Hymn to Varuṇa
Rigveda V.85 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.
Varuṇa is praised here as the sovereign who stretched the earth out beneath the sun like a hide, who set the atmosphere through the forests and placed swiftness in horses, milk in cows, fire in the waters, the sun in heaven, and soma on the pressing stone. He is the one who releases the rain-skin over the world and drenches the ground as rain drenches barley, and whose power is seen in the standing wonder that all rivers pour into the sea without ever filling it.
The hymn closes with a plea: whatever offense the singers have committed — against Aryaman, against Mitra, against a friend or brother or kinsman or stranger, whether knowingly or in ignorance, like a cheat at dice — Varuṇa is asked to loosen and release it, so that the singers may be counted among those he holds dear.
1. Sing forth a deep and lofty prayer, dear to the sovereign Varuṇa, the far-renowned — who, like a butcher stretching a hide, spread out the earth beneath the sun.
2. Varuṇa spread the atmosphere through the forests; he set swiftness in the racing horses, milk in the cows, resolve in hearts, fire in the waters, the sun in heaven, soma on the mountain stone.
3. Varuṇa loosed the downward-mouthed waterskin into the two world-halves and the atmosphere; with it the king of the whole world drenches the ground, as rain drenches barley.
4. He drenches the ground, the earth and the sky, whenever Varuṇa desires the milked rain; the mountains wrap themselves in cloud, and the strong ones, growing mighty, let their power loose.
5. Let me now proclaim this great hidden power of Varuṇa, the renowned Asura — who, standing in the atmosphere as if with a measuring rod, measured out the earth by the sun.
6. No one has ever matched this great power of the wisest of gods — that the gleaming rivers, pouring themselves out, never fill the one sea with their water, though the streams flow into it forever.
7. Whatever offense we have committed, Varuṇa, against Aryaman, or against Mitra, or against a friend, or even, always, against a brother, or against a kinsman near, or against a stranger — loosen that from us.
8. If we have cheated like gamblers at play, or if it be a truth we broke, or something we did not even know — loosen all of it away, like slack bonds, O god; then may we be dear to you, Varuṇa.
Translator's note: verse 4's "vīrāḥ" (rendered "the strong ones") and verse 6's "enīḥ" (rendered "the gleaming rivers") are terse epithets without an explicit noun in the Sanskrit; both are read here in line with the storm and river imagery of the surrounding verses.
Colophon
Rigveda V.85 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.85
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.
pra samrāje bṛhad arcā gabhīram brahma priyaṁ varuṇāya śrutāya |
vi yo jaghāna śamiteva carmopastire pṛthivīṁ sūryāya || 1 ||
vaneṣu vy a1ntarikṣaṁ tatāna vājam arvatsu paya usriyāsu |
hṛtsu kratuṁ varuṇo apsv a1gniṁ divi sūryam adadhāt somam adrau || 2 ||
nīcīnabāraṁ varuṇaḥ kavandham pra sasarja rodasī antarikṣam |
tena viśvasya bhuvanasya rājā yavaṁ na vṛṣṭir vy unatti bhūma || 3 ||
unatti bhūmim pṛthivīm uta dyāṁ yadā dugdhaṁ varuṇo vaṣṭy ād it |
sam abhreṇa vasata parvatāsas taviṣīyantaḥ śrathayanta vīrāḥ || 4 ||
imām ū ṣv āsurasya śrutasya mahīm māyāṁ varuṇasya pra vocam |
māneneva tasthivām̐ antarikṣe vi yo mame pṛthivīṁ sūryeṇa || 5 ||
imām ū nu kavitamasya māyām mahīṁ devasya nakir ā dadharṣa |
ekaṁ yad udnā na pṛṇanty enīr āsiñcantīr avanayaḥ samudram || 6 ||
aryamyaṁ varuṇa mitryaṁ vā sakhāyaṁ vā sadam id bhrātaraṁ vā |
veśaṁ vā nityaṁ varuṇāraṇaṁ vā yat sīm āgaś cakṛmā śiśrathas tat || 7 ||
kitavāso yad riripur na dīvi yad vā ghā satyam uta yan na vidma |
sarvā tā vi ṣya śithireva devādhā te syāma varuṇa priyāsaḥ || 8 ||
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).