Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda X.172 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.
Drive hither borne on thy longing; the kine do follow thy path, their udders spent with milk, they tread where thou hast gone.
Drive hither with clear sight, thou most giving of all, with thy fellows rich in gifts. Thou rousest the generous and bringest the strivers to their elder’s fate.
Even as those who bring meat, we come bearing gifts, and stretch forth the thread of the rite—let us make the offering.
Lo, Dawn rolleth back the dark of her sister Night, gathering her path like thread on a spindle, for she is well-born and fresh to the world.
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.172
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.
ā yāhi vanasā saha gāvaḥ sacanta vartaniṁ yad ūdhabhiḥ || 1 ||
ā yāhi vasvyā dhiyā maṁhiṣṭho jārayanmakhaḥ sudānubhiḥ || 2 ||
pitubhṛto na tantum it sudānavaḥ prati dadhmo yajāmasi || 3 ||
uṣā apa svasus tamaḥ saṁ vartayati vartaniṁ sujātatā || 4 ||
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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