Hymn to Dyāvāpṛthivī
Rigveda I.185 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Dyāvāpṛthivī, Heaven and Earth, the eternal parental pair, foundation of the Vedic cosmos. 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.
I praise the cosmic parents, the eternal mother and father of all that is. Dyāvāpṛthivī, whose union hath given birth to all creation. O Heaven and Earth, O great and glorious pair! Your embrace doth hold all living things. From you springs forth the waters; from you springs forth the fire; from you springs forth the light itself.
Earth, thou mother infinite! Thy breasts do nourish all creatures. Thy soil doth bring forth the grain that feeds mankind. Thy roots go down into the abyss; thy flowers reach toward the stars. Upon thy surface do walk all the beasts of the field. Within thy womb do rest all the treasures — the metals and the stones and the waters hidden deep. We tread upon thee daily, yet do we scarce comprehend thy vastness.
Heaven, thou father eternal! Thy vault doth span all things. Thy light illuminates the world. From thy expanse do fall the rains that quicken the earth. The winds obey thy will; the stars do gleam upon thy breast. Thou dost contain all that exists; thou art the ground of being itself. When we look upward, we behold thy glory. When we measure the span of our lives against thy timelessness, we perceive our own smallness.
And yet — O Heaven and Earth — thou art not far from us. Thou dost touch us in every moment. In the bread we eat, the air we breathe, the warmth upon our skin. Thou art both infinitely vast and intimately near. Thou art both mighty and tender. Thou dost demand our worship, and thou dost deserve it.
O Dyāvāpṛthivī, eternal pair! Grant us thy blessing. Make us worthy of thy magnificence. Let us dwell upon thy breast in peace and plenty. And when at last our time comes, receive us back unto thyself, for we are thine, and thine we shall always be!
Colophon
Rigveda I.185 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 Dyāvāpṛthivī, Heaven and Earth, the eternal parental pair, foundation of the Vedic cosmos. 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.185
katarā pūrvā katarāparāyoḥ kathā jāte kavayaḥ ko vi veda |
viśvaṁ tmanā bibhṛto yad dha nāma vi vartete ahanī cakriyeva || 1 ||
bhūriṁ dve acarantī carantam padvantaṁ garbham apadī dadhāte |
nityaṁ na sūnum pitror upasthe dyāvā rakṣatam pṛthivī no abhvāt || 2 ||
aneho dātram aditer anarvaṁ huve svarvad avadhaṁ namasvat |
tad rodasī janayataṁ jaritre dyāvā rakṣatam pṛthivī no abhvāt || 3 ||
atapyamāne avasāvantī anu ṣyāma rodasī devaputre |
ubhe devānām ubhayebhir ahnāṁ dyāvā rakṣatam pṛthivī no abhvāt || 4 ||
saṁgacchamāne yuvatī samante svasārā jāmī pitror upasthe |
abhijighrantī bhuvanasya nābhiṁ dyāvā rakṣatam pṛthivī no abhvāt || 5 ||
urvī sadmanī bṛhatī ṛtena huve devānām avasā janitrī |
dadhāte ye amṛtaṁ supratīke dyāvā rakṣatam pṛthivī no abhvāt || 6 ||
urvī pṛthvī bahule dūreante upa bruve namasā yajñe asmin |
dadhāte ye subhage supratūrtī dyāvā rakṣatam pṛthivī no abhvāt || 7 ||
devān vā yac cakṛmā kac cid āgaḥ sakhāyaṁ vā sadam ij jāspatiṁ vā |
iyaṁ dhīr bhūyā avayānam eṣāṁ dyāvā rakṣatam pṛthivī no abhvāt || 8 ||
ubhā śaṁsā naryā mām aviṣṭām ubhe mām ūtī avasā sacetām |
bhūri cid aryaḥ sudāstarāyeṣā madanta iṣayema devāḥ || 9 ||
ṛtaṁ dive tad avocam pṛthivyā abhiśrāvāya prathamaṁ sumedhāḥ |
pātām avadyād duritād abhīke pitā mātā ca rakṣatām avobhiḥ || 10 ||
idaṁ dyāvāpṛthivī satyam astu pitar mātar yad ihopabruve vām |
bhūtaṁ devānām avame avobhir vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 11 ||
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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