Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa
Rigveda V.66 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. Let the mortal, perceiving these two wise gods who destroy the foe, make offering to Varuṇa — adorned with truth — for great enjoyment.
2. For the two of them have reached unbroken dominion, lordly power entire; then, like an ordinance for mankind, it was set in place, visible as the sun.
3. For the driving-forth of chariots we boldly devise, with our hymns of praise, your wide pasture-ground — and the fine praise-song of the one who has brought you offering.
4. And indeed, you two wondrous ones, with the strongholds of your skill, have discerned by your insight the wise thoughts of the people — you of purified power.
5. That truth (ṛta), O Earth, is the great fame of the seers; the two wide-striding gods, fittingly, pour forth broadly on their courses.
6. When we, together with the patrons, turn toward you two who bear the sun as your eye, O Mitra — may we strive within your vast, richly-protecting sovereign rule.
Translator's note: verse 1's "marta" (mortal) is grammatically ambiguous — it may be the subject of the offering or a vocative address to the worshipper; both readings point to the same act. Verse 5 is the most compressed and uncertain verse in the hymn: "jrayasānau" (the two wide-striding ones) and the verb "ati kṣaranti" (they pour/flow forth) are rendered conservatively, following the most literal sense of the roots rather than resolving the compressed syntax further. Verse 6's "īyacakṣasā" is read as a corruption or variant of "sūryacakṣasā," the standard epithet "having the sun as eye," applied to Mitra-Varuṇa elsewhere in the Rigveda.
Colophon
Rigveda V.66 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.66
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.
ā cikitāna sukratū devau marta riśādasā |
varuṇāya ṛtapeśase dadhīta prayase mahe || 1 ||
tā hi kṣatram avihrutaṁ samyag asurya1m āśāte |
adha vrateva mānuṣaṁ sva1r ṇa dhāyi darśatam || 2 ||
tā vām eṣe rathānām urvīṁ gavyūtim eṣām |
rātahavyasya suṣṭutiṁ dadhṛk stomair manāmahe || 3 ||
adhā hi kāvyā yuvaṁ dakṣasya pūrbhir adbhutā |
ni ketunā janānāṁ cikethe pūtadakṣasā || 4 ||
tad ṛtam pṛthivi bṛhac chravaeṣa ṛṣīṇām |
jrayasānāv aram pṛthv ati kṣaranti yāmabhiḥ || 5 ||
ā yad vām īyacakṣasā mitra vayaṁ ca sūrayaḥ |
vyaciṣṭhe bahupāyye yatemahi svarājye || 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).