Hymn to Vāc
Rigveda X.177 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.
The bird, anointed with the might of the Lord, is beheld by those whose hearts are tuned to song.
They see it not with eye alone, but with inward sight and mind made still.
The seers mark it moving o’er the deep, and those who tend the rites go seeking where the light hath left its trace.
The bird beareth speech upon the wings of thought.
The Gandharva spoke it in the womb unseen.
The sage-spirits guard that flashing, echoing spark— the inspired breath that dwelleth in the track of truth.
I beheld the cowherd, who maketh no home, wandering to and fro upon the hidden ways.
Clad in robes that meet and part again—
the rays, mayhap—he rolleth onward through the quickened worlds.
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.177
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.
pataṁgam aktam asurasya māyayā hṛdā paśyanti manasā vipaścitaḥ |
samudre antaḥ kavayo vi cakṣate marīcīnām padam icchanti vedhasaḥ || 1 ||
pataṁgo vācam manasā bibharti tāṁ gandharvo 'vadad garbhe antaḥ |
tāṁ dyotamānāṁ svaryam manīṣām ṛtasya pade kavayo ni pānti || 2 ||
apaśyaṁ gopām anipadyamānam ā ca parā ca pathibhiś carantam |
sa sadhrīcīḥ sa viṣūcīr vasāna ā varīvarti bhuvaneṣv antaḥ || 3 ||
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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