Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.54 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. This is your heroic power, Indra, that the poets proclaim with songs. Chanting, they have won strength streaming with ghee; the sons of Pūru have approached with their devotions.
2. They approach Indra for help, with rightly performed rites, in whose pressed soma you delight. As you rejoiced with Saṃvarta, as with Kṛśa, so, Indra, delight in us.
3. Come to us, all you gods, of one accord; draw near to us. Let the Vasus and the Rudras come to us for help; let the Maruts hear our call.
4. May Pūṣan and Viṣṇu favor my call; may Sarasvatī and the seven rivers favor it. May the waters, the wind, the mountains, the lord of the forest, and the earth hear my call.
5. Whatever bounty is yours, Indra, the bounty of the most generous giver — with that be mindful of us, as our companion at the feast, for our prosperity, as giver of fortune and gifts, O slayer of Vṛtra.
6. O lord of the contest, lord of men, you indeed shall bring us the prize, O wise one. Through invocations and through offerings to the gods, those who have won are renowned far and wide.
7. For there are, noble Indra, wishes to fulfill, and the lifespan of people to sustain. Approach us, bounteous one, to help; milk out for us abundant nourishment.
8. May we worship you, Indra, with our hymns of praise; you are ours, O hundred-powered one. Pour down great, solid, abundant, unfailing bounty for Praskaṇva.
Translator's note: "Saṃvarta" and "Kṛśa" (verse 2) are treated as proper names of earlier worshippers Indra favored, following the parallelism with "Praskaṇva" named in verse 8; the phrases could alternatively be read more abstractly, but no confident alternative rendering presented itself. "Ājipate" (verse 6) is rendered "lord of the contest," its most literal sense (ājí, "race" or "contest"), though it likely also carries the sense of a battle or a chariot-race.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.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 VIII.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.
etat ta indra vīryaṁ gīrbhir gṛṇanti kāravaḥ |
te stobhanta ūrjam āvan ghṛtaścutam paurāso nakṣan dhītibhiḥ || 1 ||
nakṣanta indram avase sukṛtyayā yeṣāṁ suteṣu mandase |
yathā saṁvarte amado yathā kṛśa evāsme indra matsva || 2 ||
ā no viśve sajoṣaso devāso gantanopa naḥ |
vasavo rudrā avase na ā gamañ chṛṇvantu maruto havam || 3 ||
pūṣā viṣṇur havanam me sarasvaty avantu sapta sindhavaḥ |
āpo vātaḥ parvatāso vanaspatiḥ śṛṇotu pṛthivī havam || 4 ||
yad indra rādho asti te māghonam maghavattama |
tena no bodhi sadhamādyo vṛdhe bhago dānāya vṛtrahan || 5 ||
ājipate nṛpate tvam id dhi no vāja ā vakṣi sukrato |
vītī hotrābhir uta devavītibhiḥ sasavāṁso vi śṛṇvire || 6 ||
santi hy a1rya āśiṣa indra āyur janānām |
asmān nakṣasva maghavann upāvase dhukṣasva pipyuṣīm iṣam || 7 ||
vayaṁ ta indra stomebhir vidhema tvam asmākaṁ śatakrato |
mahi sthūraṁ śaśayaṁ rādho ahrayam praskaṇvāya ni tośaya || 8 ||
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).