Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.176 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Indra, the storm-king and champion of the gods, slayer of Vṛtra, lord of thunder and rain. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
O mighty Indra, we do petition thee now with voices raised in supplication,
We do beseech thee for thy aid in battle and in struggle,
We do ask that thou wouldst grant unto us victory o'er our enemies,
And that thou wouldst bestow upon us the blessing of thy favor eternal.
We are but mortals weak and small, and the world doth press upon us heavy,
Our foes are many and their strength doth seem to us as vast and terrible,
But we do know that thou, O Indra, art greater far than all the darkness combined,
And that thy might doth know no limit, thy power doth know no boundary.
We pray to thee, grant us the strength of the warrior bold and undaunted,
That we might face our enemies with hearts that do not quail nor falter,
That we might strike the blow that doth defend the innocent and the helpless,
That we might triumph in the struggle 'tween the light and the darkness deep.
Grant us thy protection, O mighty lord, as thou dost protect the cosmic order,
As thou dost guard the sun and moon and stars in their appointed courses,
As thou dost prevent the waters from overwhelming all the lands and peoples,
Even so, grant us thy protection from the evils that do threaten.
Grant us thy wisdom, that we might discern the right path from the wrong,
That we might know which course doth lead unto the blessing and which unto the curse,
That we might make decisions wise and just in all the situations that we face,
That we might serve thy purposes and fulfill thy will eternal.
Grant us thy courage, that we might stand firm in the face of all adversity,
That we might not be swayed by fear or doubt or uncertainty of heart,
That we might endure the trials and tribulations that do come unto all mortals,
That we might emerge from them refined and strengthened in our spirit.
Grant us thy generosity, O lord of all the gifts and all the blessings,
That thou wouldst send the rain to nourish our fields and make them fertile,
That thou wouldst increase our cattle and our herds beyond all measure,
That thou wouldst grant unto us the abundance needful for our lives.
We do offer unto thee our sacrifices and our hymns of praise and adoration,
We do pour forth the soma and the clarified butter unto the flames,
We do kindle up the sacred fire that riseth like a prayer unto the heavens,
And we do ask that thou wouldst hear and accept our offering with favor.
O mighty Indra, hear our prayer, answer our petition, grant our request,
And we shall sing thy praises forever and ever, world without end.
Colophon
Rigveda I.176 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, the version that has been transmitted and is considered canonical in the mainstream tradition. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE; this hymn addresses Indra, the storm-king and champion of the gods, slayer of Vṛtra, lord of thunder and rain. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation session to be documented during Kshatriya Blood Rule audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda I.176
matsi no vasyaïṣṭaya indram indo vṛṣā viśa |
ṛghāyamāṇa invasi śatrum anti na vindasi || 1 ||
tasminn ā veśayā giro ya ekaś carṣaṇīnām |
anu svadhā yam upyate yavaṁ na carkṛṣad vṛṣā || 2 ||
yasya viśvāni hastayoḥ pañca kṣitīnāṁ vasu |
spāśayasva yo asmadhrug divyevāśanir jahi || 3 ||
asunvantaṁ samaṁ jahi dūṇāśaṁ yo na te mayaḥ |
asmabhyam asya vedanaṁ daddhi sūriś cid ohate || 4 ||
āvo yasya dvibarhaso 'rkeṣu sānuṣag asat |
ājāv indrasyendo prāvo vājeṣu vājinam || 5 ||
yathā pūrvebhyo jaritṛbhya indra maya ivāpo na tṛṣyate babhūtha |
tām anu tvā nividaṁ johavīmi vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 6 ||
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).
🌲