Hymn to Indra
Rigveda IX.45 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.
Set thine eye upon men, and make thyself clean for rapture— for the hunt of the gods,
O drop, and for Indra’s draught.
Speed forth upon thy task for our sake—
thou pourest thyself out for Indra—
haste of thine own will to the gods, thy fellows.
We anoint thee, O ruddy one, with kine for gladness;
unlock for us the doors of wealth.
He hath passed beyond the sieve, as a steed that seeketh the prize runs forth beside the yoke.
The drop playeth the lord among the gods.
His fellows all raised their cry as he sported within the wooden bowl, beyond the woolen veil.
To the drop the thunders have thundered.
Wash thyself in that stream wherein, once thou art drunk,
thou shalt behold a host of heroes for thy singer, O drop.
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.45
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.
sa pavasva madāya kaṁ nṛcakṣā devavītaye |
indav indrāya pītaye || 1 ||
sa no arṣābhi dūtya1ṁ tvam indrāya tośase |
devān sakhibhya ā varam || 2 ||
uta tvām aruṇaṁ vayaṁ gobhir añjmo madāya kam |
vi no rāye duro vṛdhi || 3 ||
aty ū pavitram akramīd vājī dhuraṁ na yāmani |
indur deveṣu patyate || 4 ||
sam ī sakhāyo asvaran vane krīḻantam atyavim |
induṁ nāvā anūṣata || 5 ||
tayā pavasva dhārayā yayā pīto vicakṣase |
indo stotre suvīryam || 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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