The Hymns of the Rigveda/Book 1/Hymn 32

I will declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he achieved, the Thunder-wielder.
He slew the Dragon, then disclosed the waters, and cleft the channels of the mountain torrents.

2 He slew the Dragon^[2] lying on the mountain: his heavenly bolt of thunder Tvashṭar^[3] fashioned.
Like lowing kine in rapid flow descending the waters glided downward to the ocean.

3 Impetuous as a bull, he chose the Soma, and in three sacred beakers^[4] drank the juices.
Maghavan^[5] grasped the thunder for his weapon, and smote to death this firstborn of the dragons.

4 When, Indra, thou hadst slain the dragons’ firstborn, and overcome the charms of the enchanters^[6],
Then, giving life to Sun and Dawn and Heaven, thou foundest not one foe to stand against thee.

5 Indra with his own great and deadly thunder smote into pieces Vṛitra, worst of Vṛitras.
As trunks of trees, what time the axe hath felled them, low on the earth so lies the prostrate Dragon.

6 He, like a mad weak warrior, challenged Indra, the great impetuous many-slaying Hero.
He, brooking not the clashing of the weapons, crushed—Indra’s foe—the shattered forts in falling.

7 Footless and handless still he challenged Indra, who smote him with his bolt between the shoulders.
Emasculate yet claiming manly vigour, thus Vṛitra lay with scattered limbs dissevered.

8 There as he lies like a bank-bursting river, the waters taking courage flow above him.
The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vṛitra with his greatness had encompassed.

9 Then humbled was the strength of Vṛitra’s mother: Indra hath cast his deadly bolt against her.
The mother was above, the son was under, and like a cow beside her calf lay Dânu^[7].

10 Rolled in the midst of never-ceasing currents flowing without a rest for ever onward,
The waters bear off Vṛitra’s nameless body: the foe of Indra sank to during darkness.

11 Guarded by Ahi stood the thralls of Dâsas^[8], the waters stayed like kine held by the robber^[9].
But he, when he had smitten Vṛitra, opened the cave wherein the floods had been imprisoned.

12 A horse's tail wast thou^[10] when he, O Indra, smote on thy bolt; thou, God without a second,
Thou hast won back the kine, hast won the Soma; thou hast let loose to flow the Seven Rivers^[11].

13 Nothing availed him lightning, nothing thunder, hailstorm or mist which he had spread around him:
When Indra and the Dragon strove in battle, Maghavan gained the victory for ever.

14 Whom sawest thou to avenge the Dragon, Indra, that fear possessed thy heart when thou hadst slain him;
That, like a hawk affrighted through the regions, thou crossedst nine-and-ninety^[12] flowing rivers?^[13]

15 Indra is King of all that moves and moves not, of creatures tame and horned, the Thunder-wielder.
Over all living men he rules as Sovran, containing all as spokes within the felly.

1. ‘In this and subsequent Sûktas we have an ample elucidation of the original purport of the legend of Indra’s slaying Vṛitra, converted by the Paurânik writers into a literal contest between Indra and an Asura, or chief of the Asuras, from what in the Vedas is merely an allegorical narrative of the production of rain. Vṛitra, sometimes also named Ahi, is nothing more than the accumulation of vapour, condensed or figuratively shut up in, or obstructed by, a cloud. Indra, with his thunderbolt, or atmospheric or electrical influence, divides the aggregated mass, and vent is given to the rain which then descends upon the earth.’ Wilson.
2. The Dragon: Ahi, literally a serpent.
3. Tvashṭar is the artist of the Gods.
4. In three sacred beakers: tríkadrukeshu; according to Sâyaṇa, on the Trikadrukas, the first three days of the Abhiplava ceremony, [MISSING TEXT].
5. Maghavan: the wealthy and liberal; Lord Bountiful.
6. The charms of the enchanters: magical or supernatural powers ascribed to Vṛitra and his allies.
7. Dânu: according to Sâyaṇa, the mother of Vṛitra.
8. Thralls of Dâsas: in the power of Vṛitra and his allies. Dâsa is a general name applied in the Veda to certain evil beings or demons, hostile to Indra and to men. It means, also, a savage, a barbarian, one of the non-Âryan inhabitants of India.
9. The robber: paṇí (literally, one who barters and traffics) means a miser, a niggard; an impious man who gives little or nothing to the Gods. The word is used also as the name of a class of envious demons watching over treasures, and as an epithet of the fiends who steal cows and hide them in mountain caverns.
10. A horse's tail was thou: destroying thy enemies as easily as a horse sweeps away flies with his tail. Cf. I. 27. 1.
11. The Seven Rivers: according to Professor Max Müller, the Indus, the five rivers of the Panjâb (Vitastâ, Asiknî, Parushṇî, Vipâṣ, Ṣutudri) and the Sarasvatî, Lassen and Ludwig put the Kubhâ in the place of the last-named.
12. Nine-and-ninety: [MISSING TEXT] a great number.
13. This fight of Indra is frequently alluded to. It is said that he fled thinking that he had [MISSING TEXT] sin in killing Vritra.