Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.17 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 8 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 here, for the soma is pressed for you, Indra — drink this soma. Sit down here on my sacred grass.
2. Let your two maned bay horses, yoked by prayer, carry you here, Indra. Listen to our prayers.
3. We who compose the prayers, with soma pressed, call on you as our ally, Indra, drinker of soma.
4. Come to us who have pressed the soma, to our fine praises. Drink well of the draught, broad-jawed one.
5. I pour it into your two flanks; let it run through your limbs. Take hold of the sweetness with your tongue.
6. May it be sweet as it gathers in you, honeyed for your body; may the soma bring ease to your heart.
7. Let this soma glide forward into you, far-seeing one, wrapping around you the way wives gather round a man.
8. Thick-necked, broad-bellied, strong-armed, exhilarated by the draught — Indra strikes down the obstructions.
9. Indra, go out in front, ruling over everything by your strength; strike down the obstructions, breaker of obstructions.
10. May your goad be long, the one with which you hand out wealth to the sacrificer who presses the soma.
11. This soma of yours, Indra, has been purified on the sacred grass. Come quickly, drink it.
12. Lord of great power, honored for that power, this soma is pressed for your delight — Akhaṇḍala, you are being called.
13. He who is your grandson, Śṛṅgavṛṣan, and your great-grandson, Kuṇḍapāyya — he has fixed his mind on this.
14. Lord of the dwelling, firm pillar of the soma rites — the soma-drop, breaker of many strongholds, Indra, friend of the inspired sages.
15. Worthy of worship, seeker of cattle, being one against many — he swiftly drives the impetuous horse forward. Grasp hold of Indra, for the drinking of the soma.
Translator's note: Verses 13 and 15 are genuinely difficult. In verse 13, "śṛṅgavṛṣo napāt praṇapāt kuṇḍapāyyaḥ" is rendered here as a line of descent (grandson, great-grandson) with two proper names, but the referent of the whole verse — who "he" is and why his devotion is noted — is not fully recoverable from the verse alone. In verse 15, "pṛdākusānur" (literally "serpent-ridged" or "snake-backed") is left untranslated as a description rather than resolved into a name, since its precise sense here is uncertain.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.17 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 VIII.17
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 yāhi suṣumā hi ta indra somam pibā imam |
edam barhiḥ sado mama || 1 ||
ā tvā brahmayujā harī vahatām indra keśinā |
upa brahmāṇi naḥ śṛṇu || 2 ||
brahmāṇas tvā vayaṁ yujā somapām indra sominaḥ |
sutāvanto havāmahe || 3 ||
ā no yāhi sutāvato 'smākaṁ suṣṭutīr upa |
pibā su śiprinn andhasaḥ || 4 ||
ā te siñcāmi kukṣyor anu gātrā vi dhāvatu |
gṛbhāya jihvayā madhu || 5 ||
svāduṣ ṭe astu saṁsude madhumān tanve3 tava |
somaḥ śam astu te hṛde || 6 ||
ayam u tvā vicarṣaṇe janīr ivābhi saṁvṛtaḥ |
pra soma indra sarpatu || 7 ||
tuvigrīvo vapodaraḥ subāhur andhaso made |
indro vṛtrāṇi jighnate || 8 ||
indra prehi puras tvaṁ viśvasyeśāna ojasā |
vṛtrāṇi vṛtrahañ jahi || 9 ||
dīrghas te astv aṅkuśo yenā vasu prayacchasi |
yajamānāya sunvate || 10 ||
ayaṁ ta indra somo nipūto adhi barhiṣi |
ehīm asya dravā piba || 11 ||
śācigo śācipūjanāyaṁ raṇāya te sutaḥ |
ākhaṇḍala pra hūyase || 12 ||
yas te śṛṅgavṛṣo napāt praṇapāt kuṇḍapāyyaḥ |
ny asmin dadhra ā manaḥ || 13 ||
vāstoṣ pate dhruvā sthūṇāṁsatraṁ somyānām |
drapso bhettā purāṁ śaśvatīnām indro munīnāṁ sakhā || 14 ||
pṛdākusānur yajato gaveṣaṇa ekaḥ sann abhi bhūyasaḥ |
bhūrṇim aśvaṁ nayat tujā puro gṛbhendraṁ somasya pītaye || 15 ||
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).