Hymn to Dadhikrāvan
Rigveda VII.44 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. The hymn calls on Dadhikrāvan, a divine horse associated with dawn and swiftness, together with Agni, the Aśvins, Uṣas, and the wider circle of gods, asking them to clear the road and turn misfortune away.
1. For your help I call first upon Dadhikrā, the Aśvins, Dawn, kindled Agni, Bhaga — Indra, Viṣṇu, Pūṣan, Brahmaṇaspati, the Ādityas, Heaven and Earth, the Waters, the Sun-world.
2. Awakening Dadhikrā with homage, rising, advancing to the sacrifice, seating the goddess Iḷā on the sacred grass — may we, the inspired ones, call well upon the easily-invoked Aśvins.
3. Having woken, I address Dadhikrāvan, Agni, Dawn, the Sun, the Cow, the ruddy one — Varuṇa's tawny one: may all these drive every misfortune away from us.
4. Dadhikrāvan, the first prize-winning steed, the courser, stands at the head of the chariots, foreknowing, in accord with Dawn and Sun, with the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Aṅgirases.
5. May Dadhikrāḥ anoint the path for us, that we may follow the path of ṛta. May the divine host hear us, may Agni, may all the great, unerring ones hear.
Translator's note: the phrase rendered "the Cow" in verse 3 (gām) may carry a more figurative sense (a ray of light, or the earth) that the Sanskrit does not disambiguate; it is kept literal here. The word "mam̐ścatoḥ," also in verse 3, is obscure — likely a proper name or epithet in the genitive standing beside "of Varuṇa" — and is left untranslated rather than guessed at.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.44 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.44
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.
dadhikrāṁ vaḥ prathamam aśvinoṣasam agniṁ samiddham bhagam ūtaye huve |
indraṁ viṣṇum pūṣaṇam brahmaṇas patim ādityān dyāvāpṛthivī apaḥ svaḥ || 1 ||
dadhikrām u namasā bodhayanta udīrāṇā yajñam upaprayantaḥ |
iḻāṁ devīm barhiṣi sādayanto 'śvinā viprā suhavā huvema || 2 ||
dadhikrāvāṇam bubudhāno agnim upa bruva uṣasaṁ sūryaṁ gām |
bradhnam mam̐ścator varuṇasya babhruṁ te viśvāsmad duritā yāvayantu || 3 ||
dadhikrāvā prathamo vājy arvāgre rathānām bhavati prajānan |
saṁvidāna uṣasā sūryeṇādityebhir vasubhir aṅgirobhiḥ || 4 ||
ā no dadhikrāḥ pathyām anaktv ṛtasya panthām anvetavā u |
śṛṇotu no daivyaṁ śardho agniḥ śṛṇvantu viśve mahiṣā amūrāḥ || 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).