Hymn to Indra and Pūṣan
Rigveda VI.57 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. Indra and Pūṣan — we now call upon the two of you, for friendship, for well-being, for the winning of strength.
2. One of them sits down to drink the soma pressed in the two cups; the other desires the grain-porridge.
3. Goats are the team of one; the two bay horses are yoked for the other. With these he strikes down the obstacles.
4. When Indra, the mightiest, drove forth the great waters, Pūṣan was there together with him.
5. That goodwill of Pūṣan we grasp — as one grasps a branch of a tree — and that of Indra too.
6. We harness Pūṣan, as a charioteer gathers up the reins, and great Indra too, for our well-being.
Translator's note: verse 4's "rito" is an obscure form (possibly related to a root meaning "driven" or "sent forth"); rendered conservatively as "drove forth." Verse 6's "mahyā" is treated as an epithet ("great") qualifying Indra, following its most natural reading alongside "sārathiḥ" and "abhīśūn" (reins).
Colophon
Rigveda VI.57 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda VI.57
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.
indrā nu pūṣaṇā vayaṁ sakhyāya svastaye |
huvema vājasātaye || 1 ||
somam anya upāsadat pātave camvoḥ sutam |
karambham anya icchati || 2 ||
ajā anyasya vahnayo harī anyasya sambhṛtā |
tābhyāṁ vṛtrāṇi jighnate || 3 ||
yad indro anayad rito mahīr apo vṛṣantamaḥ |
tatra pūṣābhavat sacā || 4 ||
tām pūṣṇaḥ sumatiṁ vayaṁ vṛkṣasya pra vayām iva |
indrasya cā rabhāmahe || 5 ||
ut pūṣaṇaṁ yuvāmahe 'bhīśūm̐r iva sārathiḥ |
mahyā indraṁ svastaye || 6 ||
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).