Hymn to Sarasvatī
Rigveda VI.61 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. This mighty Sarasvatī gave the impetuous, debt-shaking Divodāsa to Vadhryaśva the devout; she who swallowed whole the greedy Paṇi — these are your gifts, mighty Sarasvatī.
2. With her furious powers she tore the ridges of the mountains, like one digging up a lotus-stalk, with mighty waves. Let us win Sarasvatī, breaker of the Pārāvatas, to our aid, with pure-sung hymns and devotions.
3. Sarasvatī, strike down the god-scorners, the whole brood of the deceitful Bṛsaya. You found lands for the settled peoples, and set poison flowing against their foes, O you rich in strength.
4. May the goddess Sarasvatī, rich in strength, further us with her bounties — protectress of our hymns, may she help us on.
5. Whoever calls on you, goddess Sarasvatī, when the prize is set — as one calls on Indra in the decisive battle against Vṛtra —
6. you, goddess Sarasvatī, help in the contests for strength, O mighty one; carve out gain for us, as Pūṣan does.
7. And this terrible Sarasvatī of ours, of the golden path, slayer of Vṛtra, desires our fine praise.
8. Whose endless, unswerving, blazing, ever-moving flood rushes on roaring with force.
9. She, true to the sacred order, has outstripped all our foes and her other sister rivers, as the sun outstrips the days.
10. And Sarasvatī, dear to us among the dear, having seven sisters, well-beloved, has become worthy of our praise.
11. Filling the earthly regions, the vast expanse, the mid-air — may Sarasvatī guard us from reproach.
12. Having three seats, sevenfold in nature, fostering the five peoples — she is to be called upon in every contest.
13. She who by her greatness is renowned among the great, by her splendors the most skillful of workers among workers, vast as a chariot, shaped for mastery, wise Sarasvatī, worthy of praise.
14. Sarasvatī, lead us on toward greater well-being; do not thrust us away, do not scorch us with your flood. Delight in our friendship and closeness; may we never go from you into foreign fields.
Translator's note: Verse 1 names Divodāsa and Vadhryaśva, figures from the legend where Sarasvatī aids King Divodāsa; the exact sense of "ṛṇacyut" (debt-shaking/debt-dispelling) as applied to him is uncertain. Verse 3's closing line ("asravo viṣam ebhyaḥ") is read here as Sarasvatī turning poison against the tribes' foes, though the syntax also allows a reading closer to "you made the waters flow free of poison for them"; the more literal, harsher reading is kept. Verse 14's "mā payasā ā dhak" (do not scorch/burn us with your flood/milk) is rendered conservatively; the verb (√dah, "burn") sits oddly with "payas" (water/milk), and the image may carry an idiom not fully recoverable in English.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.61 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.61
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.
iyam adadād rabhasam ṛṇacyutaṁ divodāsaṁ vadhryaśvāya dāśuṣe |
yā śaśvantam ācakhādāvasam paṇiṁ tā te dātrāṇi taviṣā sarasvati || 1 ||
iyaṁ śuṣmebhir bisakhā ivārujat sānu girīṇāṁ taviṣebhir ūrmibhiḥ |
pārāvataghnīm avase suvṛktibhiḥ sarasvatīm ā vivāsema dhītibhiḥ || 2 ||
sarasvati devanido ni barhaya prajāṁ viśvasya bṛsayasya māyinaḥ |
uta kṣitibhyo 'vanīr avindo viṣam ebhyo asravo vājinīvati || 3 ||
pra ṇo devī sarasvatī vājebhir vājinīvatī |
dhīnām avitry avatu || 4 ||
yas tvā devi sarasvaty upabrūte dhane hite |
indraṁ na vṛtratūrye || 5 ||
tvaṁ devi sarasvaty avā vājeṣu vājini |
radā pūṣeva naḥ sanim || 6 ||
uta syā naḥ sarasvatī ghorā hiraṇyavartaniḥ |
vṛtraghnī vaṣṭi suṣṭutim || 7 ||
yasyā ananto ahrutas tveṣaś cariṣṇur arṇavaḥ |
amaś carati roruvat || 8 ||
sā no viśvā ati dviṣaḥ svasṝr anyā ṛtāvarī |
atann aheva sūryaḥ || 9 ||
uta naḥ priyā priyāsu saptasvasā sujuṣṭā |
sarasvatī stomyā bhūt || 10 ||
āpapruṣī pārthivāny uru rajo antarikṣam |
sarasvatī nidas pātu || 11 ||
triṣadhasthā saptadhātuḥ pañca jātā vardhayantī |
vāje-vāje havyā bhūt || 12 ||
pra yā mahimnā mahināsu cekite dyumnebhir anyā apasām apastamā |
ratha iva bṛhatī vibhvane kṛtopastutyā cikituṣā sarasvatī || 13 ||
sarasvaty abhi no neṣi vasyo māpa spharīḥ payasā mā na ā dhak |
juṣasva naḥ sakhyā veśyā ca mā tvat kṣetrāṇy araṇāni ganma || 14 ||
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).