Hymn to the Aśvins
Rigveda V.73 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. If today you are far away, Aśvins, or if you are near, or among the many — you two who enjoy so much — or if you have come down into the mid-air,
2. here I pray to you, the most manifold ones, bearing your many wondrous powers; I ask for what is best; I call the unhindered ones, the mightiest, for our benefit.
3. One wheel of the chariot you have guided, marvel matched to marvel; around the other, through the generations of humankind, by your greatness you fly across the regions.
4. That indeed is well done by you through this praise-song — all that is sung follows after you. Though born apart, you two spotless ones have come together, forging a bond with us.
5. When Sūryā mounts your ever swift-going chariot, your ruddy steeds around you ward off the burning heat with their own glow.
6. Atri perceives you, O men, with a mind full of goodwill, when he tends the flawless gharma-offering for you with his mouth, O Nāsatyas.
7. Mighty, towering, swift is your going — it is heard unbroken in its courses, when Atri, through his wondrous acts, turns you here, O Aśvins, O men.
8. The swelling one duly follows you with sweetness, you two honey-craving ones, when you carry us across the sea, and the ripened nourishments are brought to you.
9. Truly, O Aśvins, they call you bringers of joy — most invoked when on your way, most gracious when on your way.
10. May these prayers, strengthening and most beneficial, be for the Aśvins — prayers we have fashioned like chariots; we have proclaimed our great homage.
Translator's note: Verse 3's two chariot-wheels and verse 8's "swelling one" (pipyuṣī, likely a milk-cow or the offering itself) and "Rudras" (an epithet applied here to the Aśvins) are genuinely compressed, riddling images in the Sanskrit; the English above renders them conservatively rather than resolving the ambiguity.
Colophon
Rigveda V.73 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.73
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.
yad adya sthaḥ parāvati yad arvāvaty aśvinā |
yad vā purū purubhujā yad antarikṣa ā gatam || 1 ||
iha tyā purubhūtamā purū daṁsāṁsi bibhratā |
varasyā yāmy adhrigū huve tuviṣṭamā bhuje || 2 ||
īrmānyad vapuṣe vapuś cakraṁ rathasya yemathuḥ |
pary anyā nāhuṣā yugā mahnā rajāṁsi dīyathaḥ || 3 ||
tad ū ṣu vām enā kṛtaṁ viśvā yad vām anu ṣṭave |
nānā jātāv arepasā sam asme bandhum eyathuḥ || 4 ||
ā yad vāṁ sūryā rathaṁ tiṣṭhad raghuṣyadaṁ sadā |
pari vām aruṣā vayo ghṛṇā varanta ātapaḥ || 5 ||
yuvor atriś ciketati narā sumnena cetasā |
gharmaṁ yad vām arepasaṁ nāsatyāsnā bhuraṇyati || 6 ||
ugro vāṁ kakuho yayiḥ śṛṇve yāmeṣu saṁtaniḥ |
yad vāṁ daṁsobhir aśvinātrir narāvavartati || 7 ||
madhva ū ṣu madhūyuvā rudrā siṣakti pipyuṣī |
yat samudrāti parṣathaḥ pakvāḥ pṛkṣo bharanta vām || 8 ||
satyam id vā u aśvinā yuvām āhur mayobhuvā |
tā yāman yāmahūtamā yāmann ā mṛḻayattamā || 9 ||
imā brahmāṇi vardhanāśvibhyāṁ santu śaṁtamā |
yā takṣāma rathām̐ ivāvocāma bṛhan namaḥ || 10 ||
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).