Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda VII.78 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 7 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.
She cometh again, O Uṣas! She cometh eternal, undying, forever the same! Each night she doth vanish; each morning she is reborn. The cycle turnsendlessly round and round, and she is the center of that turning wheel.
We mortals are born, and we live for a season, and then we die. Our days are numbered; our strength fadeth like the morning mist. But thou, O Uṣas, art exempt from all such decay. Generation after generation passeth away, and still thou dost come forth in thy beauty.
The father seeth thee rise; he groweth old and dieth. His son, in turn, seeth thee rise; he too groweth old and dieth. The grandson seeth thee rise; the great-grandson seeth thee rise. And still thou art young, still thou art fair, still thy golden light spreadeth across the earth with the same radiance as on the first day of creation.
We are fleeting as the shadow of a cloud upon the waters. Here we are, and then we are not. But thou remainest; thou art eternal in thy cycling. Every morning is thy triumph; every dawn is thy victory over the dark.
How strange it is to contemplate! We live among the immortals—Indra, who slayeth the demons; Agni, who dwelleth in every fire; Soma, who conferreth enlightenment. Yet among all these mighty gods, thou, O Uṣas, dost move with a different kind of power—the power not of force, but of constancy; not of strength, but of eternal renewal.
Art thou envious of thy eternal youth, O Uṣas? Dost thou ever grieve for the mortal creatures who age and wither? Or dost thou look upon us with compassion, knowing that even our brief years are illumined by thy light?
Perhaps it is enough that thou art what thou art. Perhaps it is enough that thou dost come again and again, never failing, never faltering. For in thy constancy, we mortals do find some small consolation. Though we shall pass away, still the Dawn shall come. Though we shall return to dust, still the Day shall be born anew.
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 VII.78
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.
prati ketavaḥ prathamā adṛśrann ūrdhvā asyā añjayo vi śrayante |
uṣo arvācā bṛhatā rathena jyotiṣmatā vāmam asmabhyaṁ vakṣi || 1 ||
prati ṣīm agnir jarate samiddhaḥ prati viprāso matibhir gṛṇantaḥ |
uṣā yāti jyotiṣā bādhamānā viśvā tamāṁsi duritāpa devī || 2 ||
etā u tyāḥ praty adṛśran purastāj jyotir yacchantīr uṣaso vibhātīḥ |
ajījanan sūryaṁ yajñam agnim apācīnaṁ tamo agād ajuṣṭam || 3 ||
aceti divo duhitā maghonī viśve paśyanty uṣasaṁ vibhātīm |
āsthād rathaṁ svadhayā yujyamānam ā yam aśvāsaḥ suyujo vahanti || 4 ||
prati tvādya sumanaso budhantāsmākāso maghavāno vayaṁ ca |
tilvilāyadhvam uṣaso vibhātīr yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 5 ||
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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