Hymn to the Viśvedevas — On the Oneness of the Gods
Rigveda VIII.58 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. He whom the officiating priests, arranging the rite in many ways yet of one mind, carry forward in this sacrifice — who was the learned reciting priest, yoked to his task — what, then, is the sacrificer's own understanding of it?
2. Agni alone, kindled in many forms, is one. Sūrya alone, present throughout all things, is one. Uṣas alone shines out over all this. And this whole world has indeed come to be from the one alone.
3. I call for you two that shining, banner-bearing, three-wheeled chariot — comfortable, well-seated, holding many good things — at whose yoking she of brilliant bounty was born — that you may drink what remains of the offering.
Translator's note: Verse 3 is the hardest of the three. "vām" ("for you two") is dual and most likely addresses the Aśvins, though the hymn names no deity directly; "citrāmaghā" ("she of brilliant bounty") is left untranslated as a proper epithet since it is unclear which goddess — most plausibly Uṣas, continuing the imagery of verse 2 — is meant. "ati riktam" is rendered as "what remains," i.e. the soma left over after the main offering.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.58 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.58
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.
yam ṛtvijo bahudhā kalpayantaḥ sacetaso yajñam imaṁ vahanti |
yo anūcāno brāhmaṇo yukta āsīt kā svit tatra yajamānasya saṁvit || 1 ||
eka evāgnir bahudhā samiddha ekaḥ sūryo viśvam anu prabhūtaḥ |
ekaivoṣāḥ sarvam idaṁ vi bhāty ekaṁ vā idaṁ vi babhūva sarvam || 2 ||
jyotiṣmantaṁ ketumantaṁ tricakraṁ sukhaṁ rathaṁ suṣadam bhūrivāram |
citrāmaghā yasya yoge 'dhijajñe taṁ vāṁ huve ati riktam pibadhyai || 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).