Hymn to the Waters
Rigveda VII.49 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. Four verses invoke the Āpaḥ — the Waters — as divine goddesses, calling on them in their many forms (oceanic, celestial, dug, self-arisen) to come and help the speaker here.
1. The waters, with the ocean as their eldest, purifying themselves, flow onward from the midst of the flood, never settling. Those which the bull Indra, wielder of the thunderbolt, cut channels for — may those divine waters help me here.
2. The waters that are of the sky, or that flow along the ground, that are dug out or that arise on their own, whose goal is the ocean, clear and purifying — may those divine waters help me here.
3. Those among whom King Varuṇa moves, watching over the truth and falsehood of people, dripping sweetness, clear and purifying — may those divine waters help me here.
4. Those in whom King Varuṇa, in whom Soma, in whom all the gods take pleasure in strength, those into whom Agni Vaiśvānara has entered — may those divine waters help me here.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.49 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.49
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.
samudrajyeṣṭhāḥ salilasya madhyāt punānā yanty aniviśamānāḥ |
indro yā vajrī vṛṣabho rarāda tā āpo devīr iha mām avantu || 1 ||
yā āpo divyā uta vā sravanti khanitrimā uta vā yāḥ svayaṁjāḥ |
samudrārthā yāḥ śucayaḥ pāvakās tā āpo devīr iha mām avantu || 2 ||
yāsāṁ rājā varuṇo yāti madhye satyānṛte avapaśyañ janānām |
madhuścutaḥ śucayo yāḥ pāvakās tā āpo devīr iha mām avantu || 3 ||
yāsu rājā varuṇo yāsu somo viśve devā yāsūrjam madanti |
vaiśvānaro yāsv agniḥ praviṣṭas tā āpo devīr iha mām avantu || 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).