Hymn to the Frogs
Rigveda VII.103 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 7 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. Known traditionally as the "Frog Hymn" (Maṇḍūka Sūkta), it likens the frogs that call out when the monsoon rains break their year-long dormancy to brahmin priests chanting at the soma sacrifice.
1. Lying still for a year, like brahmins keeping their vow, the frogs have sent forth a voice, quickened by Parjanya.
2. When the heavenly waters came upon him lying in the pond like a dried-out skin, then here the croaking of the frogs gathers together like the lowing of cows with their calves.
3. When the rain has poured down on these longing, thirsting ones as the monsoon arrives, one goes up to another calling "akhkhali," like a son to his father.
4. One takes hold of the other in their eagerness, when at the release of the waters the two of them have rejoiced; the frog, rained upon, leaps about — the speckled one joins its voice to the green one.
5. When one of them speaks the speech of the other, as a pupil imitating a skilled master, all of it fits together like a joint well set, when you, fine speakers, call out over the waters.
6. One has the cry of a cow, one the cry of a goat, one is speckled, one is green; bearing a common name though differing in form, they vary their voices as they speak, in many ways.
7. Like brahmins at the night-long soma-rite, speaking all around a full pond — you have reached that day of the year when the frogs have entered their rainy-season voice.
8. Like soma-pressing brahmins they have raised their voice, performing the sacred rite that returns every year; like adhvaryu priests sweating by the heat, none of them stay hidden — they show themselves.
9. They have kept the god-given order of the twelve months; these do not miss the season, as ritual men do not. When, in the year, the monsoon has come, the heated ones reach their release.
10. The cow-voiced one has given, the goat-voiced one has given, the speckled one has given, the green one has given us goods; the frogs, granting hundreds of cattle, lengthen our lifespan at the thousandfold sacrifice.
Translator's note: verse 3's "akhkhali" renders an onomatopoeic Sanskrit cry (akhkhalīkṛtya) imitating the frogs' call, kept untranslated as it has no real English equivalent. Verse 9's "twelve months" renders dvādaśasya ṛtum, understood as the season marking the completed twelve-month cycle.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.103 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 VII.103
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.
saṁvatsaraṁ śaśayānā brāhmaṇā vratacāriṇaḥ |
vācam parjanyajinvitām pra maṇḍūkā avādiṣuḥ || 1 ||
divyā āpo abhi yad enam āyan dṛtiṁ na śuṣkaṁ sarasī śayānam |
gavām aha na māyur vatsinīnām maṇḍūkānāṁ vagnur atrā sam eti || 2 ||
yad īm enām̐ uśato abhy avarṣīt tṛṣyāvataḥ prāvṛṣy āgatāyām |
akhkhalīkṛtyā pitaraṁ na putro anyo anyam upa vadantam eti || 3 ||
anyo anyam anu gṛbhṇāty enor apām prasarge yad amandiṣātām |
maṇḍūko yad abhivṛṣṭaḥ kaniṣkan pṛśniḥ sampṛṅkte haritena vācam || 4 ||
yad eṣām anyo anyasya vācaṁ śāktasyeva vadati śikṣamāṇaḥ |
sarvaṁ tad eṣāṁ samṛdheva parva yat suvāco vadathanādhy apsu || 5 ||
gomāyur eko ajamāyur ekaḥ pṛśnir eko harita eka eṣām |
samānaṁ nāma bibhrato virūpāḥ purutrā vācam pipiśur vadantaḥ || 6 ||
brāhmaṇāso atirātre na some saro na pūrṇam abhito vadantaḥ |
saṁvatsarasya tad ahaḥ pari ṣṭha yan maṇḍūkāḥ prāvṛṣīṇam babhūva || 7 ||
brāhmaṇāsaḥ somino vācam akrata brahma kṛṇvantaḥ parivatsarīṇam |
adhvaryavo gharmiṇaḥ siṣvidānā āvir bhavanti guhyā na ke cit || 8 ||
devahitiṁ jugupur dvādaśasya ṛtuṁ naro na pra minanty ete |
saṁvatsare prāvṛṣy āgatāyāṁ taptā gharmā aśnuvate visargam || 9 ||
gomāyur adād ajamāyur adāt pṛśnir adād dharito no vasūni |
gavām maṇḍūkā dadataḥ śatāni sahasrasāve pra tiranta āyuḥ || 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).