Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.36 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. All your exhilarations, reaching every person, are wholly yours; wholly yours too are the riches of the earth. You alone became the distributor of every prize, when you held lordly power among the gods.
2. The people offered worship in step with his strength; wholly they set their courage to match his valor. For Syumagribha, for Dudhi, and for the racehorse they bend their purpose — also in the slaying of Vṛtra.
3. United aids, bull-like powers, and the closely-yoked teams follow Indra together. Like rivers flowing to the ocean, songs strong with praise pour into him, the wide-extending one.
4. Being praised, pour forth the spring of riches, of richly golden wealth, Indra. You have become the peerless lord of the peoples, the sole king of the whole world.
5. So hear us, you who are worthy of praise, desirous of homage, surpassing — as heaven surpasses earth — the wealth of the noble patron; so that, delighting in us through your strength, you may be known age after age by your vigor.
Translator's note: "Syumagribha" and "Dudhi" (verse 2) are proper names or epithets whose precise referents are uncertain from the verse alone; they are kept untranslated. "Asuryam" (verse 1) denotes lordly or godhead power and is rendered "lordly power." "Khā" (verse 4, literally a well or spring) is rendered "the spring of riches."
Colophon
Rigveda VI.36 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.36
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.
satrā madāsas tava viśvajanyāḥ satrā rāyo 'dha ye pārthivāsaḥ |
satrā vājānām abhavo vibhaktā yad deveṣu dhārayathā asuryam || 1 ||
anu pra yeje jana ojo asya satrā dadhire anu vīryāya |
syūmagṛbhe dudhaye 'rvate ca kratuṁ vṛñjanty api vṛtrahatye || 2 ||
taṁ sadhrīcīr ūtayo vṛṣṇyāni pauṁsyāni niyutaḥ saścur indram |
samudraṁ na sindhava ukthaśuṣmā uruvyacasaṁ gira ā viśanti || 3 ||
sa rāyas khām upa sṛjā gṛṇānaḥ puruścandrasya tvam indra vasvaḥ |
patir babhūthāsamo janānām eko viśvasya bhuvanasya rājā || 4 ||
sa tu śrudhi śrutyā yo duvoyur dyaur na bhūmābhi rāyo aryaḥ |
aso yathā naḥ śavasā cakāno yuge-yuge vayasā cekitānaḥ || 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).