Hymn to Indra
Rigveda IX.38 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 9 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.
This selfsame one—a bull, a chariot—doth burst through the fleece of sheep, hastening to the prize a thousandfold.
Him do the maidens of Trita—yea, the fingers—drive with stone, the droplet drawn for Indra’s draught.
This selfsame one is tended by the ten tawny maids, ever laboring, who make him fair for rapture’s sake.
He setteth himself amid the tribes of men, as doth a falcon to her nest, hasting as a lover to his maid.
This very draught, the joy-bringing sap, looketh down from on high— Heaven’s own child, the drop who entered the fleece.
And this same tawny draught, pressed for the cup, doth onward rush, neighing toward his own beloved womb.
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 IX.38
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.
eṣa u sya vṛṣā ratho 'vyo vārebhir arṣati |
gacchan vājaṁ sahasriṇam || 1 ||
etaṁ tritasya yoṣaṇo hariṁ hinvanty adribhiḥ |
indum indrāya pītaye || 2 ||
etaṁ tyaṁ harito daśa marmṛjyante apasyuvaḥ |
yābhir madāya śumbhate || 3 ||
eṣa sya mānuṣīṣv ā śyeno na vikṣu sīdati |
gacchañ jāro na yoṣitam || 4 ||
eṣa sya madyo raso 'va caṣṭe divaḥ śiśuḥ |
ya indur vāram āviśat || 5 ||
eṣa sya pītaye suto harir arṣati dharṇasiḥ |
krandan yonim abhi priyam || 6 ||
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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