Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.31 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 alone became lord of riches among the wealthy; you have taken the peoples, Indra, into your two hands. Over offspring, over the waters, and over descendants under the sun, the peoples have spoken out, disputing among themselves.
2. Before fear of you, Indra, all the earthly regions — even the unshaken ones — are made to shake. Heaven and earth, the mountains, the forests: everything firm trembles at your onrush.
3. With Kutsa you fought against swift Śuṣṇa, Indra, and against Kuyava, in the search for cattle. At the sun's advance you stole its wheel, and wound away its harms.
4. You struck down the hundred unassailable strongholds of Śambara the dasyu. There, through your power, mighty one, you granted goods to Divodāsa who presses the soma, to the swift-flowing one, to Bharadvāja who sings your praise.
5. True in strength, mount your fearsome chariot for the great battle, you of abundant manly power. Go forth on the distant road to help us, and, being renowned, make yourself heard among the peoples.
Translator's note: verse 3's "daśa prapitve adha sūryasya" (literally "ten, at the advance/sending-forth of the sun") is textually compressed and its exact sense — a time reference, a count of days, or an epithet — is uncertain; rendered conservatively above. In verse 4, "sutakre" is an obscure form, likely describing a swift-flowing offering or stream rather than a proper name; rendered conservatively as "the swift-flowing one."
Colophon
Rigveda VI.31 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.31
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.
abhūr eko rayipate rayīṇām ā hastayor adhithā indra kṛṣṭīḥ |
vi toke apsu tanaye ca sūre 'vocanta carṣaṇayo vivācaḥ || 1 ||
tvad bhiyendra pārthivāni viśvācyutā cic cyāvayante rajāṁsi |
dyāvākṣāmā parvatāso vanāni viśvaṁ dṛḻham bhayate ajmann ā te || 2 ||
tvaṁ kutsenābhi śuṣṇam indrāśuṣaṁ yudhya kuyavaṁ gaviṣṭau |
daśa prapitve adha sūryasya muṣāyaś cakram avive rapāṁsi || 3 ||
tvaṁ śatāny ava śambarasya puro jaghanthāpratīni dasyoḥ |
aśikṣo yatra śacyā śacīvo divodāsāya sunvate sutakre bharadvājāya gṛṇate vasūni || 4 ||
sa satyasatvan mahate raṇāya ratham ā tiṣṭha tuvinṛmṇa bhīmam |
yāhi prapathinn avasopa madrik pra ca śruta śrāvaya carṣaṇibhyaḥ || 5 ||
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).