Hymn to Pṛthivī
Rigveda V.84 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.
O Pṛthivī, the broad one, the wide, the steady, the eternal mother upon whom all things rest! Thou art greater than all the gods, for even they stand upon thee. Thou art their foundation, their support, the ground of their being.
We are borne upon thy surface, O Earth. Our feet touch thee each day. The seeds that grow thy forests and meadows drink from thy soil. The waters that fill thy rivers and springs come forth from thy hidden depths. Thou containest all richness, all fertility, all bounty.
Thy patience is infinite, O Pṛthivī. Thou receivest the footsteps of countless creatures—the heavy tread of the elephant, the light leap of the deer, the crawling of the ant. Thou receivest the cruelty of those who would wound thee, yet thou art not angered. Thou remainest stable and strong.
Thou art the mother who giveth without counting the cost. When we cast seeds into thy breast, thou nourishest them and returnest them to us transformed—wheat and barley, fruit and flower. When we extract the minerals and metals from thy deep places, thou allowest us to take what we need. Thy generosity knoweth no measure.
We abuse thee, O broad one. We scarify thy skin with our tools. We pollute thy waters. Yet still thou persistest in providing for us, in sustaining all life without complaint. There is no other force in the cosmos that showeth such quiet, enduring love.
O Pṛthivī, accept our gratitude. We bow before thee. We place our foreheads upon thy sacred soil. Give us the wisdom to treat thee with respect, and the grace to recognize that without thee, we would be nothing.
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.84
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.
baḻ itthā parvatānāṁ khidram bibharṣi pṛthivi |
pra yā bhūmim pravatvati mahnā jinoṣi mahini || 1 ||
stomāsas tvā vicāriṇi prati ṣṭobhanty aktubhiḥ |
pra yā vājaṁ na heṣantam perum asyasy arjuni || 2 ||
dṛḻhā cid yā vanaspatīn kṣmayā dardharṣy ojasā |
yat te abhrasya vidyuto divo varṣanti vṛṣṭayaḥ || 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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