Hymn to Pūṣan
Rigveda VI.58 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. One of your forms is bright, the other is worshipful; you are like heaven with its two differently colored days. For you watch over all your powers, self-sustaining one. O Pūṣan, may your gift here be auspicious.
2. With goats as his horses, herdsman, his house full of strength, who quickens devotion, set within every world — Pūṣan swings his goad loosely, surveying the worlds; the god goes forth.
3. Your ships, O Pūṣan, that move within the sea, and the golden ones that travel through the midair — with these you go on the sun's errand, made by desire, seeking renown.
4. Pūṣan, good kinsman of heaven and earth, lord of refreshment, bounteous one, of wondrous splendor — whom the gods gave to Sūryā, made by desire, strong and swift-moving.
Translator's note: verse 1's "two differently colored days" (viṣurūpe ahanī) likely refers to day and night as heaven's paired forms, echoing Pūṣan's own bright/worshipful duality named in the same verse. Verse 3's "ships" (nāvaḥ) that cross both sea and midair are Pūṣan's mythic vehicles for carrying the sun's message. Verse 4 names Sūryā, the sun-maiden, to whom the gods gave Pūṣan — the verse belongs to the cycle of hymns associating Pūṣan with her marriage journey.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.58 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.58
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.
śukraṁ te anyad yajataṁ te anyad viṣurūpe ahanī dyaur ivāsi |
viśvā hi māyā avasi svadhāvo bhadrā te pūṣann iha rātir astu || 1 ||
ajāśvaḥ paśupā vājapastyo dhiyaṁjinvo bhuvane viśve arpitaḥ |
aṣṭrām pūṣā śithirām udvarīvṛjat saṁcakṣāṇo bhuvanā deva īyate || 2 ||
yās te pūṣan nāvo antaḥ samudre hiraṇyayīr antarikṣe caranti |
tābhir yāsi dūtyāṁ sūryasya kāmena kṛta śrava icchamānaḥ || 3 ||
pūṣā subandhur diva ā pṛthivyā iḻas patir maghavā dasmavarcāḥ |
yaṁ devāso adaduḥ sūryāyai kāmena kṛtaṁ tavasaṁ svañcam || 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).