Hymn to Indra
Rigveda I.177 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.
Indra, the generous lord, the giver of all gifts most precious,
We do sing of thy abundance and thy kindness without measure,
Thou who dost bestow the blessings manifold upon all those who honor thee.
Indra is the lord of cattle, the source of all the wealth herds,
He doth grant unto the righteous men the kine that are as numerous as the stars,
The cows that do give milk abundant and the oxen strong and powerful,
The horses swift and beautiful that carry warriors through the battle.
Those who do make the sacrifice with reverence and with hearts devoted true,
Those who do press the soma and do kindle up the sacred fire,
Those who do sing the hymns of praise with voices pure and clear,
Unto them doth Indra grant the riches that do flow as endless streams.
He is the lord of prosperity, the source of all good fortune,
He doth bless the fields with abundance, the storehouses with grain,
He doth grant unto the herds their increase, unto the flocks their multiplication,
He doth ensure that none who honor him shall ever know the want.
Yet Indra is not merely a lord of material wealth and possessions,
He is also the giver of the inner riches and the gifts of spirit,
He doth bestow upon the wise the knowledge deep and timeless,
He doth grant unto the brave the courage that doth lift them high.
Indra giveth unto his devotees the strength to accomplish great deeds,
He giveth unto them the intelligence to solve the problems complex and difficult,
He giveth unto them the wisdom that doth lead unto the truth eternal,
He giveth unto them the peace of heart that passeth all understanding.
The generous Indra doth not hoard his treasures for himself alone,
But rather doth he share them freely with all those who do approach him,
With reverence and with faith and with a heart that is sincere and pure,
Unto such as these, Indra giveth without measure and without limit.
We praise thee, O generous Indra, for all the gifts that thou hast given,
For the cattle and the gold, for the fields and for the treasures,
For the strength and for the courage, for the wisdom and the knowledge,
For all the blessings manifest and those that are hidden and invisible.
Grant us, we pray, a portion of thy endless generosity divine,
That we might have sufficiency for all our needs and wants,
That we might be able to give unto others from the abundance that thou givest,
And that we might ever remember that all good things do flow from thee.
Colophon
Rigveda I.177 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.
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Source Text: ṛgveda I.177
ā carṣaṇiprā vṛṣabho janānāṁ rājā kṛṣṭīnām puruhūta indraḥ |
stutaḥ śravasyann avasopa madrig yuktvā harī vṛṣaṇā yāhy arvāṅ || 1 ||
ye te vṛṣaṇo vṛṣabhāsa indra brahmayujo vṛṣarathāso atyāḥ |
tām̐ ā tiṣṭha tebhir ā yāhy arvāṅ havāmahe tvā suta indra some || 2 ||
ā tiṣṭha rathaṁ vṛṣaṇaṁ vṛṣā te sutaḥ somaḥ pariṣiktā madhūni |
yuktvā vṛṣabhyāṁ vṛṣabha kṣitīnāṁ haribhyāṁ yāhi pravatopa madrik || 3 ||
ayaṁ yajño devayā ayam miyedha imā brahmāṇy ayam indra somaḥ |
stīrṇam barhir ā tu śakra pra yāhi pibā niṣadya vi mucā harī iha || 4 ||
o suṣṭuta indra yāhy arvāṅ upa brahmāṇi mānyasya kāroḥ |
vidyāma vastor avasā gṛṇanto vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 5 ||
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).
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