Hymn to Bṛhaspati
Rigveda VI.73 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.
O Bṛhaspati, lord of sacred speech and divine eloquence! O master of the Vedic hymns and keeper of the cosmic truth! We sing thy praise with reverent voices.
Thou art the priest of the gods, the one who doth utter the sacred words that bind all things in their proper order. Through thy speech doth creation itself come into being. The words thou speakest are not mere sounds — they are the very structures of reality, the patterns by which all existence is organized.
Thou hast given wisdom to the ṛṣis and taught them the sacred utterances by which the gods are pleased. Thou hast shown mortals how to perform the sacrifices correctly, how to offer the proper words at the proper time. Through thee hath the bridge been built between the human realm and the realm of the immortals.
We praise thy knowledge, O Bṛhaspati! Thou dost know all the mysteries of the Vedas. Thou dost understand the hidden meanings that lie beneath the surface of the sacred texts. The deeper doctrines, the secret teachings, the revelations that come to the truly devoted — all these spring from thy infinite wisdom.
Grant us, we beseech thee, a portion of thy eloquence. Grant us the ability to speak truth with clarity and power. Give us wisdom to understand the sacred knowledge that thou dost guard. May our words be ever pleasing to the gods and beneficial to all beings.
Bless our offerings, O lord of sacred speech. Accept our hymn and let thy guidance ever illuminate our path. Through thy blessing may we ever dwell in harmony with the divine order.
O Bṛhaspati, hear us and accept our devotion.
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.73
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.
yo adribhit prathamajā ṛtāvā bṛhaspatir āṅgiraso haviṣmān |
dvibarhajmā prāgharmasat pitā na ā rodasī vṛṣabho roravīti || 1 ||
janāya cid ya īvata u lokam bṛhaspatir devahūtau cakāra |
ghnan vṛtrāṇi vi puro dardarīti jayañ chatrūm̐r amitrān pṛtsu sāhan || 2 ||
bṛhaspatiḥ sam ajayad vasūni maho vrajān gomato deva eṣaḥ |
apaḥ siṣāsan sva1r apratīto bṛhaspatir hanty amitram arkaiḥ || 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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