiḥ || 2 ||
ato na ā nṝn atithīn ataḥ patnīr daśasyata |
āre viśvam patheṣṭhāṁ dviṣo yuyotu yūyuviḥ || 3 ||
yatra vahnir abhihito dudravad droṇyaḥ paśuḥ |
nṛmaṇā vīrapastyo 'rṇā dhīreva sanitā || 4 ||
eṣa te deva netā rathaspatiḥ śaṁ rayiḥ |
śaṁ rāye śaṁ svastaya iṣaḥstuto manāmahe devastuto manāmahe || 5 ||
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).