Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VI.18 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 6 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.
I.
Sing we of Indra, the slayer of Vṛtra the serpent,
Thou who didst break the coils of darkness and of death,
When Vṛtra lay coiled round the waters of the world,
And thou didst hurl thy thunderbolt and rend him asunder.
II.
The dragon lay in waiting, vast and terrible,
His body wound about the mountains and the clouds,
He held the rains imprisoned in his belly,
And all the earth lay parched beneath his curse.
III.
Then Indra, wise and valiant, didst conceive the plan,
Thou didst call upon Tvaṣṭṛ to forge thy weapon bright,
The thunderbolt, more terrible than all the powers,
That should cut through the serpent's scales and bones.
IV.
With might, O Indra, didst thou rise to battle,
The Maruts gathered round thee, crying out their war-cry loud,
Thou hurled the thunderbolt with all thy sovereign power,
And Vṛtra fell beneath the sky like thunder's fallen stone.
V.
The serpent writhed and twisted in his death-throes,
Blood poured forth from his broken body like a flood,
The waters, long imprisoned, leapt forth in exultation,
And rushed to flow again through rivers to the sea.
VI.
The sun rose up victorious in the eastern sky,
The rains came down upon the thirsty earth,
All creatures raised their voices in thanksgiving,
For Indra had restored the order of the world.
VII.
O mighty slayer of the demon Vṛtra,
Accept our praises, hear our grateful voice,
Keep thou the serpents ever in their chains,
And grant us always the abundance of the rains.
VIII.
By thee is kept the cosmic order sacred,
By thee the light perpetual shineth forth,
O Indra, let thy strength sustain us forever,
And shield us from the darkness that would rise again.
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 VI.18
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.
tam u ṣṭuhi yo abhibhūtyojā vanvann avātaḥ puruhūta indraḥ |
aṣāḻham ugraṁ sahamānam ābhir gīrbhir vardha vṛṣabhaṁ carṣaṇīnām || 1 ||
sa yudhmaḥ satvā khajakṛt samadvā tuvimrakṣo nadanumām̐ ṛjīṣī |
bṛhadreṇuś cyavano mānuṣīṇām ekaḥ kṛṣṭīnām abhavat sahāvā || 2 ||
tvaṁ ha nu tyad adamāyo dasyūm̐r ekaḥ kṛṣṭīr avanor āryāya |
asti svin nu vīrya1ṁ tat ta indra na svid asti tad ṛtuthā vi vocaḥ || 3 ||
sad id dhi te tuvijātasya manye sahaḥ sahiṣṭha turatas turasya |
ugram ugrasya tavasas tavīyo 'radhrasya radhraturo babhūva || 4 ||
tan naḥ pratnaṁ sakhyam astu yuṣme itthā vadadbhir valam aṅgirobhiḥ |
hann acyutacyud dasmeṣayantam ṛṇoḥ puro vi duro asya viśvāḥ || 5 ||
sa hi dhībhir havyo asty ugra īśānakṛn mahati vṛtratūrye |
sa tokasātā tanaye sa vajrī vitantasāyyo abhavat samatsu || 6 ||
sa majmanā janima mānuṣāṇām amartyena nāmnāti pra sarsre |
sa dyumnena sa śavasota rāyā sa vīryeṇa nṛtamaḥ samokāḥ || 7 ||
sa yo na muhe na mithū jano bhūt sumantunāmā cumuriṁ dhuniṁ ca |
vṛṇak pipruṁ śambaraṁ śuṣṇam indraḥ purāṁ cyautnāya śayathāya nū cit || 8 ||
udāvatā tvakṣasā panyasā ca vṛtrahatyāya ratham indra tiṣṭha |
dhiṣva vajraṁ hasta ā dakṣiṇatrābhi pra manda purudatra māyāḥ || 9 ||
agnir na śuṣkaṁ vanam indra hetī rakṣo ni dhakṣy aśanir na bhīmā |
gambhīraya ṛṣvayā yo rurojādhvānayad duritā dambhayac ca || 10 ||
ā sahasram pathibhir indra rāyā tuvidyumna tuvivājebhir arvāk |
yāhi sūno sahaso yasya nū cid adeva īśe puruhūta yotoḥ || 11 ||
pra tuvidyumnasya sthavirasya ghṛṣver divo rarapśe mahimā pṛthivyāḥ |
nāsya śatrur na pratimānam asti na pratiṣṭhiḥ purumāyasya sahyoḥ || 12 ||
pra tat te adyā karaṇaṁ kṛtam bhūt kutsaṁ yad āyum atithigvam asmai |
purū sahasrā ni śiśā abhi kṣām ut tūrvayāṇaṁ dhṛṣatā ninetha || 13 ||
anu tvāhighne adha deva devā madan viśve kavitamaṁ kavīnām |
karo yatra varivo bādhitāya dive janāya tanve gṛṇānaḥ || 14 ||
anu dyāvāpṛthivī tat ta ojo 'martyā jihata indra devāḥ |
kṛṣvā kṛtno akṛtaṁ yat te asty ukthaṁ navīyo janayasva yajñaiḥ || 15 ||
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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