Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.77 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. As soon as he was born, Indra of a hundred powers questioned his mother: "Who are the mighty ones? Who indeed are renowned?"
2. Then the strong one answered him: "Ūrṇavābha and Ahīśuva — let these, son, be yours to crush."
3. The slayer of Vṛtra crushed them together, as spokes are driven into a wheel-nave with a peg; grown mighty, he became the slayer of the dasyus.
4. With a single draught, craving soma, Indra drank off thirty lakes at once.
5. He overcame the Gandharva in the bottomless realms of space — Indra, for the strengthening of the sacred words.
6. He shot forth from the mountains and held ready the cooked grain-porridge; Indra struck down Bunda, who lay stretched out wide.
7. Your arrow is hundred-barbed, thousand-feathered, the one alone that you, Indra, made your companion.
8. With that bring gifts to your praisers, to the men and women, for them to eat — you who were born in an instant, steadfast as the Ṛbhus.
9. These are your deeds, accomplished — greatest in their abundance; with a firm heart you held them fast.
10. All these things Viṣṇu the wide-strider brought, spurred on by you: a hundred buffaloes, porridge cooked in milk, and the boar Emuṣa, O Indra.
11. Mighty is your well-made, well-fashioned bow, and excellent its golden Bunda; both your arms are lovely, well-formed — tender, yet strengthening the tender.
Translator's note: Several words in this hymn are proper names or terms whose precise sense is now uncertain — Ūrṇavābha and Ahīśuva (demons slain by the young Indra), the Gandharva of verse 5, and Bunda (verses 6 and 11, apparently a demon in verse 6 and a part of Indra's bow in verse 11). These are rendered conservatively, keeping the Sanskrit names rather than guessing at unstated identities. The final line of verse 11 (ṛdūpe cid ṛdūvṛdhā) is especially compressed and is translated as literally as English allows.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.77 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.77
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.
jajñāno nu śatakratur vi pṛcchad iti mātaram |
ka ugrāḥ ke ha śṛṇvire || 1 ||
ād īṁ śavasy abravīd aurṇavābham ahīśuvam |
te putra santu niṣṭuraḥ || 2 ||
sam it tān vṛtrahākhidat khe arām̐ iva khedayā |
pravṛddho dasyuhābhavat || 3 ||
ekayā pratidhāpibat sākaṁ sarāṁsi triṁśatam |
indraḥ somasya kāṇukā || 4 ||
abhi gandharvam atṛṇad abudhneṣu rajaḥsv ā |
indro brahmabhya id vṛdhe || 5 ||
nir āvidhyad giribhya ā dhārayat pakvam odanam |
indro bundaṁ svātatam || 6 ||
śatabradhna iṣus tava sahasraparṇa eka it |
yam indra cakṛṣe yujam || 7 ||
tena stotṛbhya ā bhara nṛbhyo nāribhyo attave |
sadyo jāta ṛbhuṣṭhira || 8 ||
etā cyautnāni te kṛtā varṣiṣṭhāni parīṇasā |
hṛdā vīḍv adhārayaḥ || 9 ||
viśvet tā viṣṇur ābharad urukramas tveṣitaḥ |
śatam mahiṣān kṣīrapākam odanaṁ varāham indra emuṣam || 10 ||
tuvikṣaṁ te sukṛtaṁ sūmayaṁ dhanuḥ sādhur bundo hiraṇyayaḥ |
ubhā te bāhū raṇyā susaṁskṛta ṛdūpe cid ṛdūvṛdhā || 11 ||
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).