Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa

Rigveda V.71 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. Come to us, destroyers of our foes, Varuṇa and Mitra, with your strength — to this pleasant sacrifice.

2. For you two, wise ones, Varuṇa and Mitra, rule over everything; as its rulers, make our prayers swell.

3. Come to our pressed soma, Varuṇa and Mitra, the soma of the worshiper who has given — to drink of it.

Translator's note: riśādasā (v.1), an epithet of Mitra and Varuṇa, is rendered here in its common sense "destroyers of foes/enemies"; the compound is old and its precise derivation is debated among Vedicists. dāśuṣaḥ (v.3), "of the one who has given/offered," names the worshiper making the offering.

Colophon

Rigveda V.71 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.71

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 no gantaṁ riśādasā varuṇa mitra barhaṇā |
upemaṁ cārum adhvaram || 1 ||

viśvasya hi pracetasā varuṇa mitra rājathaḥ |
īśānā pipyataṁ dhiyaḥ || 2 ||

upa naḥ sutam ā gataṁ varuṇa mitra dāśuṣaḥ |
asya somasya pītaye || 3 ||

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).