Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa
Rigveda V.64 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. We call on your Varuṇa, the destroyer of foes, and on Mitra, with a hymn — the two who have gone forth with their arms, as if closing round a cattle-pen, to Svarṇara, the sunlit realm.
2. May those two arms, moved by good will, reach out to this one who sings praise. For your welcome, cherished friendship is called upon in every land.
3. If only I might now attain that course, might travel by Mitra's path — they hold fast to the shelter of this dear one who does no harm.
4. To you two, Mitra and Varuṇa, may I set forth a hymn worthy of you, with this verse — since it is in the dwelling of the bounteous patrons and of the singers that I strive to be heard.
5. Come to us, Mitra, with your bright radiance, and you, Varuṇa, to our gathering place — in his own home, to strengthen the bounteous patrons and our friends.
6. You two, Varuṇa and Mitra, among whom you bear lofty dominion for us — make it wide for us, for the winning of strength, for wealth, for well-being.
7. At the brightening of my dawn, you worshipful two, in the realm of divine rule, with the shining cow of Dawn — hasten here, not mounted but on foot, you two heroes, to the pressed soma, bearing the wagon of praise.
Translator's note: verses 1, 3, 4, and 7 turn on compressed, elliptical Vedic syntax whose exact sense is debated by scholars. "Svarṇara" (v.1) is left untranslated as a proper name for the sunlit heavenly realm. In v.7, "hastibhiḥ" was read as "by elephants" (hastin) rather than "by hands" (hasta), giving the contrast "not mounted but on foot"; "arcanānasam" was rendered "wagon of praise" (arcana, "praise" + ānasa, "cart/wagon") as the most literal reading available. Both are genuinely uncertain and are flagged rather than smoothed over.
Colophon
Rigveda V.64 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.64
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.
varuṇaṁ vo riśādasam ṛcā mitraṁ havāmahe |
pari vrajeva bāhvor jaganvāṁsā svarṇaram || 1 ||
tā bāhavā sucetunā pra yantam asmā arcate |
śevaṁ hi jāryaṁ vāṁ viśvāsu kṣāsu joguve || 2 ||
yan nūnam aśyāṁ gatim mitrasya yāyām pathā |
asya priyasya śarmaṇy ahiṁsānasya saścire || 3 ||
yuvābhyām mitrāvaruṇopamaṁ dheyām ṛcā |
yad dha kṣaye maghonāṁ stotṝṇāṁ ca spūrdhase || 4 ||
ā no mitra sudītibhir varuṇaś ca sadhastha ā |
sve kṣaye maghonāṁ sakhīnāṁ ca vṛdhase || 5 ||
yuvaṁ no yeṣu varuṇa kṣatram bṛhac ca bibhṛthaḥ |
uru ṇo vājasātaye kṛtaṁ rāye svastaye || 6 ||
ucchantyām me yajatā devakṣatre ruśadgavi |
sutaṁ somaṁ na hastibhir ā paḍbhir dhāvataṁ narā bibhratāv arcanānasam || 7 ||
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).