Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa
Rigveda V.65 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. Whoever perceives this, he of good power, let him speak of it to us among the gods — Varuṇa, whose form is fair to see, or Mitra, who takes pleasure in our songs of praise.
2. Those two indeed are kings of the most excellent splendor, the most widely renowned; those two are true lords, furtherers of the cosmic order, upholders of that order among every people.
3. Asking you two together for help, I call upon your former favors — we, with good horses, with clear intent, calling on you to grant us strength.
4. Mitra, even out of distress, finds a path to a wide dwelling place. For the worshipper who prevails through him, Mitra's good favor is there.
5. May we stand in Mitra's protection, the widest-reaching there is — blameless, guarded by you two, ever belonging to Varuṇa.
6. You two, Mitra and Varuṇa, govern this people and guide them together. Do not overlook our generous patrons, and do not fail to shelter our seers in your protection.
Translator's note: verse 3's "svaśvāsaḥ" (having good horses) and verse 6's closing line ("mo... na uruṣyatam," a doubled negative construction) are terse and elliptical in the Sanskrit; both are rendered conservatively here rather than expanded.
Colophon
Rigveda V.65 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.65
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.
yaś ciketa sa sukratur devatrā sa bravītu naḥ |
varuṇo yasya darśato mitro vā vanate giraḥ || 1 ||
tā hi śreṣṭhavarcasā rājānā dīrghaśruttamā |
tā satpatī ṛtāvṛdha ṛtāvānā jane-jane || 2 ||
tā vām iyāno 'vase pūrvā upa bruve sacā |
svaśvāsaḥ su cetunā vājām̐ abhi pra dāvane || 3 ||
mitro aṁhoś cid ād uru kṣayāya gātuṁ vanate |
mitrasya hi pratūrvataḥ sumatir asti vidhataḥ || 4 ||
vayam mitrasyāvasi syāma saprathastame |
anehasas tvotayaḥ satrā varuṇaśeṣasaḥ || 5 ||
yuvam mitremaṁ janaṁ yatathaḥ saṁ ca nayathaḥ |
mā maghonaḥ pari khyatam mo asmākam ṛṣīṇāṁ gopīthe na uruṣyatam || 6 ||
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).