Hymn to Savitṛ
Rigveda VII.45 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. May the god Savitṛ come here, rich in treasures, filling the space between earth and sky, borne by his horses — holding in his hand many things good for men, both settling creatures to rest and driving them forth again.
2. His two arms rise up, loose-limbed and vast, golden, reaching to the very ends of heaven. Now indeed his greatness is a wonder — even the sun grants him his work, following his lead.
3. May that god Savitṛ, the mighty one, lord of goods, impel goods toward us. Spreading wide his far-reaching favor, may he then grant us sustenance for mortals.
4. These songs of praise call on Savitṛ, the fair-tongued, full-handed, the good-handed one. May he grant us bright, abundant vigor. Protect us always, all of you, with blessings.
Translator's note: verse 2's "apasyām" (work, activity) and verse 3's "amatim" (favor, grace) are somewhat compressed technical terms in Vedic usage; they are rendered here by their most common senses. The closing line of verse 4 ("yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ") is a stock refrain addressed to the gods in the plural, found across many Rigvedic hymns.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.45 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.45
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 devo yātu savitā suratno 'ntarikṣaprā vahamāno aśvaiḥ |
haste dadhāno naryā purūṇi niveśayañ ca prasuvañ ca bhūma || 1 ||
ud asya bāhū śithirā bṛhantā hiraṇyayā divo antām̐ anaṣṭām |
nūnaṁ so asya mahimā paniṣṭa sūraś cid asmā anu dād apasyām || 2 ||
sa ghā no devaḥ savitā sahāvā sāviṣad vasupatir vasūni |
viśrayamāṇo amatim urūcīm martabhojanam adha rāsate naḥ || 3 ||
imā giraḥ savitāraṁ sujihvam pūrṇagabhastim īḻate supāṇim |
citraṁ vayo bṛhad asme dadhātu yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 4 ||
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).