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Rig Veda · 322 of 1027
Mandala 4: HYMN XXVI. Indra.
1.I WAS aforetime Manu, I was Sūrya: I am the sage Kakṣīvān, holy singer. Kutsa the son of Ārjuni I master. I am the sapient Uśanā behold me.
2.I have bestowed the earth upon the Ārya, and rain upon the man who brings oblation. I guided forth the loudly-roaring waters, and the Gods moved according to my pleasure.
3.In the wild joy of Soma I demolished Śambara’s forts, ninety-and-nine, together; And, utterly, the hundredth habitation, when helping Divodāsa Atithigva.
4.Before all birds be ranked this Bird, O Maruts; supreme of falcons be this fleet-winged Falcon, Because, strong- pinioned, with no car to bear him, he brought to Manu the Godloved oblation.
5.When the Bird brought it, hence in rapid motion sent on the wide path fleet as thought he hurried. Swift he returned with sweetness of the Soma, and hence the Falcon hath acquired his glory.
6.Bearing the stalk, the Falcon speeding onward, Bird bringing from afar the draught that gladdens, Friend of the Gods, brought, grasping fast, the Soma which be bad taken from yon loftiest heaven.
7.The Falcon took and brought the Soma, bearing thousand libations with him, yea, ten thousand. The Bold One left Malignities behind him, wise, in wild joy of Soma, left the foolish.
Asked of Guide
Why does the speaker claim identities like Manu and Sūrya in this hymn to Indra?
The speaker asserts multiple identities—Manu, Sūrya, Kakṣīvān—to stake a single voice as ancient, cosmic, and authorized: he speaks as ancestral lawgiver, as the sun, and as a seer. That list of names establishes that the feat—the bringing and bestowing of Soma, victory over Śambara, giving earth and rain—belongs to a timeless power embodied through many forms.
This rhetorical move appears elsewhere in the Vedas where a seer enlarges authority by merging with divine and legendary figures; see the Khilani and some récits in the Yajurveda where identification with a deity validates the poet’s claim to have given law, ritual, or boon. The effect is to present Indra’s acts as continuous with primeval world-making voices.
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