Hymn to Vastospati, Lord of the Dwelling

Rigveda VII.54 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. Vastospati, take notice of us. Be one of good entry for us, free of sickness. Whatever we beg of you, grant us that. Be well-being for us, for the two-footed and for the four-footed.

2. Vastospati, be one who carries us forward, increasing our household in cattle and in horses, shining one. May we be unaging in friendship with you. Receive us as a father receives his sons.

3. Vastospati, may we join your strong and delightful assembly, the one that shows the way. Guard what is best for us, in rest and in undertaking. Protect us always, you gods, with blessings.

Translator's note: "indo" in verse 2 is a vocative form related to Sanskrit "indu" ("drop," "gleam," an epithet elsewhere applied to soma); it is rendered conservatively here as "shining one" rather than assigning it a more specific ritual sense. "kṣema" and "yoga" in verse 3 form a traditional pair meaning settled rest/possession and active acquisition/undertaking; both are kept as "rest" and "undertaking."

Colophon

Rigveda VII.54 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.54

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.

vāstoṣ pate prati jānīhy asmān svāveśo anamīvo bhavā naḥ |
yat tvemahe prati tan no juṣasva śaṁ no bhava dvipade śaṁ catuṣpade || 1 ||

vāstoṣ pate prataraṇo na edhi gayasphāno gobhir aśvebhir indo |
ajarāsas te sakhye syāma piteva putrān prati no juṣasva || 2 ||

vāstoṣ pate śagmayā saṁsadā te sakṣīmahi raṇvayā gātumatyā |
pāhi kṣema uta yoge varaṁ no yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 3 ||

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).