Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda VII.79 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.
Come, O Uṣas! Come with thy light! The creatures of the night do hide themselves away. The owl, who rejoiced in darkness, now fleeth to the shadows. The serpent, who crept freely across the earth, now seeketh the cool refuge of the stone. But the deer, the bird, the cattle—all look upward and welcome thy coming.
Thou art the gateway between the world of darkness and the world of light. No one passeth that threshold without thy blessing. The night-wanderer must acknowledge thy power; the day-creature must give thee thanks.
Thou givest strength to the warrior who must fight. Thou givest courage to the merchant who must travel. Thou givest hope to the mother who beareth a child. All the works of the day are possible because thou dost come.
O maiden fair and golden! O wanderer of the heavens! O eternal one who knowest neither age nor decay! We sing thy praises as our forefathers sang them long ago. We shall sing thy praises as our descendants shall sing them in times to come.
Give unto us thy light! Give unto us thy strength! Give unto us thy eternal youth! Let us bathe in thy golden rays! Let us feel the warmth of thy presence! And though we know we shall grow old and pass away, let us at least know the joy of thy company while we remain upon this earth.
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.79
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.
vy u1ṣā āvaḥ pathyā3 janānām pañca kṣitīr mānuṣīr bodhayantī |
susaṁdṛgbhir ukṣabhir bhānum aśred vi sūryo rodasī cakṣasāvaḥ || 1 ||
vy añjate divo anteṣv aktūn viśo na yuktā uṣaso yatante |
saṁ te gāvas tama ā vartayanti jyotir yacchanti saviteva bāhū || 2 ||
abhūd uṣā indratamā maghony ajījanat suvitāya śravāṁsi |
vi divo devī duhitā dadhāty aṅgirastamā sukṛte vasūni || 3 ||
tāvad uṣo rādho asmabhyaṁ rāsva yāvat stotṛbhyo arado gṛṇānā |
yāṁ tvā jajñur vṛṣabhasyā raveṇa vi dṛḻhasya duro adrer aurṇoḥ || 4 ||
devaṁ-devaṁ rādhase codayanty asmadryak sūnṛtā īrayantī |
vyucchantī naḥ sanaye dhiyo dhā 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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