Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VII.30 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. Come to us, god, with your power, impetuous one; be the increaser, Indra, of this wealth of ours — for great courage, lord of men, wielder of the fine thunderbolt; for great dominion and manly strength, hero.
2. The warriors call on you to be invoked in the battle-cry, in close combat, in the struggle for the sun. You are the one worth calling on for battle among all peoples; you subdue the obstructing foes, mighty slayer.
3. When, Indra, the fair days dawned forth, when you set your highest banner in the battles, Agni sat down there like a lordly priest, invoked to summon the gods for good fortune.
4. We are yours, Indra — we, and those too, god and hero, who praise you as you give your gifts. Grant to your patrons the best shelter, that in well-being they may reach old age.
5. Let us call on this bounteous Indra, that he may give us great wealth and bounty — he who is most ready to aid the singer's prayer-making. Protect us always with blessings, all you gods.
Translator's note: verse 3's "asuro na hotā" is rendered "like a lordly priest" — here asura carries its older sense of "mighty lord," not the later demonic sense. Verse 5 closes with the standard refrain "yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ," addressed to the gods generally rather than to Indra alone; this is rendered "all you gods" to preserve that shift in addressee.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.30 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 VII.30
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.
ā no deva śavasā yāhi śuṣmin bhavā vṛdha indra rāyo asya |
mahe nṛmṇāya nṛpate suvajra mahi kṣatrāya pauṁsyāya śūra || 1 ||
havanta u tvā havyaṁ vivāci tanūṣu śūrāḥ sūryasya sātau |
tvaṁ viśveṣu senyo janeṣu tvaṁ vṛtrāṇi randhayā suhantu || 2 ||
ahā yad indra sudinā vyucchān dadho yat ketum upamaṁ samatsu |
ny a1gniḥ sīdad asuro na hotā huvāno atra subhagāya devān || 3 ||
vayaṁ te ta indra ye ca deva stavanta śūra dadato maghāni |
yacchā sūribhya upamaṁ varūthaṁ svābhuvo jaraṇām aśnavanta || 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).