Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.23 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. You, Indra, are joined with us in the pressed soma, when praised in the hymn, in the sacred formula, in the recitation — or when, bounteous one, with your two yoked bay horses, bearing the thunderbolt in your arms, you come, Indra.
2. Or when, in heaven, on the decisive day, Indra, you protect the soma-presser in the slaying of Vṛtra, in the winning of warriors; or when, yourself unafraid, you subjected the arrogant Dasyus to defeat, Indra.
3. Let Indra be the drinker of the pressed soma, the mighty leader who protects the singer; the one who makes room for the hero, for the soma-presser, and gives wealth to the one who praises him, even to the humble.
4. He is the one who comes to the soma-pressings with his two bay horses, the bearer of the mace, the drinker of soma, the giver of cattle; the maker of a manly son, a son rich in warriors, the hearer of the call of the singer, the carrier of praise.
5. We perform for him what he has wished — for Indra, who from of old has worked for us. In the pressed soma we praise him; let the hymn be recited, so that our sacred word may be a strengthening for Indra.
6. For you have made the sacred formulas into strengthenings; so much do we serve you, Indra, with our hymns. In the pressed soma, soma-drinker, may we perform, with sacrifices, the most blissful growth-offerings, in joy.
7. Take notice of us, delighting in the rice-cake offering; drink, Indra, the soma mixed with milk. Sit down on this sacred grass of the one who sacrifices; make wide room for your devotee.
8. Rejoice, then, according to your pleasure, mighty one; may these sacrifices reach you. These calls go out to you, the much-invoked, to us; may you, Indra, guide this prayer here, for our help.
9. Friends, satisfy him fully with soma among the pressings — Indra, the bountiful one. Surely it will be so, for our gain; Indra will not fail the soma-presser when he calls for help.
10. Thus indeed has Indra been praised in the pressed soma among the Bharadvājas; may he rule as the bounteous one. So may Indra be, for the singer and for the patron, the giver of wealth comprising every boon.
Translator's note: a few words resist confident rendering — "rāṇḍyā" in verse 6 (rendered conservatively as "in joy"), and the compound opening verse 4 ("ganteyānti"), whose exact grammatical division is uncertain in the transmitted text; it is rendered here by sense as "he is the one who comes."
Colophon
Rigveda VI.23 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda VI.23
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.
suta it tvaṁ nimiśla indra some stome brahmaṇi śasyamāna ukthe |
yad vā yuktābhyām maghavan haribhyām bibhrad vajram bāhvor indra yāsi || 1 ||
yad vā divi pārye suṣvim indra vṛtrahatye 'vasi śūrasātau |
yad vā dakṣasya bibhyuṣo abibhyad arandhayaḥ śardhata indra dasyūn || 2 ||
pātā sutam indro astu somam praṇenīr ugro jaritāram ūtī |
kartā vīrāya suṣvaya u lokaṁ dātā vasu stuvate kīraye cit || 3 ||
ganteyānti savanā haribhyām babhrir vajram papiḥ somaṁ dadir gāḥ |
kartā vīraṁ naryaṁ sarvavīraṁ śrotā havaṁ gṛṇataḥ stomavāhāḥ || 4 ||
asmai vayaṁ yad vāvāna tad viviṣma indrāya yo naḥ pradivo apas kaḥ |
sute some stumasi śaṁsad ukthendrāya brahma vardhanaṁ yathāsat || 5 ||
brahmāṇi hi cakṛṣe vardhanāni tāvat ta indra matibhir viviṣmaḥ |
sute some sutapāḥ śaṁtamāni rāṇḍyā kriyāsma vakṣaṇāni yajñaiḥ || 6 ||
sa no bodhi puroḻāśaṁ rarāṇaḥ pibā tu somaṁ goṛjīkam indra |
edam barhir yajamānasya sīdoruṁ kṛdhi tvāyata u lokam || 7 ||
sa mandasvā hy anu joṣam ugra pra tvā yajñāsa ime aśnuvantu |
preme havāsaḥ puruhūtam asme ā tveyaṁ dhīr avasa indra yamyāḥ || 8 ||
taṁ vaḥ sakhāyaḥ saṁ yathā suteṣu somebhir īm pṛṇatā bhojam indram |
kuvit tasmā asati no bharāya na suṣvim indro 'vase mṛdhāti || 9 ||
eved indraḥ sute astāvi some bharadvājeṣu kṣayad in maghonaḥ |
asad yathā jaritra uta sūrir indro rāyo viśvavārasya dātā || 10 ||
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).