Hymn to the Maruts
Rigveda VI.66 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. Let this be a marvel even to the wise — the same name for the ruling milch-cow. Among mortals a different cow swells to be milked again and again; but Pṛśni's udder has yielded its bright milk only once.
2. Kindled, they blazed like fires, when the Maruts grew strong again and again. Their golden ornaments, free of dust, came together with their manly power and their strength.
3. They are the sons of bounteous Rudra, whom she carried, holding them to bring them forth. For the mother of the great ones is known: she, great Pṛśni, placed the seed for the mighty one to bear.
4. They do not shrink from their birth; being pure within, they cleanse away all blame. The bright ones pour forth freely, as they please, anointing their bodies with splendor.
5. Quickly — in whom there is power even for the milking — bearing by this course the bold name "Marut." They who are not thieves, untiring in their greatness: may the bounteous one not drive the mighty ones away.
6. They, the mighty ones, with their strength and bold ranks, join the two well-set worlds together. And in these worlds a self-shining light has taken its stand among the impetuous ones, like a flame.
7. Maruts, may your course be blameless — the course that drives on even without horses, without a chariot, without resting, without reins, crossing the realms of space. It goes through the two worlds by the straight path, achieving its way.
8. There is no one to turn him back, none to surpass him, O Maruts, the one you help in the winning of the prize — whether in offspring, in cattle, in progeny, or in waters. He will break open the enclosure on the decisive day.
9. Offer a brilliant hymn to the swift, inherently powerful troop of the Maruts, for the one who sings it — they who overpower all strength with their force. Agni, the earth trembles before these mighty ones.
10. Full of splendor like the flash of the rite, rushing eagerly like the tongues of Agni's flame, radiant, like roaring heroes, of gleaming birth — the unassailable Maruts.
11. I seek to win, with invocation, that growing Marut troop of the flashing spear, the sons of Rudra — the pure ones, for the host of heaven, with my hymn of thought. Like mountains, the mighty ones have not given way.
Translator's note: Verse 1 is a riddle-verse comparing Pṛśni, mother of the Maruts, to a cow whose milk was given only once; the imagery is compressed in the Sanskrit and rendered here conservatively. Verse 5 is textually opaque (staunāḥ, "thieves/stealthy ones," and the closing clause admit more than one reading); the rendering here stays close to the individual words rather than resolving the ambiguity. Verse 10 has no finite main verb in the Sanskrit — it is a chain of epithets describing the Maruts — and is rendered as such rather than supplied with an invented verb.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.66 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.66
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.
vapur nu tac cikituṣe cid astu samānaṁ nāma dhenu patyamānam |
marteṣv anyad dohase pīpāya sakṛc chukraṁ duduhe pṛśnir ūdhaḥ || 1 ||
ye agnayo na śośucann idhānā dvir yat trir maruto vāvṛdhanta |
areṇavo hiraṇyayāsa eṣāṁ sākaṁ nṛmṇaiḥ pauṁsyebhiś ca bhūvan || 2 ||
rudrasya ye mīḻhuṣaḥ santi putrā yām̐ś co nu dādhṛvir bharadhyai |
vide hi mātā maho mahī ṣā set pṛśniḥ subhve3 garbham ādhāt || 3 ||
na ya īṣante januṣo 'yā nv a1ntaḥ santo 'vadyāni punānāḥ |
nir yad duhre śucayo 'nu joṣam anu śriyā tanvam ukṣamāṇāḥ || 4 ||
makṣū na yeṣu dohase cid ayā ā nāma dhṛṣṇu mārutaṁ dadhānāḥ |
na ye staunā ayāso mahnā nū cit sudānur ava yāsad ugrān || 5 ||
ta id ugrāḥ śavasā dhṛṣṇuṣeṇā ubhe yujanta rodasī sumeke |
adha smaiṣu rodasī svaśocir āmavatsu tasthau na rokaḥ || 6 ||
aneno vo maruto yāmo astv anaśvaś cid yam ajaty arathīḥ |
anavaso anabhīśū rajastūr vi rodasī pathyā yāti sādhan || 7 ||
nāsya vartā na tarutā nv asti maruto yam avatha vājasātau |
toke vā goṣu tanaye yam apsu sa vrajaṁ dartā pārye adha dyoḥ || 8 ||
pra citram arkaṁ gṛṇate turāya mārutāya svatavase bharadhvam |
ye sahāṁsi sahasā sahante rejate agne pṛthivī makhebhyaḥ || 9 ||
tviṣīmanto adhvarasyeva didyut tṛṣucyavaso juhvo3 nāgneḥ |
arcatrayo dhunayo na vīrā bhrājajjanmāno maruto adhṛṣṭāḥ || 10 ||
taṁ vṛdhantam mārutam bhrājadṛṣṭiṁ rudrasya sūnuṁ havasā vivāse |
divaḥ śardhāya śucayo manīṣā girayo nāpa ugrā aspṛdhran || 11 ||
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).