Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.17 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 6 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. Drink the soma, Indra, mighty one whom we praise — you who split open the great cattle-pen. Bold vajra-handed one, you struck down Vṛtra completely, with powers that turn against the enemy.
2. Drink it, you soma-dreg drinker, victorious one, helmeted bull of the prayers. You breaker of the cow-cave, vajra-bearer, rider of the bay horses — Indra, break open dazzling prizes for us.
3. Drink thus, as in ancient times; let it delight you. Hear our prayer, and grow strong through our songs. Make the sun manifest, you who swell with eagerness for the draught. Slay the enemies, Indra, and break open the pen for the cows.
4. These exhilarations, great self-powerful Indra, once drunk, make you grow bright. The intoxicating drops make you — great, flawless, mighty, all-pervading, all-overpowering — thrill with joy.
5. By these, rejoicing, you lit up the sun and the dawn, tearing apart the firm strongholds. Indra, you thrust the great rock that enclosed the cows, the unshakeable one, away from its own place.
6. By your power, by those wondrous deeds of yours, you placed the ripened milk within the raw cows through your might. You opened the doors for the cattle, and released the cows from the firm enclosure, together with the Aṅgirases.
7. You, great wondrous one, filled the wide earth and propped up heaven, lofty and great Indra. You held apart the two world-halves, mothers whose children are gods, the ancient ones, ever-young, belonging to the cosmic order.
8. Then, Indra, all the gods of old set you, the one mighty one, in front for the battle. When the godless one challenged the gods, they chose Indra here, for the winning of the sunlight.
9. Then even Heaven itself bent away, in fear of your vajra, from your own fury. When Indra struck the serpent as it rushed upon him, the ever-living one struck it down to lie in its lair.
10. Then Tvaṣṭṛ fashioned for you, great terrible one, the vajra with a thousand points, a hundred edges, eager and unresting — by which, drinker of soma-dregs, you crushed to pieces the roaring serpent.
11. Whom all the Maruts, of one mind, strengthened — for you, Indra, a hundred buffaloes were cooked. Pūṣan and Viṣṇu, running through the three vessels, made ready the Vṛtra-slaying, intoxicating soma-stalk for him.
12. You released the wave of the waters, the great obstruction of the rivers that stood blocking them. Along their downward paths, Indra, you sent the low-flowing, laboring rivers onward to the sea.
13. Thus, Indra, having done all these deeds — great, terrible, unaging, granting victory, rich in heroes, well-armed, wielding a good vajra — may our new hymn turn you here for our aid.
14. Grant to us, Indra, brilliant and inspired gifts, for strength, for fame, for nourishment, and for wealth. To Bharadvāja, Indra, grant patrons rich in men — and on the decisive day, Indra, be ours.
15. By this may we win the god-given prize, and may we rejoice for a hundred winters, blessed with good sons.
Translator's note: verse 9's "ohasānam" (of the serpent "rushing" or "surging" upon Indra) and verse 14's "dyumataḥ ... viprān" (rendered here as "brilliant and inspired gifts") are compressed, somewhat ambiguous phrases in the Sanskrit; the renderings above follow the most natural sense of the roots involved. Verse 15 is a single formulaic closing verse shorter than the others, matching the Sanskrit as printed.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.17 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 VI.17
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.
pibā somam abhi yam ugra tarda ūrvaṁ gavyam mahi gṛṇāna indra |
vi yo dhṛṣṇo vadhiṣo vajrahasta viśvā vṛtram amitriyā śavobhiḥ || 1 ||
sa īm pāhi ya ṛjīṣī tarutro yaḥ śipravān vṛṣabho yo matīnām |
yo gotrabhid vajrabhṛd yo hariṣṭhāḥ sa indra citrām̐ abhi tṛndhi vājān || 2 ||
evā pāhi pratnathā mandatu tvā śrudhi brahma vāvṛdhasvota gīrbhiḥ |
āviḥ sūryaṁ kṛṇuhi pīpihīṣo jahi śatrūm̐r abhi gā indra tṛndhi || 3 ||
te tvā madā bṛhad indra svadhāva ime pītā ukṣayanta dyumantam |
mahām anūnaṁ tavasaṁ vibhūtim matsarāso jarhṛṣanta prasāham || 4 ||
yebhiḥ sūryam uṣasam mandasāno 'vāsayo 'pa dṛḻhāni dardrat |
mahām adrim pari gā indra santaṁ nutthā acyutaṁ sadasas pari svāt || 5 ||
tava kratvā tava tad daṁsanābhir āmāsu pakvaṁ śacyā ni dīdhaḥ |
aurṇor dura usriyābhyo vi dṛḻhod ūrvād gā asṛjo aṅgirasvān || 6 ||
paprātha kṣām mahi daṁso vy u1rvīm upa dyām ṛṣvo bṛhad indra stabhāyaḥ |
adhārayo rodasī devaputre pratne mātarā yahvī ṛtasya || 7 ||
adha tvā viśve pura indra devā ekaṁ tavasaṁ dadhire bharāya |
adevo yad abhy auhiṣṭa devān svarṣātā vṛṇata indram atra || 8 ||
adha dyauś cit te apa sā nu vajrād dvitānamad bhiyasā svasya manyoḥ |
ahiṁ yad indro abhy ohasānaṁ ni cid viśvāyuḥ śayathe jaghāna || 9 ||
adha tvaṣṭā te maha ugra vajraṁ sahasrabhṛṣṭiṁ vavṛtac chatāśrim |
nikāmam aramaṇasaṁ yena navantam ahiṁ sam piṇag ṛjīṣin || 10 ||
vardhān yaṁ viśve marutaḥ sajoṣāḥ pacac chatam mahiṣām̐ indra tubhyam |
pūṣā viṣṇus trīṇi sarāṁsi dhāvan vṛtrahaṇam madiram aṁśum asmai || 11 ||
ā kṣodo mahi vṛtaṁ nadīnām pariṣṭhitam asṛja ūrmim apām |
tāsām anu pravata indra panthām prārdayo nīcīr apasaḥ samudram || 12 ||
evā tā viśvā cakṛvāṁsam indram mahām ugram ajuryaṁ sahodām |
suvīraṁ tvā svāyudhaṁ suvajram ā brahma navyam avase vavṛtyāt || 13 ||
sa no vājāya śravasa iṣe ca rāye dhehi dyumata indra viprān |
bharadvāje nṛvata indra sūrīn divi ca smaidhi pārye na indra || 14 ||
ayā vājaṁ devahitaṁ sanema madema śatahimāḥ suvīrāḥ || 15 ||
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).