Hymn to Varuṇa
Rigveda X.185 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.
Great is the heaven-born aid of the Three—of Mitra, of Aryaman, and of Varuṇa— aid not lightly broken nor withstood.
No man of crooked speech nor guileful tongue may rule where they abide, whether by hearth or on the wild and wandering way.
For they, the sons of Aditi, pour forth an endless light, that man may dwell and draw breath beneath its grace.
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.185
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.
mahi trīṇām avo 'stu dyukṣam mitrasyāryamṇaḥ |
durādharṣaṁ varuṇasya || 1 ||
nahi teṣām amā cana nādhvasu vāraṇeṣu |
īśe ripur aghaśaṁsaḥ || 2 ||
yasmai putrāso aditeḥ pra jīvase martyāya |
jyotir yacchanty ajasram || 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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