Rig Veda

Book 4, Hymn XXX. Indra

1. O INDRA, Vṛtra-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 Etaśa with might.

7 What? Vṛtra-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 Uṣas, though Daughter of the Sky.
When lifting up herself in pride.

10 Then from her chariot Uṣas fled, affrighted, from her ruined car.
When the strong God had shattered it.

11 So there this car of Uṣas lay, broken to pieces, in Vipāś,
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 Śuṣṇa had amassed,
When thou didst crush his fortresses.

14 Thou, Indra, also smotest down Kulitara's son Śambara,
The Dāsa, from the lofty hill.

15 Of Dāsa 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 Turvaśa and Yadu, those
Who feared the flood, in safety o’er.

18 Arṇa and Citraratha, both Āryas, thou, Indra, slewest swift,
On yonder side of Sarayu,

19 Thou, Vṛtra-slayer, didst conduct those two forlorn, the blind, the lame.
None may attain this bliss of thine.

20 For Divodāsa, him who brought oblations, Indra overthrew
A hundred fortresses of stone.

21 The thirty thousand Dāsas he with magic power and weapons sent
To slumber, for Dabhīti's sake.

22 As such, O Vṛtra-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 Pūṣan, Bhaga, and the God Karūḷatī give all things fair.