Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda X.127 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.
Goddess Night, drawing nigh, hath cast her gaze on many a place with roving eyes.
She hath adorned herself in all fair things, and laid upon her form each lovely grace.
The deathless goddess hath filled the vast between— the deep below and heights above; with light she driveth back the dark,
and holdeth fast the bounds of day and dusk.
She hath chased forth her sister Dawn—
she, the goddess, as she cometh hence—
and darkness, like a frightened hound, shall flee.
Abide with us this night, thou whose coming we await as birds
nestled soft within the tree’s embrace.
Lowly rest the roaming kin:
the footed, the wingéd, and the falcon, too, his haste now hushed beneath thy sway.
Turn aside the she-wolf and the wolf;
turn aside the hand of the thief, and make thy paths gentle unto us, O Night.
Darkness, richly dight,
black as pitch and decked in stars, draweth near and clings about me—
O Dawn, lay it to rest, as thou wouldst a debt.
To thy threshold have I driven this my song, as kine are driven to their fold; receive it, O Daughter of Heaven—
O Night, as one would a victor’s praise.
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.127
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.
rātrī vy akhyad āyatī purutrā devy a1kṣabhiḥ |
viśvā adhi śriyo 'dhita || 1 ||
orv aprā amartyā nivato devy u1dvataḥ |
jyotiṣā bādhate tamaḥ || 2 ||
nir u svasāram askṛtoṣasaṁ devy āyatī |
aped u hāsate tamaḥ || 3 ||
sā no adya yasyā vayaṁ ni te yāmann avikṣmahi |
vṛkṣe na vasatiṁ vayaḥ || 4 ||
ni grāmāso avikṣata ni padvanto ni pakṣiṇaḥ |
ni śyenāsaś cid arthinaḥ || 5 ||
yāvayā vṛkya1ṁ vṛkaṁ yavaya stenam ūrmye |
athā naḥ sutarā bhava || 6 ||
upa mā pepiśat tamaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ vyaktam asthita |
uṣa ṛṇeva yātaya || 7 ||
upa te gā ivākaraṁ vṛṇīṣva duhitar divaḥ |
rātri stomaṁ na jigyuṣe || 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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