Hymn to Varuṇa
Rigveda V.69 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 5 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.
Come to us, O Mitra-Varuṇa! Come with thy swift feet to this altar where we have prepared thy seat. We have laid the sacred grass; we have poured the butter; we have kindled the fire. All is ready for thy descent.
Hear our supplication! We are thy servants, bound by the rope of ṛta that thou hast woven. We seek thy favour and thy blessing. Grant us this day thy grace; let thy protection fall upon us like the shadow of a great tree in the heat of summer.
Come, and accept our gift! For what we offer, though meager, cometh from a sincere and grateful heart. We have nothing great to give thee—only the butter of our herds, the grain of our fields, the song of our voices. Yet these we lay before thee with all the love and devotion of which we are capable.
O lord, O lord most high! Turn thy face toward us; let the light of thy countenance shine upon us. We cry out in the darkness; hear us. We reach out from the depths; lift us up. For thou art merciful; thou art just; thou art the very foundation of all that is true and good and lasting in this 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 V.69
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.
trī rocanā varuṇa trīm̐r uta dyūn trīṇi mitra dhārayatho rajāṁsi |
vāvṛdhānāv amatiṁ kṣatriyasyānu vrataṁ rakṣamāṇāv ajuryam || 1 ||
irāvatīr varuṇa dhenavo vām madhumad vāṁ sindhavo mitra duhre |
trayas tasthur vṛṣabhāsas tisṛṇāṁ dhiṣaṇānāṁ retodhā vi dyumantaḥ || 2 ||
prātar devīm aditiṁ johavīmi madhyaṁdina uditā sūryasya |
rāye mitrāvaruṇā sarvatāteḻe tokāya tanayāya śaṁ yoḥ || 3 ||
yā dhartārā rajaso rocanasyotādityā divyā pārthivasya |
na vāṁ devā amṛtā ā minanti vratāni mitrāvaruṇā dhruvāṇi || 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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