Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa
Rigveda V.69 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. O Varuṇa, three luminous realms, and three heavens; O Mitra, you two uphold three regions — growing in the strength of dominion, guarding an ordinance that does not age.
2. O Varuṇa, your nourishing cows yield milk for you; O Mitra, the rivers yield their honey-sweet stream for you. Three bulls stand over the three vessels of the world, seed-bestowing, shining out.
3. At dawn I call upon the goddess Aditi, at midday, at the rising of the sun. I pray to Mitra and Varuṇa for wealth, for entire well-being, for offspring and descendants, for happiness and safety.
4. You two who uphold the region and the luminous realm, and, O heavenly Ādityas, the earthly one too — the immortal gods do not violate your firm ordinances, O Mitra and Varuṇa.
Translator's note: verse 2's "dhiṣaṇānāṁ" (rendered "vessels") is an obscure term for the three cosmic receptacles/regions associated with the sacrifice; verse 3's sequence of times ("at dawn... at midday, at the rising of the sun") follows the Sanskrit's own order rather than smoothing it into the customary three daily pressings.
Colophon
Rigveda V.69 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.69
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.
trī rocanā varuṇa trīm̐r uta dyūn trīṇi mitra dhārayatho rajāṁsi |
vāvṛdhānāv amatiṁ kṣatriyasyānu vrataṁ rakṣamāṇāv ajuryam || 1 ||
irāvatīr varuṇa dhenavo vām madhumad vāṁ sindhavo mitra duhre |
trayas tasthur vṛṣabhāsas tisṛṇāṁ dhiṣaṇānāṁ retodhā vi dyumantaḥ || 2 ||
prātar devīm aditiṁ johavīmi madhyaṁdina uditā sūryasya |
rāye mitrāvaruṇā sarvatāteḻe tokāya tanayāya śaṁ yoḥ || 3 ||
yā dhartārā rajaso rocanasyotādityā divyā pārthivasya |
na vāṁ devā amṛtā ā minanti vratāni mitrāvaruṇā dhruvāṇi || 4 ||
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).