Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.78 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. Bring us, Indra, a thousand portions of the sacrificial cake and the soma-food, and a hundred herds of cattle, hero.
2. Bring us an ornament, a cow, a horse, and salve — together with a golden chain.
3. And bring us many shining ear-ornaments, bold one — for you, good lord, are renowned.
4. No one strengthens as you do, Indra — not Suṣa, nor Sudā, nor is any other, hero, such a giver to the singer.
5. Indra cannot be diminished, nor the mighty one overpowered. He hears everything; he sees everything.
6. He, unerring, discerns the passion of mortals; he discerns it before their reproach is spoken.
7. Full indeed with strength is the belly of the swift one who ordains, the Vṛtra-slayer, the soma-drinker.
8. In you, Soma, all treasures are gathered, and every good fortune — freely given, unwithheld.
9. It is you my desire seeks — longing for barley, for cattle, for gold; toward you, longing for horses, it presses on.
10. Trusting in you, Indra, I take the gift into my hand. Fill it, bounteous one, with grain — of the day's portion or already gathered — shining and abundant.
Translator's note: verse 4 names Suṣa and Sudā, apparently rival patrons or figures of comparison whose identity is not certain from the text alone; they are kept as proper names rather than translated. Verse 8 addresses "Soma" directly by name after nine verses addressed to Indra — this shift is preserved as it stands in the Sanskrit rather than smoothed over. Verse 10 is compressed and its exact sense (a gift "of the day" versus "already gathered" grain) is rendered conservatively.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.78 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.78
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.
puroḻāśaṁ no andhasa indra sahasram ā bhara |
śatā ca śūra gonām || 1 ||
ā no bhara vyañjanaṁ gām aśvam abhyañjanam |
sacā manā hiraṇyayā || 2 ||
uta naḥ karṇaśobhanā purūṇi dhṛṣṇav ā bhara |
tvaṁ hi śṛṇviṣe vaso || 3 ||
nakīṁ vṛdhīka indra te na suṣā na sudā uta |
nānyas tvac chūra vāghataḥ || 4 ||
nakīm indro nikartave na śakraḥ pariśaktave |
viśvaṁ śṛṇoti paśyati || 5 ||
sa manyum martyānām adabdho ni cikīṣate |
purā nidaś cikīṣate || 6 ||
kratva it pūrṇam udaraṁ turasyāsti vidhataḥ |
vṛtraghnaḥ somapāvnaḥ || 7 ||
tve vasūni saṁgatā viśvā ca soma saubhagā |
sudātv aparihvṛtā || 8 ||
tvām id yavayur mama kāmo gavyur hiraṇyayuḥ |
tvām aśvayur eṣate || 9 ||
taved indrāham āśasā haste dātraṁ canā dade |
dinasya vā maghavan sambhṛtasya vā pūrdhi yavasya kāśinā || 10 ||
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).