Hymn to Indra and Agni
Rigveda VI.59 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. Now let me proclaim, at the soma-pressings, the heroic deeds you two have done. Slain are your fathers, the enemies of the gods; O Indra and Agni, you two live on.
2. Great indeed is your greatness, O Indra and Agni, most wondrous. One is your begetter; you are brothers, twins, though your mother is here and here again.
3. Fond of being together at the pressed soma, like two horses yoked together at the manger — Indra and Agni, wielders of the thunderbolt, we call on you here for help, O gods.
4. Whoever praises you two, Indra and Agni, at the pressings — you, increasers of the sacred order, are there among them, speaking a welcoming word. Strong-voiced gods, you do not consume him at all.
5. O Indra and Agni, what mortal can grasp this about you two gods — that having yoked horses going in opposite directions, you travel as one, together, in a single chariot?
6. Footless, she went forth ahead of those who have feet. Leaving her head behind, speaking with her tongue, wandering, she strode forth with thirty feet.
7. O Indra and Agni, men do stretch their bows with their arms. Do not forsake us in this great contest, in the quests for cattle.
8. O Indra and Agni, the malicious hostilities of the grudging rival scorch us; drive those hatreds away, keep them apart from us, away from the sun.
9. O Indra and Agni, yours are the treasures, both heavenly and earthly. Grant us here wealth that nourishes a whole lifetime.
10. O Indra and Agni, borne along by hymns of praise, hearers of our call through our songs — come, with all our songs, to drink of this soma.
Translator's note: Verse 2's "ihehamātarā" (born of one mother "here and here again") and verse 6's riddle of the footless, headless, thirty-footed speaker are both deliberately cryptic in the Sanskrit — verse 6 is a classic Vedic riddle-verse, likely pointing to speech (vāc) or a poetic meter, rendered here literally rather than resolved.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.59 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.59
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.
pra nu vocā suteṣu vāṁ vīryā3 yāni cakrathuḥ |
hatāso vām pitaro devaśatrava indrāgnī jīvatho yuvam || 1 ||
baḻ itthā mahimā vām indrāgnī paniṣṭha ā |
samāno vāṁ janitā bhrātarā yuvaṁ yamāv ihehamātarā || 2 ||
okivāṁsā sute sacām̐ aśvā saptī ivādane |
indrā nv a1gnī avaseha vajriṇā vayaṁ devā havāmahe || 3 ||
ya indrāgnī suteṣu vāṁ stavat teṣv ṛtāvṛdhā |
joṣavākaṁ vadataḥ pajrahoṣiṇā na devā bhasathaś cana || 4 ||
indrāgnī ko asya vāṁ devau martaś ciketati |
viṣūco aśvān yuyujāna īyata ekaḥ samāna ā rathe || 5 ||
indrāgnī apād iyam pūrvāgāt padvatībhyaḥ |
hitvī śiro jihvayā vāvadac carat triṁśat padā ny akramīt || 6 ||
indrāgnī ā hi tanvate naro dhanvāni bāhvoḥ |
mā no asmin mahādhane parā varktaṁ gaviṣṭiṣu || 7 ||
indrāgnī tapanti māghā aryo arātayaḥ |
apa dveṣāṁsy ā kṛtaṁ yuyutaṁ sūryād adhi || 8 ||
indrāgnī yuvor api vasu divyāni pārthivā |
ā na iha pra yacchataṁ rayiṁ viśvāyupoṣasam || 9 ||
indrāgnī ukthavāhasā stomebhir havanaśrutā |
viśvābhir gīrbhir ā gatam asya somasya pītaye || 10 ||
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).