Hymn to the Viśvedevas (All-Gods)
Rigveda VI.51 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. That great eye of Mitra, dear and undeceived eye of Varuṇa, rises up. The pure, visible face of order (ṛta) has blazed forth like a golden disc at the rising from the sky.
2. The wise one who knows the three gatherings of these gods, their birth, hidden and manifest — seeing what is straight and what is crooked among mortals, the sun watches over the courses of the faithful.
3. I will praise you, the great guardians of order — Aditi, Mitra, Varuṇa, well-born; Aryaman, Bhaga, whose purposes cannot be deceived. I call out to them, the purifying ones, sharers of our portion.
4. The foe-devouring, true lords, undeceived, great kings, givers of good dwelling; young, of good rule, ruling from heaven — I approach these men, the Ādityas, and Aditi, seeking to serve them.
5. O Father Heaven, O Mother Earth without deceit, O Agni my brother, O Vasus — have mercy on us. All you Ādityas, O Aditi, being of one accord, grant us broad shelter.
6. Do not hand us over to the wolf, to the she-wolf, to anyone wishing us harm, O worshipful ones. For you are the charioteers of our bodies; you are the guardians of skillful speech.
7. May we not suffer for a wrong done by another; may we not do that deed, O Vasus, which you punish. For you rule over everything, O All-Gods — let the deceiver harm his own body himself.
8. Homage — mighty homage — I offer; homage has upheld earth and heaven. Homage to the gods, homage to their ruler; even a wrong already done, I seek to remove with homage.
9. To you, charioteers of order, of purified skill, dwellers in the house of order, undeceived — to these wide-seeing men I bow with homage; to all of you, great worshipful ones, I bow.
10. For they are of the finest splendor; they lead us across all dangers — Varuṇa, Mitra, Agni of good rule, whose thoughts are set on order, true kings of speech.
11. May they — Indra, Earth, the ground, Pūṣan, Bhaga, Aditi, the five peoples — strengthen us; may they be good shelterers, good helpers, good guides for us, good protectors, good guardians.
12. Now may I, O gods, reach the heavenly seat; the Bhāradvāja priest goes toward your favor. The sacrificer, with the offerings being offered, desiring wealth, has honored the birth of the gods.
13. Drive that crooked foe, the thief, far away, O Agni, the evil-minded one; drive him furthest off, O true lord, and make our path easy.
14. The pressing stones, O Soma, have cried out for friendship with us. Strike down the devourer, the niggard — for he is a wolf.
15. For you are the bountiful ones, with Indra as chief, shining toward heaven. Make our path easy for us; be our guardians at home.
16. May we come upon the path that leads to well-being, faultless — by which one passes beyond all hatreds and finds wealth.
Translator's note: verse 2's "vidathāny" (gatherings/assemblies) and verse 11's "pañca janāḥ" ("the five peoples," a standing Vedic phrase for the tribes/all humankind) are rendered conservatively; both admit narrower ritual or ethnographic readings that the Sanskrit alone does not settle.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.51 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.51
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.
ud u tyac cakṣur mahi mitrayor ām̐ eti priyaṁ varuṇayor adabdham |
ṛtasya śuci darśatam anīkaṁ rukmo na diva uditā vy adyaut || 1 ||
veda yas trīṇi vidathāny eṣāṁ devānāṁ janma sanutar ā ca vipraḥ |
ṛju marteṣu vṛjinā ca paśyann abhi caṣṭe sūro arya evān || 2 ||
stuṣa u vo maha ṛtasya gopān aditim mitraṁ varuṇaṁ sujātān |
aryamaṇam bhagam adabdhadhītīn acchā voce sadhanyaḥ pāvakān || 3 ||
riśādasaḥ satpatīm̐r adabdhān maho rājñaḥ suvasanasya dātṝn |
yūnaḥ sukṣatrān kṣayato divo nṝn ādityān yāmy aditiṁ duvoyu || 4 ||
dyau3ṣ pitaḥ pṛthivi mātar adhrug agne bhrātar vasavo mṛḻatā naḥ |
viśva ādityā adite sajoṣā asmabhyaṁ śarma bahulaṁ vi yanta || 5 ||
mā no vṛkāya vṛkye samasmā aghāyate rīradhatā yajatrāḥ |
yūyaṁ hi ṣṭhā rathyo nas tanūnāṁ yūyaṁ dakṣasya vacaso babhūva || 6 ||
mā va eno anyakṛtam bhujema mā tat karma vasavo yac cayadhve |
viśvasya hi kṣayatha viśvadevāḥ svayaṁ ripus tanvaṁ rīriṣīṣṭa || 7 ||
nama id ugraṁ nama ā vivāse namo dādhāra pṛthivīm uta dyām |
namo devebhyo nama īśa eṣāṁ kṛtaṁ cid eno namasā vivāse || 8 ||
ṛtasya vo rathyaḥ pūtadakṣān ṛtasya pastyasado adabdhān |
tām̐ ā namobhir urucakṣaso nṝn viśvān va ā name maho yajatrāḥ || 9 ||
te hi śreṣṭhavarcasas ta u nas tiro viśvāni duritā nayanti |
sukṣatrāso varuṇo mitro agnir ṛtadhītayo vakmarājasatyāḥ || 10 ||
te na indraḥ pṛthivī kṣāma vardhan pūṣā bhago aditiḥ pañca janāḥ |
suśarmāṇaḥ svavasaḥ sunīthā bhavantu naḥ sutrātrāsaḥ sugopāḥ || 11 ||
nū sadmānaṁ divyaṁ naṁśi devā bhāradvājaḥ sumatiṁ yāti hotā |
āsānebhir yajamāno miyedhair devānāṁ janma vasūyur vavanda || 12 ||
apa tyaṁ vṛjinaṁ ripuṁ stenam agne durādhyam |
daviṣṭham asya satpate kṛdhī sugam || 13 ||
grāvāṇaḥ soma no hi kaṁ sakhitvanāya vāvaśuḥ |
jahī ny a1triṇam paṇiṁ vṛko hi ṣaḥ || 14 ||
yūyaṁ hi ṣṭhā sudānava indrajyeṣṭhā abhidyavaḥ |
kartā no adhvann ā sugaṁ gopā amā || 15 ||
api panthām aganmahi svastigām anehasam |
yena viśvāḥ pari dviṣo vṛṇakti vindate vasu || 16 ||
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).