Hymn to Vāc
Rigveda IV.50 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 4 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.
Bṛhaspati! Lord of sacred speech! Thy word is power. Thy utterance is the hammer that shatters all darkness. When thou speakest, the heavens tremble. When thou utterest the ṛta, the cosmos aligneth itself.
Thou art the priest of the immortals. Thou standest at the sacred fire and offerest up the prayers of men. Thy voice riseth like the dawn. Thy words fall like rain upon parched earth. Through thee the gods receive their worship. Through thee the sacrifice hath meaning.
Darkness fleeth before thy speech! The demons shriek and vanish when thou utterest thy sacred syllables. The ṛta—the order of all things—floweth from thy lips like the Soma itself. Thou knowest all sacred formulas. Thou speakest in the tongue of the gods.
O mighty Bṛhaspati! We have no wisdom save through thee. We have no prayer save what thou givest us. Thou art our guide, our teacher, our protector. When we are lost in darkness, thy word shineth like a beacon. When we are bound by fear, thy speech liberateth us.
Accept this offering, O lord of sacred prayer! Accept the soma and the honey-cake. Accept the praise of mortal men who know that without thee we are but fools. Let thy word dwell within our hearts. Let thy wisdom guide our steps. Let thy sacred speech protect us from all harm. O Bṛhaspati! O mighty lord! Remain with us. Teach us. Guide us. We worship thee!
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 IV.50
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.
yas tastambha sahasā vi jmo antān bṛhaspatis triṣadhastho raveṇa |
tam pratnāsa ṛṣayo dīdhyānāḥ puro viprā dadhire mandrajihvam || 1 ||
dhunetayaḥ supraketam madanto bṛhaspate abhi ye nas tatasre |
pṛṣantaṁ sṛpram adabdham ūrvam bṛhaspate rakṣatād asya yonim || 2 ||
bṛhaspate yā paramā parāvad ata ā ta ṛtaspṛśo ni ṣeduḥ |
tubhyaṁ khātā avatā adridugdhā madhvaḥ ścotanty abhito virapśam || 3 ||
bṛhaspatiḥ prathamaṁ jāyamāno maho jyotiṣaḥ parame vyoman |
saptāsyas tuvijāto raveṇa vi saptaraśmir adhamat tamāṁsi || 4 ||
sa suṣṭubhā sa ṛkvatā gaṇena valaṁ ruroja phaligaṁ raveṇa |
bṛhaspatir usriyā havyasūdaḥ kanikradad vāvaśatīr ud ājat || 5 ||
evā pitre viśvadevāya vṛṣṇe yajñair vidhema namasā havirbhiḥ |
bṛhaspate suprajā vīravanto vayaṁ syāma patayo rayīṇām || 6 ||
sa id rājā pratijanyāni viśvā śuṣmeṇa tasthāv abhi vīryeṇa |
bṛhaspatiṁ yaḥ subhṛtam bibharti valgūyati vandate pūrvabhājam || 7 ||
sa it kṣeti sudhita okasi sve tasmā iḻā pinvate viśvadānīm |
tasmai viśaḥ svayam evā namante yasmin brahmā rājani pūrva eti || 8 ||
apratīto jayati saṁ dhanāni pratijanyāny uta yā sajanyā |
avasyave yo varivaḥ kṛṇoti brahmaṇe rājā tam avanti devāḥ || 9 ||
indraś ca somam pibatam bṛhaspate 'smin yajñe mandasānā vṛṣaṇvasū |
ā vāṁ viśantv indavaḥ svābhuvo 'sme rayiṁ sarvavīraṁ ni yacchatam || 10 ||
bṛhaspata indra vardhataṁ naḥ sacā sā vāṁ sumatir bhūtv asme |
aviṣṭaṁ dhiyo jigṛtam puraṁdhīr jajastam aryo vanuṣām arātīḥ || 11 ||
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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