Hymn to Indra and Vishnu
Rigveda VI.69 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. I speed you on with ritual work, with offering, O Indra and Vishnu, to the completion of this labor. Take pleasure in the sacrifice and grant us wealth, carrying us across by paths unharmed.
2. You two who are the begetters of all hymns, O Indra and Vishnu, vessels that hold the soma — may the praises now being recited favor you, the hymns of praise being sung with chants.
3. O Indra and Vishnu, lords of the exhilarating draughts, come to the soma, bringing wealth with you. May the hymns anoint you with the unguents of our thoughts, together with the praise-songs recited in lauds.
4. May your horses that overpower every hostile design bring you here, O Indra and Vishnu, as companions to the feast. Take pleasure in all the invocations of the hymns; listen to the sacred formulas, my songs of praise.
5. That is admirable of you, Indra and Vishnu: in the exhilaration of soma you strode out wide. You made the mid-air region wider, you spread out the worlds so that we might live.
6. O Indra and Vishnu, strengthened by the oblation, to whom offerings are given with homage and with libations of ghee — bestow wealth upon us. You two are the ocean; you are the vessel that holds the soma.
7. O Indra and Vishnu, drink of this sweet soma, wondrous ones — fill your bellies with it. The intoxicating draughts have come to you; listen to the sacred formulas, my call.
8. Both of you were victors; you were never defeated; neither of you was ever vanquished. When you, Indra and Vishnu, once competed with each other, you divided that thousand into three parts.
Translator's note: verse 6 contains a compound ("vāvṛdhānāgrādvānā") whose second half resists confident parsing; it has been rendered conservatively as "strengthened by the oblation," omitting a claim about the unclear element rather than guessing at it. Verse 8's "thousand" is left unglossed, as the source gives no object (commentators associate it with a contested prize, likely cattle, but the hymn itself does not name it).
Colophon
Rigveda VI.69 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.69
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.
saṁ vāṁ karmaṇā sam iṣā hinomīndrāviṣṇū apasas pāre asya |
juṣethāṁ yajñaṁ draviṇaṁ ca dhattam ariṣṭair naḥ pathibhiḥ pārayantā || 1 ||
yā viśvāsāṁ janitārā matīnām indrāviṣṇū kalaśā somadhānā |
pra vāṁ giraḥ śasyamānā avantu pra stomāso gīyamānāso arkaiḥ || 2 ||
indrāviṣṇū madapatī madānām ā somaṁ yātaṁ draviṇo dadhānā |
saṁ vām añjantv aktubhir matīnāṁ saṁ stomāsaḥ śasyamānāsa ukthaiḥ || 3 ||
ā vām aśvāso abhimātiṣāha indrāviṣṇū sadhamādo vahantu |
juṣethāṁ viśvā havanā matīnām upa brahmāṇi śṛṇutaṁ giro me || 4 ||
indrāviṣṇū tat panayāyyaṁ vāṁ somasya mada uru cakramāthe |
akṛṇutam antarikṣaṁ varīyo 'prathataṁ jīvase no rajāṁsi || 5 ||
indrāviṣṇū haviṣā vāvṛdhānāgrādvānā namasā rātahavyā |
ghṛtāsutī draviṇaṁ dhattam asme samudraḥ sthaḥ kalaśaḥ somadhānaḥ || 6 ||
indrāviṣṇū pibatam madhvo asya somasya dasrā jaṭharam pṛṇethām |
ā vām andhāṁsi madirāṇy agmann upa brahmāṇi śṛṇutaṁ havam me || 7 ||
ubhā jigyathur na parā jayethe na parā jigye kataraś canainoḥ |
indraś ca viṣṇo yad apaspṛdhethāṁ tredhā sahasraṁ vi tad airayethām || 8 ||
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).