Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.42 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. Bring all things to him who wishes to drink, to the wise one — to the man who comes readily, who advances, who does not fail us afterward.
2. Come, approach him with soma offerings — the greatest soma-drinker — with vessels, Indra who loves the soma-dregs, with the pressed drops.
3. If you serve him with the pressed drops, with soma offerings, the wise one who knows everything boldly seeks out each one in turn.
4. O Adhvaryu, bring forth a pressed draught of soma to each one in turn. May he indeed protect us from the curse of the whole mighty, noble-born host.
Translator's note: verse 4 is compressed and its syntax admits more than one reading. "Samasya jenyasya śardhataḥ" (of the whole, noble-born, mighty [host]) has been read as describing a rival or hostile band whose "abhiśasti" — curse or false accusation — the hymn asks Indra to ward off; the particle "kuvit" ("surely," "whether") signals a hope rather than a flat statement. This rendering keeps that uncertainty rather than resolving it into false confidence.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.42 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.42
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.
praty asmai pipīṣate viśvāni viduṣe bhara |
araṁgamāya jagmaye 'paścāddaghvane nare || 1 ||
em enam pratyetana somebhiḥ somapātamam |
amatrebhir ṛjīṣiṇam indraṁ sutebhir indubhiḥ || 2 ||
yadī sutebhir indubhiḥ somebhiḥ pratibhūṣatha |
vedā viśvasya medhiro dhṛṣat taṁ-tam id eṣate || 3 ||
asmā-asmā id andhaso 'dhvaryo pra bharā sutam |
kuvit samasya jenyasya śardhato 'bhiśaster avasparat || 4 ||
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).