The Hymns of the Rigveda, Volume 1Jazzybee Verlag, 1920 - 560 pages In the dim twilight preceding the dawn of Indian literature the historical imagination can perceive the forms of Aryan warriors, the first Western conquerors of Hindustan, issuing from those passes in the north-west through which the tide of invasion has in successive ages rolled to sweep over the plains of India. The earliest poetry of this invading race, whose language and culture ultimately overspread the whole continent, was composed while its tribes still occupied the territories on both sides of the Indus now known as Eastern Kabulistan and the Panjab. That ancient poetry has come down to us in the form of a collection of hymns called the Rigveda. The cause which gathered the poems it contains into a single book was scientific and historical. The number of hymns comprised in the Rigveda, in the only recension which has been preserved, that of the Çakala school, is 1017, or, if the eleven supplementary hymns (called Valakhilya) which are inserted in the middle of the eighth book are added, 1028. These hymns are grouped in ten books, called mandalas, or "cycles," which vary in length, except that the tenth contains the same number of hymns as the first. In bulk the hymns of the Rigveda equal, it has been calculated, the surviving poems of Homer. |
Contents
Rig Veda Book The Second | 112 |
Rig Veda Book The Third | 138 |
Rig Veda Book The Fourth | 171 |
Rig Veda Book The Fifth | 202 |
Rig Veda Book The Sixth | 242 |
Rig Veda Book The Seventh | 282 |
Rig Veda Book The Eighth | 326 |
Rig Veda Book The Ninth | 401 |
Rig Veda Book The Tenth | 457 |
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Common terms and phrases
Agni Asvins battle bear blessings born bright bring brought Bull cattle chariot cows Dawn delight drink drops dwelling earth earth and heaven fair Father favour fight floods flow foes Friend gain gifts give glory Gods grant grass guard hast hath hear heaven Heaven and Earth Hero hither holy horses hundred Hymn Immortal Indra Indu invoke juice kine King laud light living Lord Maghavan Maruts meet mighty milk Mitra morning mortal Mother move oblation offered path Pavamana poured praise prayer pressed Priest protection riches rites sacred sacrifice Sage seat seek shine sing singer Soma Soma juice song sons splendour spread steeds streams strength strengthening strong sweet swift thee thine things thou art thought thousand thunder treasures unto Varuna waters wealth wise worlds worship