Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.38 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. From here, may the most brilliant one carry up to us the great, shining call to Indra. The bountiful one wins the finer hymn, the offering of the people, on the road of the god.
2. Even from far away, the ears of the one who dwells there resound at the roar of Indra as he is invoked. May this call of the gods turn him here — Indra, delighted — as this praise is sung to him.
3. With your highest thought we have hymned him with songs — Indra, born long ago, unaging. Sacred words and songs have gathered together in him, and the great hymn of praise grows in Indra.
4. May the sacrifice and the soma make Indra grow; may sacred speech, songs, hymns, and thought make him grow. May the dawns make him grow indeed, along the path of night; may the months, the autumns, the days make Indra grow.
5. So, born whole for strength, grown strong for bounty and renown — great, mighty one — for our help now, O wise Indra, may we win you over in the battles against our foes.
Translator's note: verse 2's "madrya1g" is a corrupted character in the source transliteration (likely an epithet of Indra, possibly related to "mandra," "delightful/exultant"); it is rendered conservatively as "delighted" and should be checked against a clean edition. Several forms here (apād, asāmi, vipra) are read in their most common Vedic senses; the hymn's syntax is compressed throughout, in keeping with this style of praise poetry.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.38 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.38
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.
apād ita ud u naś citratamo mahīm bharṣad dyumatīm indrahūtim |
panyasīṁ dhītiṁ daivyasya yāmañ janasya rātiṁ vanate sudānuḥ || 1 ||
dūrāc cid ā vasato asya karṇā ghoṣād indrasya tanyati bruvāṇaḥ |
eyam enaṁ devahūtir vavṛtyān madrya1g indram iyam ṛcyamānā || 2 ||
taṁ vo dhiyā paramayā purājām ajaram indram abhy anūṣy arkaiḥ |
brahmā ca giro dadhire sam asmin mahām̐ś ca stomo adhi vardhad indre || 3 ||
vardhād yaṁ yajña uta soma indraṁ vardhād brahma gira ukthā ca manma |
vardhāhainam uṣaso yāmann aktor vardhān māsāḥ śarado dyāva indram || 4 ||
evā jajñānaṁ sahase asāmi vāvṛdhānaṁ rādhase ca śrutāya |
mahām ugram avase vipra nūnam ā vivāsema vṛtratūryeṣu || 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).