Hymn to Indra
Rigveda X.166 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.
Make me a bull above my peers, far-winner o’er my foes, striker of mine enemies, wide-ruling lord of kine.
I am a smiter of foes, like Indra—unharmed, unshaken.
Beneath my tread lie all who rose against me; behold, they are already trodden down.
Here do I bind thee, as the bow’s ends are bound by the string.
O Lord of Tongues, cast these low, that their speech be beneath mine own.
I have come aloft, standing firm on Viśvakarman’s frame.
Thy thought, thy will, thy gathered folk—I claim them for mine own.
Thy yoke of war and thy treaty of peace I have taken for myself; may I be lifted as the highest of all.
Thy head is beneath my step—
lift now thy voice from below, as frogs from the waters leap— as frogs from the waters leap.
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.166
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.
ṛṣabham mā samānānāṁ sapatnānāṁ viṣāsahim |
hantāraṁ śatrūṇāṁ kṛdhi virājaṁ gopatiṁ gavām || 1 ||
aham asmi sapatnahendra ivāriṣṭo akṣataḥ |
adhaḥ sapatnā me pador ime sarve abhiṣṭhitāḥ || 2 ||
atraiva vo 'pi nahyāmy ubhe ārtnī iva jyayā |
vācas pate ni ṣedhemān yathā mad adharaṁ vadān || 3 ||
abhibhūr aham āgamaṁ viśvakarmeṇa dhāmnā |
ā vaś cittam ā vo vratam ā vo 'haṁ samitiṁ dade || 4 ||
yogakṣemaṁ va ādāyāham bhūyāsam uttama ā vo mūrdhānam akramīm |
adhaspadān ma ud vadata maṇḍūkā ivodakān maṇḍūkā udakād iva || 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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