Sacred Texts  Hinduism  Index  Sanskrit  Rig-Veda, Book 4 Index  Previous  Next 

HYMN XXX. Indra.

1. O INDRA, Vrtra-slayer, none is better, mightier than thou:
Verily there is none like thee.
2 Like chariot-wheels these people all together follow after thee:
Thou ever art renowned as Great.
3 Not even all the gathered Gods conquered thee, Indra, in the war,
When thou didst lengthen days by night.
4 When for the sake of those oppressed, and Kutsa as he battled,
Thou stolest away the Sun's car-wheel.
5 When, fighting singly, Indra. thou o'ercamest all the furious Gods, thou slewest those who strove with thee.
6 When also for a mortal man, Indra, thou speddest forth the Sun,
And holpest Etasa with might.
7 What? Vrtra-slayer, art not thou, Maghavan, fiercest in thy wrath?
So hast thou quelled the demon too.
8 And this heroic deed of might thou, Indra, also hast achieved,
That thou didst smite to death the Dame, Heaven's Daughter, meditating ill.
9 Thou, Indra, Mighty One, didst crush Usas, though Daughter of the Sky.
When lifting up herself in pride.
10 Then from her chariot Usas fled, affrighted, from her ruined car.
When the strong God had shattered it.
11 So there this car of Usas lay, broken to pieces, in Vipas,
And she herself fled far away.
12 Thou, Indra, didst. with magic power resist the overflowing stream
Who spread her waters o'er the land.
13 Valiantly didst thou seize and take the store which Susna had amassed,
When thou didst crush his fortresses.
14 Thou, Indra, also smotest down Kulitara's son Sambara,
The Dasa, from the lofty hill.
15 Of Dasa Varcin's thou didst slay the hundred thousand and the five,
Crushed like the fellies, of a car.
16 So Indra, Lord of Heroes, Powers, caused the unwedded damsel's son,
The castaway, to share the lauds.
17 So sapient Indra, Lord of Might, brought Turvaga and Yadu, those
Who feared the flood, in safel o'er.
18 Arpa and Citraratha, both Aryas, thou, Indra, slewest swift,
On yonder side of Sarayu,
19 Thou, Vrtra-slayer, didst conduct those two forlorn, the blind, the lame.
None may attain this bliss of thine.
20 For Divodasa, him who brought oblationt, 1ndra overthrew
A hundred fortresses of stone.
21 The thirty thousand Disas he with magic power and weapons sent
To slumber, for Dabhiti's sake.
22 As such, O Vrtra-slayer, thou art general Lord of kine for all,
Thou Shaker of all things that be.
23 Indra, whatever deed of might thou hast this day to execute,
None be there now to hinder it.
24 O Watchful One, may Aryaman the God give thee all goodly things.
May Risan, Bhaga, and the God Karulati give all things fair.

Next: HYMN XXXI. Indra.