Hymn to Pṛthivī

Rigveda V.84 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. Truly, O Earth, you firmly bear up the mass of the mountains — you who, mighty one, quicken the sloping ground with your greatness.

2. The songs of praise resound to you through the nights, O far-ranging one — you who send forth the flood like a neighing steed, O bright one.

3. Even the firm forest trees you hold fast by your strength — when, from the lightning of your cloud, the rains pour down from the sky.

Translator's note: this hymn survives as only three verses. "khidram" (v.1) is rendered conservatively as "mass" (a cleft or hollow mass of the mountains); "peru" (v.2) is an obscure word rendered conservatively as "flood." Both should be treated as approximate.

Colophon

Rigveda V.84 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.84

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.

baḻ itthā parvatānāṁ khidram bibharṣi pṛthivi |
pra yā bhūmim pravatvati mahnā jinoṣi mahini || 1 ||

stomāsas tvā vicāriṇi prati ṣṭobhanty aktubhiḥ |
pra yā vājaṁ na heṣantam perum asyasy arjuni || 2 ||

dṛḻhā cid yā vanaspatīn kṣmayā dardharṣy ojasā |
yat te abhrasya vidyuto divo varṣanti vṛṣṭayaḥ || 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).