Apālā's Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.91 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. Tradition attributes this hymn to the maiden Apālā, who finds soma while fetching water, presses it with her own teeth, and calls on Indra to restore growth to three bare places and to give her bright skin.
1. A maiden, going down for water, found soma caught in the flowing stream. Carrying it home, she said: "For Indra I will press you, for the mighty one I will press you."
2. You who wander there, little hero, peering into house after house — drink this, pressed by my teeth, together with roasted grain, with porridge, with cakes, with hymns of praise.
3. We can hardly grasp you, we can hardly bow before you — softly, softly, gently, gently, O soma-drop, flow forth for Indra.
4. Will he be able? Will he act? Will he make us more prosperous? May we, wives parted from husbands who scorn them, be brought together again through Indra.
5. These three places, Indra — make them grow: my father's head, his field, and this, my own body.
6. That field of ours, and this body of mine, and also my father's head — make all of these grow hair again.
7. Through the hole of the chariot, through the hole of the cart, through the hole of the yoke, O hundred-powered one — Apālā, having purified her three times, you made, Indra, into one bright-skinned as the sun.
Translator's note: verse 3's "cikitsāmaḥ … nemasi" (we hardly grasp/discern you … we hardly bow to you) is an obscure address to the soma-drop and is rendered conservatively. Verse 2's "vīraka" (little hero/little man) is likely a familiar, half-teasing address to Indra rather than a formal epithet. "Viṣṭapa" in verse 5 (rendered "places") denotes level ground or spots/patches — here traditionally read as bare or barren spots to be made to grow hair or crops again.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.91 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.91
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.
kanyā3 vār avāyatī somam api srutāvidat |
astam bharanty abravīd indrāya sunavai tvā śakrāya sunavai tvā || 1 ||
asau ya eṣi vīrako gṛhaṁ-gṛhaṁ vicākaśad |
imaṁ jambhasutam piba dhānāvantaṁ karambhiṇam apūpavantam ukthinam || 2 ||
ā cana tvā cikitsāmo 'dhi cana tvā nemasi |
śanair iva śanakair ivendrāyendo pari srava || 3 ||
kuvic chakat kuvit karat kuvin no vasyasas karat |
kuvit patidviṣo yatīr indreṇa saṁgamāmahai || 4 ||
imāni trīṇi viṣṭapā tānīndra vi rohaya |
śiras tatasyorvarām ād idam ma upodare || 5 ||
asau ca yā na urvarād imāṁ tanva1m mama |
atho tatasya yac chiraḥ sarvā tā romaśā kṛdhi || 6 ||
khe rathasya khe 'nasaḥ khe yugasya śatakrato |
apālām indra triṣ pūtvy akṛṇoḥ sūryatvacam || 7 ||
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).