Hymn to the All-Gods
Rigveda VIII.83 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. That great help of the gods, of the mighty ones, we choose for ourselves, for our protection.
2. May Varuṇa, Mitra, and Aryaman always be our allies, wise ones who strengthen us.
3. Carry us across the many wide-spread dangers, as across waters, with your boats — you are the charioteers of ṛta, of the cosmic order.
4. Let good come to us, O Aryaman; good and praiseworthy, O Varuṇa — good indeed is what we choose.
5. For you, wise ones, destroyers of foes, are masters of good — not, O Ādityas, of harm.
6. We indeed call upon you, bountiful gods, whether dwelling at home or traveling on the road, for our prosperity.
7. Indra, Viṣṇu, attend to us among these our kinsmen — come, Maruts, Aśvins.
8. We carry forward our brotherhood, O bountiful ones, together, doubly, in the mother's womb.
9. You indeed are, O bountiful ones, heavenly gods with Indra as chief — even now I speak to you.
Translator's note: Verse 7's Sanskrit is metrically compressed and its syntax is terse — "indraiṣāṁ" (Indra + eṣām, "of these") and the bare imperative "itā" ("come") leave the exact relation between the deities and the "kinsmen" (sajātyānām) ambiguous; the rendering above keeps the named gods and the summons but does not resolve that ambiguity. Verse 8's "dvitā" ("in two ways, doubly") and its "mother's womb" image are likewise left in their plain sense rather than resolved into a specific cosmological reading.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.83 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.83
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.
devānām id avo mahat tad ā vṛṇīmahe vayam |
vṛṣṇām asmabhyam ūtaye || 1 ||
te naḥ santu yujaḥ sadā varuṇo mitro aryamā |
vṛdhāsaś ca pracetasaḥ || 2 ||
ati no viṣpitā puru naubhir apo na parṣatha |
yūyam ṛtasya rathyaḥ || 3 ||
vāmaṁ no astv aryaman vāmaṁ varuṇa śaṁsyam |
vāmaṁ hy āvṛṇīmahe || 4 ||
vāmasya hi pracetasa īśānāśo riśādasaḥ |
nem ādityā aghasya yat || 5 ||
vayam id vaḥ sudānavaḥ kṣiyanto yānto adhvann ā |
devā vṛdhāya hūmahe || 6 ||
adhi na indraiṣāṁ viṣṇo sajātyānām |
itā maruto aśvinā || 7 ||
pra bhrātṛtvaṁ sudānavo 'dha dvitā samānyā |
mātur garbhe bharāmahe || 8 ||
yūyaṁ hi ṣṭhā sudānava indrajyeṣṭhā abhidyavaḥ |
adhā cid va uta bruve || 9 ||
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).