Hymn Against Poison
Rigveda VII.50 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 hymn is an apotropaic charm against poison and venomous creatures. It calls in turn on Mitra and Varuṇa, on Agni, on the All-Gods (Viśve Devāḥ), and finally on the rivers themselves, asking each to drive away venom — from a hidden creeping thing, from a swelling at the joints, from the silk-cotton tree and the plants, and from the waters. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Mitra and Varuṇa, protect me here. Let nothing that nests, nothing that ranges everywhere, come near me. I hide away the ajakāva, the thing that is hard to look upon. Let no creeping venom-bearer find me with poison at the foot.
2. If a swelling should arise at the joint, at the two knees and around the two ankles, let Agni, blazing, drive it away from here. Let no creeping venom-bearer find me with poison at the foot.
3. Whatever poison is in the silk-cotton tree, whatever is in the rivers, whatever poison is born out of the plants — let the All-Gods drive that away from here. Let no creeping venom-bearer find me with poison at the foot.
4. The rivers that flow downhill, that lie in the hollows, that run along the heights, those that carry water and those without water — swelling for us with their flood, may they be kindly goddesses, free of the venom's track; may all the rivers be free of harm.
Translator's note: several terms in this hymn are genuinely obscure and are rendered conservatively rather than confidently. "Ajakāva" (verse 1) names some creeping or hidden thing whose exact referent is uncertain. "Vandana" (verse 2), here rendered "swelling," may instead denote a specific ailment or growth. "Tsaru," rendered throughout as "creeping venom-bearer," denotes a poison-bearing creature, most likely a serpent, but its precise sense is not settled. "Aśipadā" and "aśimidā" (verse 4) are rare terms rendered here by their most plausible sense, "free of the venom's track" and "free of harm."
Colophon
Rigveda VII.50 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.50
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 mām mitrāvaruṇeha rakṣataṁ kulāyayad viśvayan mā na ā gan |
ajakāvaṁ durdṛśīkaṁ tiro dadhe mā mām padyena rapasā vidat tsaruḥ || 1 ||
yad vijāman paruṣi vandanam bhuvad aṣṭhīvantau pari kulphau ca dehat |
agniṣ ṭac chocann apa bādhatām ito mā mām padyena rapasā vidat tsaruḥ || 2 ||
yac chalmalau bhavati yan nadīṣu yad oṣadhībhyaḥ pari jāyate viṣam |
viśve devā nir itas tat suvantu mā mām padyena rapasā vidat tsaruḥ || 3 ||
yāḥ pravato nivata udvata udanvatīr anudakāś ca yāḥ |
tā asmabhyam payasā pinvamānāḥ śivā devīr aśipadā bhavantu sarvā nadyo aśimidā bhavantu || 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).