Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.18 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. Praise him who has overpowering strength, who wins, unopposed, Indra invoked by many. Unconquerable, mighty, all-overpowering — with these songs strengthen the bull of the peoples.
2. He, the fighter, the valiant one, the maker of battle-tumult, the war-loving, greatly crushing, roaring one, the Ṛjīṣin — raiser of great dust, shaker of the human tribes — became alone the mightiest among the peoples.
3. You indeed subdued the Dasyus; alone you protected the tribes for the sake of the Ārya. Is that heroic deed truly yours, Indra, or is it not? Tell it truly, in due order.
4. Truly, I think, real is your power, O mighty-born one, O most powerful, overpowering the overpowering. The mighty power of the mighty, stronger than the strong, you have become — the subduer of the unyielding foe.
5. Let that ancient friendship of ours be with you, as the Aṅgirases declared it, when Vala was broken open. You struck, O mover of the immovable, the wondrous one, the aggressor — you threw open all his gates.
6. He indeed is to be invoked with prayers, the mighty one, who establishes dominion, in the great battle against Vṛtra. He, in the winning of sons and offspring; he, the thunderbolt-wielder, became one to be called upon in battles.
7. He, by his greatness, has spread beyond the generations of mortals with his immortal name. He by splendor, he by strength, and by wealth, he by heroic power — most manly, he dwells among us.
8. He who never became false or deceptive toward us, rightly named for good counsel — Indra struck down Cumuri and Dhuni, tore apart Pipru, Śambara, and Śuṣṇa, to shatter their strongholds and lay them low.
9. With uplifting, admirable vigor, mount your chariot, O Indra, for the slaying of Vṛtra. Take the thunderbolt in your right hand; exult, O giver of abundance, over their magic wiles.
10. Like fire burns dry wood, O Indra, so with your weapon you shall burn the demon, fearsome as the thunderbolt — with your deep, lofty power that has shattered him, driven off dangers, and destroyed the deceiver.
11. By a thousand paths, O Indra, come hither to us with wealth, O greatly radiant one, with abundant strength. Come, son of strength, you whom no godless one has power to hold back, O much-invoked one.
12. The greatness of the greatly radiant, mighty, exultant one has resounded through heaven and earth. He has no enemy, no equal, no one who can stand against him — the overpowering one of manifold powers.
13. That deed of yours is proclaimed today: when, for Kutsa, Āyu, and Atithigva, you struck down many thousands upon the earth, and boldly raised up Tūrvayāṇa.
14. At your slaying of Ahi, then, O god, all the gods rejoiced with you, the wisest of the wise. There you made room and freedom for the oppressed, for the man seeking heaven, and for your own self, as you were praised.
15. Heaven and Earth gave way before that might of yours; the immortal gods, O Indra, yielded before it. Accomplish, O skillful one, what remains undone by you; bring forth a newer hymn of praise through our sacrifices.
Translator's note: several words resist confident rendering — "dasmeṣayantam" (verse 5) is read here as "the wondrous one, the aggressor," but the compound is opaque; "sumantunāmā" (verse 8), "rightly named for good counsel," and "dive janāya" (verse 14), "for the man seeking heaven," are conservative renderings of compact, ambiguous phrases. The epithet "ṛjīṣin" (verse 2), traditionally linked to the pressed-out soma dregs, is left close to the Sanskrit rather than expanded into a guess.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.18 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.18
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.
tam u ṣṭuhi yo abhibhūtyojā vanvann avātaḥ puruhūta indraḥ |
aṣāḻham ugraṁ sahamānam ābhir gīrbhir vardha vṛṣabhaṁ carṣaṇīnām || 1 ||
sa yudhmaḥ satvā khajakṛt samadvā tuvimrakṣo nadanumām̐ ṛjīṣī |
bṛhadreṇuś cyavano mānuṣīṇām ekaḥ kṛṣṭīnām abhavat sahāvā || 2 ||
tvaṁ ha nu tyad adamāyo dasyūm̐r ekaḥ kṛṣṭīr avanor āryāya |
asti svin nu vīrya1ṁ tat ta indra na svid asti tad ṛtuthā vi vocaḥ || 3 ||
sad id dhi te tuvijātasya manye sahaḥ sahiṣṭha turatas turasya |
ugram ugrasya tavasas tavīyo 'radhrasya radhraturo babhūva || 4 ||
tan naḥ pratnaṁ sakhyam astu yuṣme itthā vadadbhir valam aṅgirobhiḥ |
hann acyutacyud dasmeṣayantam ṛṇoḥ puro vi duro asya viśvāḥ || 5 ||
sa hi dhībhir havyo asty ugra īśānakṛn mahati vṛtratūrye |
sa tokasātā tanaye sa vajrī vitantasāyyo abhavat samatsu || 6 ||
sa majmanā janima mānuṣāṇām amartyena nāmnāti pra sarsre |
sa dyumnena sa śavasota rāyā sa vīryeṇa nṛtamaḥ samokāḥ || 7 ||
sa yo na muhe na mithū jano bhūt sumantunāmā cumuriṁ dhuniṁ ca |
vṛṇak pipruṁ śambaraṁ śuṣṇam indraḥ purāṁ cyautnāya śayathāya nū cit || 8 ||
udāvatā tvakṣasā panyasā ca vṛtrahatyāya ratham indra tiṣṭha |
dhiṣva vajraṁ hasta ā dakṣiṇatrābhi pra manda purudatra māyāḥ || 9 ||
agnir na śuṣkaṁ vanam indra hetī rakṣo ni dhakṣy aśanir na bhīmā |
gambhīraya ṛṣvayā yo rurojādhvānayad duritā dambhayac ca || 10 ||
ā sahasram pathibhir indra rāyā tuvidyumna tuvivājebhir arvāk |
yāhi sūno sahaso yasya nū cid adeva īśe puruhūta yotoḥ || 11 ||
pra tuvidyumnasya sthavirasya ghṛṣver divo rarapśe mahimā pṛthivyāḥ |
nāsya śatrur na pratimānam asti na pratiṣṭhiḥ purumāyasya sahyoḥ || 12 ||
pra tat te adyā karaṇaṁ kṛtam bhūt kutsaṁ yad āyum atithigvam asmai |
purū sahasrā ni śiśā abhi kṣām ut tūrvayāṇaṁ dhṛṣatā ninetha || 13 ||
anu tvāhighne adha deva devā madan viśve kavitamaṁ kavīnām |
karo yatra varivo bādhitāya dive janāya tanve gṛṇānaḥ || 14 ||
anu dyāvāpṛthivī tat ta ojo 'martyā jihata indra devāḥ |
kṛṣvā kṛtno akṛtaṁ yat te asty ukthaṁ navīyo janayasva yajñaiḥ || 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).