In Praise of Vasiṣṭha
Rigveda VII.33 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. The bright ones, with hair-knots worn on the right side, quickeners of prayer — they have delighted toward me. Rising up, I have called out to the men gathered around the sacred grass: the Vasiṣṭhas are not far off, ready to help.
2. From afar they led Indra here with the pressed soma, past Vaiśanta, past the fierce one who guards it. From the soma pressed by Pāśadyumna, son of Vāyata, Indra chose the Vasiṣṭhas.
3. So indeed with these he crossed the river; so indeed with these he struck down Bheda; so indeed in the Battle of the Ten Kings Indra helped Sudās, through your sacred formulation, O Vasiṣṭhas.
4. By the favor of your fathers' prayer, o men, you shall come to no harm, like an axle that does not wear away — since in the śakvarī verses, with a great shout, you set strength into Indra, O Vasiṣṭhas.
5. Like thirsty ones looking up to the sky for help, hemmed in during the Battle of the Ten Kings, they cried out. Indra heard Vasiṣṭha's praise and made wide room for the Tṛtsus.
6. Like sticks for driving cattle, the Bharatas were cut off and made small. Then Vasiṣṭha became their leader, and after that the clans of the Tṛtsus spread wide.
7. Three make seed within the worlds; three Ārya generations have light as their foremost mark; three hot vessels accompany the dawn — the Vasiṣṭhas know all of these.
8. Like the rising light of the sun is their light; like the depth of the ocean is their greatness; like the speed of the wind, matched by no other, is their hymn of praise, O Vasiṣṭhas, for you to follow.
9. They, by the insight of the heart, move toward the hidden thing of a thousand branches. Weaving the enclosure stretched out by Yama, the Vasiṣṭhas sat down beside the apsaras.
10. The light of lightning, leaping about — when Mitra and Varuṇa saw you there, that was one birth of yours, O Vasiṣṭha. And there was another, when Agastya brought you out from that divine gathering.
11. And you, O Vasiṣṭha, are son of Mitra and Varuṇa, born of Urvaśī, O priest, from their mind. All the gods, by divine power, placed you, the fallen drop, in the lotus pool.
12. He who knows the sign of both kinds, the giver of a thousand gifts, ever giving — about to weave the enclosure stretched out by Yama, Vasiṣṭha was born from the apsaras.
13. At the sacrificial session, moved by acts of homage, the two of them poured their shared seed into a jar. From the middle of it Māna rose up; from that birth they call him the seer Vasiṣṭha.
14. He carries the one who bears the hymn, the one who bears the chant; carrying the pressing-stone, he speaks out at the front. Draw near to him, well-disposed in mind — Vasiṣṭha, the piercer, comes to you.
Translator's note: verse 7 (the threefold "seed," "generations," and "vessels") and verse 9 (the "hidden thing of a thousand branches" and the enclosure "stretched out by Yama") are among the most compressed and debated images in the hymn; they are rendered here conservatively, following the Sanskrit's own terms rather than any interpretive gloss. "Māna" in verse 13 is left as a proper name, following the Sanskrit; its exact referent (an epithet of Vasiṣṭha himself, or a distinct figure) is not settled by the verse.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.33 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.33
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.
śvityañco mā dakṣiṇataskapardā dhiyaṁjinvāso abhi hi pramanduḥ |
uttiṣṭhan voce pari barhiṣo nṝn na me dūrād avitave vasiṣṭhāḥ || 1 ||
dūrād indram anayann ā sutena tiro vaiśantam ati pāntam ugram |
pāśadyumnasya vāyatasya somāt sutād indro 'vṛṇītā vasiṣṭhān || 2 ||
even nu kaṁ sindhum ebhis tatāreven nu kam bhedam ebhir jaghāna |
even nu kaṁ dāśarājñe sudāsam prāvad indro brahmaṇā vo vasiṣṭhāḥ || 3 ||
juṣṭī naro brahmaṇā vaḥ pitṝṇām akṣam avyayaṁ na kilā riṣātha |
yac chakvarīṣu bṛhatā raveṇendre śuṣmam adadhātā vasiṣṭhāḥ || 4 ||
ud dyām ivet tṛṣṇajo nāthitāso 'dīdhayur dāśarājñe vṛtāsaḥ |
vasiṣṭhasya stuvata indro aśrod uruṁ tṛtsubhyo akṛṇod u lokam || 5 ||
daṇḍā ived goajanāsa āsan paricchinnā bharatā arbhakāsaḥ |
abhavac ca puraetā vasiṣṭha ād it tṛtsūnāṁ viśo aprathanta || 6 ||
trayaḥ kṛṇvanti bhuvaneṣu retas tisraḥ prajā āryā jyotiragrāḥ |
trayo gharmāsa uṣasaṁ sacante sarvām̐ it tām̐ anu vidur vasiṣṭhāḥ || 7 ||
sūryasyeva vakṣatho jyotir eṣāṁ samudrasyeva mahimā gabhīraḥ |
vātasyeva prajavo nānyena stomo vasiṣṭhā anvetave vaḥ || 8 ||
ta in niṇyaṁ hṛdayasya praketaiḥ sahasravalśam abhi saṁ caranti |
yamena tatam paridhiṁ vayanto 'psarasa upa sedur vasiṣṭhāḥ || 9 ||
vidyuto jyotiḥ pari saṁjihānam mitrāvaruṇā yad apaśyatāṁ tvā |
tat te janmotaikaṁ vasiṣṭhāgastyo yat tvā viśa ājabhāra || 10 ||
utāsi maitrāvaruṇo vasiṣṭhorvaśyā brahman manaso 'dhi jātaḥ |
drapsaṁ skannam brahmaṇā daivyena viśve devāḥ puṣkare tvādadanta || 11 ||
sa praketa ubhayasya pravidvān sahasradāna uta vā sadānaḥ |
yamena tatam paridhiṁ vayiṣyann apsarasaḥ pari jajñe vasiṣṭhaḥ || 12 ||
satre ha jātāv iṣitā namobhiḥ kumbhe retaḥ siṣicatuḥ samānam |
tato ha māna ud iyāya madhyāt tato jātam ṛṣim āhur vasiṣṭham || 13 ||
ukthabhṛtaṁ sāmabhṛtam bibharti grāvāṇam bibhrat pra vadāty agre |
upainam ādhvaṁ sumanasyamānā ā vo gacchāti pratṛdo vasiṣṭhaḥ || 14 ||
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).