Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda VII.80 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.
Hail, O Uṣas! Thou who art the most beautiful of all the immortals! Thy golden robes do outshine the sun itself. Thy smile is sweeter than honey; thy voice is gentler than the whisper of the breeze through the leaves.
All the world doth await thy coming. The sick man hopeth that thy light shall heal him. The poor man hopeth that thy coming shall bring fortune. The lonely man hopeth that thy light shall dispel the shadows of his heart.
Do not delay, O merciful one! Come swiftly; come surely; come with all thy golden glory! We are waiting for thee with outstretched hands and uplifted hearts.
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.80
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 stomebhir uṣasaṁ vasiṣṭhā gīrbhir viprāsaḥ prathamā abudhran |
vivartayantīṁ rajasī samante āviṣkṛṇvatīm bhuvanāni viśvā || 1 ||
eṣā syā navyam āyur dadhānā gūḍhvī tamo jyotiṣoṣā abodhi |
agra eti yuvatir ahrayāṇā prācikitat sūryaṁ yajñam agnim || 2 ||
aśvāvatīr gomatīr na uṣāso vīravatīḥ sadam ucchantu bhadrāḥ |
ghṛtaṁ duhānā viśvataḥ prapītā yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 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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