Hymn to the Viśvedevas
Rigveda VIII.30 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. None of you, O gods, is small, and none of you is a child — all of you together are truly great.
2. So praised, may you be well-disposed toward us, you destroyers of foes, you who are three and thirty, the gods of Manu, worthy of the sacrifice.
3. Protect us, help us, speak up on our behalf. Do not lead us far away, to distant places, off the ancestral paths of Manu.
4. You gods who are here, all of you, and the Vaiśvānaras too — grant us broad shelter, for our cattle and for our horses.
Translator's note: verse 2's "three and thirty" (trayaś ca triṁśac ca) reflects the traditional count of thirty-three Vedic gods; "riśādasaḥ" ("foe-devouring, foe-destroying") is kept close to its literal sense. Verse 3's "Manu" names the first man/ancestor of humankind; "the ancestral paths of Manu" is the received way of the fathers.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.30 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.30
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.
nahi vo asty arbhako devāso na kumārakaḥ |
viśve satomahānta it || 1 ||
iti stutāso asathā riśādaso ye stha trayaś ca triṁśac ca |
manor devā yajñiyāsaḥ || 2 ||
te nas trādhvaṁ te 'vata ta u no adhi vocata |
mā naḥ pathaḥ pitryān mānavād adhi dūraṁ naiṣṭa parāvataḥ || 3 ||
ye devāsa iha sthana viśve vaiśvānarā uta |
asmabhyaṁ śarma sapratho gave 'śvāya yacchata || 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).