Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.159 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.
Up hath gone yon sun; and up with it my own fair fortune.
Lo, I, a cunning dame, have won the day o’er my lord, and stand now in triumph.
I am the beacon, the crown, the sharp of tongue in all disputes.
Let him follow only my will—my word, when I rise in glory.
My sons are smiters of their rivals, my daughter—broad in her sway.
And I, I am the full and finished conqueress.
To my husband, my call ringeth the highest.
The same oblation by which Indra, when he offered, was made the most bright among gods— that same have I now given, O ye gods,
and by it, I am made lone in his love.
No rival-wife have I; nay, I have struck them down, I have prevailed and won.
Their brightness have I stripped away, as one doth spurn the gifts of the witless.
I have wholly overcome them, set them beneath me, the would-be wives.
Now shall I reign far and wide over this hero and all his folk.
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.159
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.
ud asau sūryo agād ud ayam māmako bhagaḥ |
ahaṁ tad vidvalā patim abhy asākṣi viṣāsahiḥ || 1 ||
ahaṁ ketur aham mūrdhāham ugrā vivācanī |
mamed anu kratum patiḥ sehānāyā upācaret || 2 ||
mama putrāḥ śatruhaṇo 'tho me duhitā virāṭ |
utāham asmi saṁjayā patyau me śloka uttamaḥ || 3 ||
yenendro haviṣā kṛtvy abhavad dyumny uttamaḥ |
idaṁ tad akri devā asapatnā kilābhuvam || 4 ||
asapatnā sapatnaghnī jayanty abhibhūvarī |
āvṛkṣam anyāsāṁ varco rādho astheyasām iva || 5 ||
sam ajaiṣam imā ahaṁ sapatnīr abhibhūvarī |
yathāham asya vīrasya virājāni janasya ca || 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).
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