Atharva Veda · 616 of 724

HYMN XXXV

HYMN XXXV 1. To him, to him swift, strong, and high-exalted, I bring my song    of praise as dainty viands;   My thought to him resistless, meet for praises, prayers offered    most devotedly to Indra. 2. To him I offer praise as choice refreshment, bring forth my song,    with seemly laud besiege him.   For Indra, Lord of olden time, the singers shall deck their hymns    with heart and mind and spirit. 3. To him then with my lips my song of praises, excellent, winning    heavenly light, I offer,   To magnify with hymns of invocation and eulogies the Lord,    most bounteous Giver. 4. Even for him I frame a laud—so fashions the wright a chariot    for the man who needs it   Songs for wise Indra hymned with invocation, a song composed    with care and all-impelling. 5. So with my tongue I deck, to please that Indra, my hymn as't-    were a horse, through love of glory,   To reverence the Hero, bounteous Giver, famed far and wide,    destroyer of the castles. 6. Even for him hath Tvashtar forged the thunder, most deftly    wrought, celestial, for the battle.   Wherewith he reached the vital parts of Vritra, striking—the    vast, the mighty—with the striker, 7. As soon as, at libations of his mother, great Vishnu had drunk    up the draught, he plundered.   The dainty cates, the cooked mess; but One stronger transfixed    the wild boar, shooting through the mountain. 8. To him, to Indra when he slew the Dragon, the Dames too,   Consorts of the Gods, wove praises.   The mighty heaven and earth hath he encompassed: thy great-    ness heaven and earth, combined, exceed not. 9. Yea, of a truth, his magnitude surpasseth the magnitude of    earth, mid-air and heaven.   Indra whom all men praise, the Sovran Ruler, waxed in his    home loud-voiced and strong for battle. 10. Through his own strength with bolt of thunder Indra smote    piece-meal Vritra, drier up of waters.   He let the floods go free, like cows imprisoned, for glory, with    a heart inclined to bounty. 11. Through his resplendent power still stood the rivers when with    his bolt on every side he stayed them. p. 294   With lordly might favouring him who worshipped, he made a    ford, victorious, for Turviti. 12. Vast, with thine ample power, with eager movement against this   Vritra cast thy bolt of thunder.   Rend thou his joints, as of an ox dissevered, with bolt oblique    that floods of rain may follow. 13. Sing with new lauds his exploits wrought aforetime, the deeds    of him, yea, him who moveth swiftly,   When, hurling forth his weapons in the battle, he with impetuous    wrath lays low the foemen. 14. When he, yea, he is born the firm-set mountains and the whole    heaven and earth tremble in terror.   May Nodhas ever lauding the protection of this dear Friend win    straightway strength heroic. 15. Now unto him of these things hath been given what he, who    rules alone o'er much, electeth.   Indra helped Etasa, the Soma presser, contending in the chariot-    race with Sūrya. 16. Thus to thee, Indra, yoker of bay coursers, the Gotamas have    brought their prayers and praises.   Bestow upon them thought, decked with all beauty. May he,    enriched with prayer, come soon and early.