Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VII.29 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.
1. This soma, Indra, is pressed for you — come here now, lord of the bay horses, to this your dwelling place. Drink of this well-pressed, lovely soma; give your bounties, bounteous one, when we ask for them.
2. Lord of sacred speech, hero, delighting in the making of the prayer, come this way quickly with your bay horses. Rejoice fully at this pressing; listen closely to these prayers of ours.
3. What service can be rendered you through hymns? When indeed, bounteous one, should we now give you offerings? I have stretched out all my thoughts toward you — so, Indra, hear this call of mine.
4. And indeed there were men of old, the earlier seers, whom you listened to. So now I call upon you again and again, bounteous one; you, Indra, are our foresight, like a father.
5. Let us speak this to Indra the bounteous, so that he may give us great wealth and bounty — he who is the best helper of the singer who makes the prayer. Protect us always, all of you, with blessings.
Translator's note: verse 4's "puruṣyā3 id āsan" (men of old / early men) is compressed in the Sanskrit; rendered here conservatively as "men of old, the earlier seers" to preserve the sense of ancestral seers whom Indra once heard. Verse 5's closing line ("yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ") is a formulaic plural blessing addressed beyond Indra alone, kept here as "all of you" per the plural verb.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.29 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.29
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.
ayaṁ soma indra tubhyaṁ sunva ā tu pra yāhi harivas tadokāḥ |
pibā tv a1sya suṣutasya cāror dado maghāni maghavann iyānaḥ || 1 ||
brahman vīra brahmakṛtiṁ juṣāṇo 'rvācīno haribhir yāhi tūyam |
asminn ū ṣu savane mādayasvopa brahmāṇi śṛṇava imā naḥ || 2 ||
kā te asty araṁkṛtiḥ sūktaiḥ kadā nūnaṁ te maghavan dāśema |
viśvā matīr ā tatane tvāyādhā ma indra śṛṇavo havemā || 3 ||
uto ghā te puruṣyā3 id āsan yeṣām pūrveṣām aśṛṇor ṛṣīṇām |
adhāhaṁ tvā maghavañ johavīmi tvaṁ na indrāsi pramatiḥ piteva || 4 ||
vocemed indram maghavānam enam maho rāyo rādhaso yad dadan naḥ |
yo arcato brahmakṛtim aviṣṭho yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 5 ||
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).