Hymn to Mitra and Varuṇa

Rigveda V.72 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. To Mitra and Varuṇa we call out with songs, as Atri once called. Sit down on the sacred grass to drink the soma.

2. You two stand firm and secure through your ordinance, setting people in order through law. Sit down on the sacred grass to drink the soma.

3. May Mitra and Varuṇa delight in our sacrifice, that it reach its aim. Sit down on the sacred grass to drink the soma.

Translator's note: "yātayajjanā" (v. 2) is a compound epithet meaning something like "who set people in their proper order/motion"; rendered here as "setting people in order through law" to keep close to the compound's sense without over-specifying.

Colophon

Rigveda V.72 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.72

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 mitre varuṇe vayaṁ gīrbhir juhumo atrivat |
ni barhiṣi sadataṁ somapītaye || 1 ||

vratena stho dhruvakṣemā dharmaṇā yātayajjanā |
ni barhiṣi sadataṁ somapītaye || 2 ||

mitraś ca no varuṇaś ca juṣetāṁ yajñam iṣṭaye |
ni barhiṣi sadatāṁ somapītaye || 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).