Hymn to Indra
Rigveda VIII.54 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 8 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 Indra, thou art sovereign lord of all the gods that dwell on high.
The lesser deities do bow before thy majesty supreme.
Thou rulest over heaven's realm and all the mortal men below.
No god can match thy might, no power can stand against thy will.
The very creation doth obey the law that thou hast set for it.
The sun and moon and stars do mark their courses as thou hast ordained.
Thy thunderbolt, that supreme weapon wrought of adamantine strength,
Is like unto the lightning's flash when it doth split the clouded veil.
With it thou dost maintain the order of the cosmos and the worlds.
The men of learning sing thy praise, they gather here to make their offering.
We pour the soma out for thee and raise our voices in thy name.
Accept this sacrifice of ours and grant unto us thy reward.
O Indra, lord of all the powers that are, do thou accept our hymn.
We ask that thou wilt grant to us the wisdom to know thy great deeds.
That we may walk the righteous path and never stray from thy just law.
The thunderer, the mighty one, the victor over all the foes,
We call upon thy majesty and bow before thy excellence.
Grant us thy protection and thy strength that we may live secure.
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 VIII.54
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.
etat ta indra vīryaṁ gīrbhir gṛṇanti kāravaḥ |
te stobhanta ūrjam āvan ghṛtaścutam paurāso nakṣan dhītibhiḥ || 1 ||
nakṣanta indram avase sukṛtyayā yeṣāṁ suteṣu mandase |
yathā saṁvarte amado yathā kṛśa evāsme indra matsva || 2 ||
ā no viśve sajoṣaso devāso gantanopa naḥ |
vasavo rudrā avase na ā gamañ chṛṇvantu maruto havam || 3 ||
pūṣā viṣṇur havanam me sarasvaty avantu sapta sindhavaḥ |
āpo vātaḥ parvatāso vanaspatiḥ śṛṇotu pṛthivī havam || 4 ||
yad indra rādho asti te māghonam maghavattama |
tena no bodhi sadhamādyo vṛdhe bhago dānāya vṛtrahan || 5 ||
ājipate nṛpate tvam id dhi no vāja ā vakṣi sukrato |
vītī hotrābhir uta devavītibhiḥ sasavāṁso vi śṛṇvire || 6 ||
santi hy a1rya āśiṣa indra āyur janānām |
asmān nakṣasva maghavann upāvase dhukṣasva pipyuṣīm iṣam || 7 ||
vayaṁ ta indra stomebhir vidhema tvam asmākaṁ śatakrato |
mahi sthūraṁ śaśayaṁ rādho ahrayam praskaṇvāya ni tośaya || 8 ||
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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