Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.65 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. Indra, whether you are called by men from the east, the west, the north, or from below — come quickly, with your swift steeds.
2. Or if you are delighting yourself at heaven's outpouring, in Svarṇara, or in the ocean of soma-juice —
3. With songs I call you, great and vast, as one calls a cow to be milked for nourishment — Indra, to drink the soma.
4. May your bay horses bring your greatness, god, your might, drawing it here on your chariot, bearing it.
5. Indra, you are hymned; I praise you, great, fierce, the one who wields dominion. Come, drink our pressed soma.
6. Having pressed the soma, bringing our offerings, we call you to sit here on our sacred grass.
7. Since you, Indra, belong to all people — you are shared by everyone — we call on you as that very one.
8. This sweet soma-drink the men have milked out for you with the pressing stones; delight in it, Indra, and drink it.
9. Outshine all the wise rivals of the stranger; come quickly; grant us great fame.
10. The king, giver to me of dappled cows adorned with gold — may the bounteous god not come to harm.
11. Out of a thousand dappled cows, I have taken bright, great, broad, shining gold.
12. The descendants of Durgaha, with a thousand gifts, generous, have made fame for me among the gods.
Translator's note: verse 2's "Svarṇara" is left untranslated as a place name (literally "sun-water"), following the Sanskrit rather than guessing at a geography. Verse 9's "stranger" renders arya, which can mean a rival lord, a foreigner, or simply an outsider to the singer's own people; the word is ambiguous and rendered conservatively. Verses 10–11's "dappled cows adorned with gold" render pṛṣatīnām hiraṇyavīnām, a compound whose exact referent (spotted cows, or spotted animals decked in gold ornaments) is uncertain; the gift-praise (dāna-stuti) closing the hymn names a patron, "the descendants of Durgaha," whose historical identity is not otherwise recoverable from the verse.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.65 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.65
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.
yad indra prāg apāg udaṅ nyag vā hūyase nṛbhiḥ |
ā yāhi tūyam āśubhiḥ || 1 ||
yad vā prasravaṇe divo mādayāse svarṇare |
yad vā samudre andhasaḥ || 2 ||
ā tvā gīrbhir mahām uruṁ huve gām iva bhojase |
indra somasya pītaye || 3 ||
ā ta indra mahimānaṁ harayo deva te mahaḥ |
rathe vahantu bibhrataḥ || 4 ||
indra gṛṇīṣa u stuṣe mahām̐ ugra īśānakṛt |
ehi naḥ sutam piba || 5 ||
sutāvantas tvā vayam prayasvanto havāmahe |
idaṁ no barhir āsade || 6 ||
yac cid dhi śaśvatām asīndra sādhāraṇas tvam |
taṁ tvā vayaṁ havāmahe || 7 ||
idaṁ te somyam madhv adhukṣann adribhir naraḥ |
juṣāṇa indra tat piba || 8 ||
viśvām̐ aryo vipaścito 'ti khyas tūyam ā gahi |
asme dhehi śravo bṛhat || 9 ||
dātā me pṛṣatīnāṁ rājā hiraṇyavīnām |
mā devā maghavā riṣat || 10 ||
sahasre pṛṣatīnām adhi ścandram bṛhat pṛthu |
śukraṁ hiraṇyam ā dade || 11 ||
napāto durgahasya me sahasreṇa surādhasaḥ |
śravo deveṣv akrata || 12 ||
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).