Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.76 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. Now I call, with all my might, this powerful Indra, the ruler — accompanied by the Maruts — that he not turn away from us.
2. This Indra, friend of the Maruts, split open the head of Vṛtra with his hundred-jointed thunderbolt.
3. Growing strong, Indra, friend of the Maruts, drove Vṛtra out, releasing the waters that belong to the sea.
4. This is he by whom, together with the Maruts, the sunlight was won — by Indra, for the drinking of soma.
5. We call upon Indra with our songs: accompanied by the Maruts, drinker of the pressed-out soma, full of strength, abundant in voice.
6. We call upon Indra, accompanied by the Maruts, with an ancient hymn, for the drinking of this soma.
7. O Indra accompanied by the Maruts, bountiful one, drink the soma, hundred-powered one, at this sacrifice, much-praised one.
8. For you indeed, O Indra accompanied by the Maruts, wielder of the pressing-stone, the pressed soma-juices, carried on hymns of praise, are poured out from the heart.
9. Drink, O Indra, friend of the Maruts, the pressed soma at the heavenly rites, sharpening your thunderbolt with strength.
10. Rising up with strength, having drunk the soma pressed into the two bowls, O Indra, you made your jaws tremble.
11. Both world-halves, heaven and earth, yearned toward you as you roared, O Indra, when you became the slayer of the Dasyus.
12. I have shaped, out of Indra, an eight-footed, nine-cornered speech that touches truth — for my own body.
Translator's note: verse 1's "vṛñjase" and verse 12's "aṣṭāpadīm ... navasraktim ṛtaspṛśam" are genuinely obscure — verse 12 in particular is a riddle-verse likely describing a meter or ritual utterance rather than an ordinary sentence, and its imagery is rendered conservatively, close to the Sanskrit words, rather than resolved into a confident paraphrase.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.76 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.76
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.
imaṁ nu māyinaṁ huva indram īśānam ojasā |
marutvantaṁ na vṛñjase || 1 ||
ayam indro marutsakhā vi vṛtrasyābhinac chiraḥ |
vajreṇa śataparvaṇā || 2 ||
vāvṛdhāno marutsakhendro vi vṛtram airayat |
sṛjan samudriyā apaḥ || 3 ||
ayaṁ ha yena vā idaṁ svar marutvatā jitam |
indreṇa somapītaye || 4 ||
marutvantam ṛjīṣiṇam ojasvantaṁ virapśinam |
indraṁ gīrbhir havāmahe || 5 ||
indram pratnena manmanā marutvantaṁ havāmahe |
asya somasya pītaye || 6 ||
marutvām̐ indra mīḍhvaḥ pibā somaṁ śatakrato |
asmin yajñe puruṣṭuta || 7 ||
tubhyed indra marutvate sutāḥ somāso adrivaḥ |
hṛdā hūyanta ukthinaḥ || 8 ||
pibed indra marutsakhā sutaṁ somaṁ diviṣṭiṣu |
vajraṁ śiśāna ojasā || 9 ||
uttiṣṭhann ojasā saha pītvī śipre avepayaḥ |
somam indra camū sutam || 10 ||
anu tvā rodasī ubhe krakṣamāṇam akṛpetām |
indra yad dasyuhābhavaḥ || 11 ||
vācam aṣṭāpadīm ahaṁ navasraktim ṛtaspṛśam |
indrāt pari tanvam mame || 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).