Hymn to Vāyu
Rigveda VII.92 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. Come near to us, O Vāyu, pure-drinker — you have a thousand yoked steeds, O giver of every boon. I bring to you the intoxicating soma-juice, of which, O god, you hold the first drink.
2. The swift presser has come forward at the rites to press the soma for Indra and Vāyu to drink, when the adhvaryu priests, seeking the gods, bring to you two the first portion of the sweet drink with their skilled acts.
3. With the yoked steeds by which you go forth to the worshiper, O Vāyu, to the offering in his house — bestow on us wealth rich in enjoyment, bestow heroic sons and the bounty of cattle and horses.
4. The godless, harassing forces of the foe that provoke Indra — slaying the obstructions, may we, with our patrons, prevail, having overcome our enemies in battle with our own warriors.
5. Come to our rite with your hundredfold, thousandfold yoked steeds; approach our sacrifice. Delight yourself, O Vāyu, at this pressing. Protect us always, all of you, with your blessings.
Translator's note: Verse 4 is syntactically compressed and its referents are unclear in the Sanskrit — it is not certain whether "vāyavaḥ" there names winds/gusts as a class or is used loosely for hostile powers; "ādevāsaḥ" is read here as "adevāsaḥ" ("godless") by sandhi. The verse is rendered conservatively, keeping its images (godless harassers, slaying obstructions, warriors overcoming enemies in battle) without resolving the ambiguity.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.92 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.92
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 vāyo bhūṣa śucipā upa naḥ sahasraṁ te niyuto viśvavāra |
upo te andho madyam ayāmi yasya deva dadhiṣe pūrvapeyam || 1 ||
pra sotā jīro adhvareṣv asthāt somam indrāya vāyave pibadhyai |
pra yad vām madhvo agriyam bharanty adhvaryavo devayantaḥ śacībhiḥ || 2 ||
pra yābhir yāsi dāśvāṁsam acchā niyudbhir vāyav iṣṭaye duroṇe |
ni no rayiṁ subhojasaṁ yuvasva ni vīraṁ gavyam aśvyaṁ ca rādhaḥ || 3 ||
ye vāyava indramādanāsa ādevāso nitośanāso aryaḥ |
ghnanto vṛtrāṇi sūribhiḥ ṣyāma sāsahvāṁso yudhā nṛbhir amitrān || 4 ||
ā no niyudbhiḥ śatinībhir adhvaraṁ sahasriṇībhir upa yāhi yajñam |
vāyo asmin savane mādayasva yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 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).