Hymn to Varuṇa
Rigveda X.123 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 10 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 by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
This Seeker stirreth the wombéd ones, whose seed is the dapple-born— he whose birth-lining is naught but light— when the airy bounds are marked and meted.
Where water meeteth sun, the soul-fired singers touch him with thought as a mother lappeth her calf.
He lifteth a wave from the deep, the sea-born swell; the cloud-cloaked crown of bliss is glimpsed— a gleaming on the back of truth, the highest face of it.
And lo, the maidens cry as one, yearning toward the same great womb.
The many mothers of the calf, sprung from one nest, stand lowing forth, all turned unto the womb once more.
Upon the truth’s own back they stride, their tongues reaching for the deathless sweet.
The poets, filled with fire, beheld his shape and longed.
They heeded the bellow of the wild bull, and with truth in hand they mounted the stream.
The Gandharva uncovered names that cannot die.
The Apsaras, the shy maid of the sky, bore him aloft in the far-off height of heaven.
He, lovely and beloved, wandered among the wombs of the dear one, resting upon a wing of gold—for he is the Seeker.
And when they sought thee with their hearts, they saw thee soar— an eagle flying unto the vault above, gold-winged, a herald of Varuṇa, a sign-bird fluttering in the womb of Yama.
The Gandharva stood upon the firmament, turned outward, bearing bright weapons, gleaming and fair to the eye as the sun, a cloak of scent about him.
From himself he sired his own names, sweet and well-beloved.
When the drop falleth to the sea, with the sight of a vulture it beholdeth the far-flung blue.
The blaze of the sun, finding delight in that shining draught, shaped for itself its dearest names in the third realm.
Colophon
This hymn is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation are to be documented during audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.123
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.
ayaṁ venaś codayat pṛśnigarbhā jyotirjarāyū rajaso vimāne |
imam apāṁ saṁgame sūryasya śiśuṁ na viprā matibhī rihanti || 1 ||
samudrād ūrmim ud iyarti veno nabhojāḥ pṛṣṭhaṁ haryatasya darśi |
ṛtasya sānāv adhi viṣṭapi bhrāṭ samānaṁ yonim abhy anūṣata vrāḥ || 2 ||
samānam pūrvīr abhi vāvaśānās tiṣṭhan vatsasya mātaraḥ sanīḻāḥ |
ṛtasya sānāv adhi cakramāṇā rihanti madhvo amṛtasya vāṇīḥ || 3 ||
jānanto rūpam akṛpanta viprā mṛgasya ghoṣam mahiṣasya hi gman |
ṛtena yanto adhi sindhum asthur vidad gandharvo amṛtāni nāma || 4 ||
apsarā jāram upasiṣmiyāṇā yoṣā bibharti parame vyoman |
carat priyasya yoniṣu priyaḥ san sīdat pakṣe hiraṇyaye sa venaḥ || 5 ||
nāke suparṇam upa yat patantaṁ hṛdā venanto abhy acakṣata tvā |
hiraṇyapakṣaṁ varuṇasya dūtaṁ yamasya yonau śakunam bhuraṇyum || 6 ||
ūrdhvo gandharvo adhi nāke asthāt pratyaṅ citrā bibhrad asyāyudhāni |
vasāno atkaṁ surabhiṁ dṛśe kaṁ sva1r ṇa nāma janata priyāṇi || 7 ||
drapsaḥ samudram abhi yaj jigāti paśyan gṛdhrasya cakṣasā vidharman |
bhānuḥ śukreṇa śociṣā cakānas tṛtīye cakre rajasi priyāṇi || 8 ||
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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