Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda V.80 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. Whose path shines, vast, true to the cosmic order, ruddy-formed, radiant — toward the goddess Uṣas, who brings the sun, the inspired poets sing out with their hymns.
2. She, lovely to see, awakening people, making the roads easy to travel, goes forth in front. Great-charioted, vast, impelling all things, Dawn extends her light at the head of the days.
3. She, yoking herself with her ruddy cows, unfailing, has made wealth inexhaustible. Carving the paths toward good fortune, the goddess, much-praised, granter of every boon, shines out far and wide.
4. She becomes stainless, doubly vast, revealing her form in the east. She rightly follows the path of the cosmic order, and, as if with full knowledge, does not mistake the directions.
5. She, bright, aware of her own beauty, like one freshly bathed standing tall, has stood forth for us to see. Driving away hostility and the darknesses, Uṣas, daughter of Heaven, has come with light.
6. She, turned toward men, daughter of Heaven, like an auspicious young woman, lays bare her beauty. Uncovering her treasures for the one who honors her, the young woman has made the light anew, as before.
Translator's note: verse 3's "gobhir aruṇebhir" (with ruddy cows) carries the standard Vedic double sense of cows and dawn-rays; verse 5's "dveṣas" (hostility, enmity) is rendered conservatively rather than more freely as "hatreds" or "foes."
Colophon
Rigveda V.80 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.80
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.
dyutadyāmānam bṛhatīm ṛtena ṛtāvarīm aruṇapsuṁ vibhātīm |
devīm uṣasaṁ svar āvahantīm prati viprāso matibhir jarante || 1 ||
eṣā janaṁ darśatā bodhayantī sugān pathaḥ kṛṇvatī yāty agre |
bṛhadrathā bṛhatī viśvaminvoṣā jyotir yacchaty agre ahnām || 2 ||
eṣā gobhir aruṇebhir yujānāsredhantī rayim aprāyu cakre |
patho radantī suvitāya devī puruṣṭutā viśvavārā vi bhāti || 3 ||
eṣā vyenī bhavati dvibarhā āviṣkṛṇvānā tanvam purastāt |
ṛtasya panthām anv eti sādhu prajānatīva na diśo mināti || 4 ||
eṣā śubhrā na tanvo vidānordhveva snātī dṛśaye no asthāt |
apa dveṣo bādhamānā tamāṁsy uṣā divo duhitā jyotiṣāgāt || 5 ||
eṣā pratīcī duhitā divo nṝn yoṣeva bhadrā ni riṇīte apsaḥ |
vyūrṇvatī dāśuṣe vāryāṇi punar jyotir yuvatiḥ pūrvathākaḥ || 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).