The Rigveda SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH Series Editor Martha Selby A Publication Series of The University of Texas South Asia Institute and Oxford University Press THE EARLY UPANIṢADS MANAGING MONKS Annotated Text and Translation Administrators and Administrative Roles in Patrick Olivelle Indian Buddhist Monasticism Jonathan A. Silk INDIAN EPIGRAPHY A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in ŚIVA IN TROUBLE Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Festivals and Rituals at the Paśupatinātha Languages Temple of Deopatan Richard Salomon Axel Michaels A DICTIONARY OF OLD MARATHI A PRIEST’S GUIDE FOR THE GREAT S.G. Tulpule and Anne Feldhaus FESTIVAL Aghoraśiva’s Mahotsavavidhi DONORS, DEVOTEES, AND Richard H. Davis DAUGHTERS OF GOD Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu DHARMA Leslie C. Orr Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative JĪMŪTAVĀHANA’S DĀYABHĀGA Alf Hiltebeitel The Hindu Law of Inheritance in Bengal Edited and Translated with an Introduction POETRY OF KINGS and Notes by Ludo Rocher The Classical Hindi Literature of Mughal India A PORTRAIT OF THE HINDUS Allison Busch Balthazar Solvyns and the European Image of India 1740–1824 THE RISE OF A FOLK GOD Robert L. Hardgrave Viṭṭhal of Pandharpur Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere MANU’S CODE OF LAW Translated by Anne Feldhaus A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra WOMEN IN EARLY INDIAN Patrick Olivelle BUDDHISM Comparative Textual Studies NECTAR GAZE AND Edited by Alice Collett POISON BREATH An Analysis and Translation of the THE RIGVEDA Rajasthani Oral Narrative of Devnarayan The Earliest Religious Poetry of India Aditya Malik Translated by Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton BETWEEN THE EMPIRES Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE Patrick Olivelle The Rigveda The earliesT religious PoeTry of india Translated by stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © The University of Texas, South Asia Institute 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vedas. Rgveda. English. The Rigveda: the earliest religious poetry of India / Translated by Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton. pages cm. — (South Asia research) Includes bibliographical references and index. Translated from Vedic Sanskrit. ISBN 978–0–19–517918–7 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–19–972078–1 (ebook) I. Jamison, Stephanie W., 1948– II. Brereton, Joel P., 1948– III. Title. BL1112.52.E53 2013 294.5′921204521—dc23 2013019055 ISBN 9780199370184 (Set ISBN) ISBN 9780195179187 (Volume 1) ISBN 9780199363780 (Volume 2) ISBN 9780199363797 (Volume 3) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Stanley, where it all began br̥h́ aspate prathamáṃ vācó ágram R̥gveda X.71.1a JPB and SWJ For René, my life’s companion JPB In memory of my beloved husband (1933–2013) SWJ Contents acknowledgements ix a note on the Title xi abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 Volume I Maṇḍala I 87 Maṇḍala II 399 Maṇḍala III 464 Maṇḍala IV 555 Volume II Maṇḍala V 659 Maṇḍala VI 772 Maṇḍala VII 879 Maṇḍala VIII 1019 Volume III Maṇḍala IX 1233 Maṇḍala X 1367 Bibliography 1663 Deities and Poets of the R̥gveda, following the Anukramaṇı̄ 1671 ACknowledgements This translation exists because of Patrick Olivelle, who, some fifteen years ago or so at the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society in New Orleans in 1998, approached the two of us with a proposition: that we should undertake a quick translation of the R̥gveda for a general audience. Patrick’s persuasive powers are well known, and we were intrigued and easily persuaded. Although the “quick” element of the proposition was not exactly fulfilled, we wish to thank Patrick abun- dantly for starting us on this path, which has provided both of us with the most sustained and satisfying intellectual experience of our lives, and for his constant encouragement and sage advice along the way. That we could undertake this project at all is entirely due to our shared guru, Stanley Insler, with whom we first read R̥gveda in 1971. Stanley’s combination of meticulous philology with inventive interpretation and imaginative reading, never accepting conventional wisdom without scrutiny—however many millennia the conventional wisdom has held—has been a constant inspiration to us. And not only is our general approach to the text entirely informed by his teaching and example, but many of our interpretations of particular passages first saw the light of day in his classes. Over the years we have read R̥gveda with several generations of students, many of whom are now colleagues and friends, and other colleagues have read portions of our translation or discussed it with us, offering helpful and trenchant criticism and supportive encouragement. We cannot name them all, but among the many we wish to mention especially Jim Benson, Wendy Doniger, Harry Falk, Ben Fortson, Oliver Freiberger, Arlo Griffiths, Dieter Gunkel, Mark Hale, Hans Hock, Jan Houben, Joshua Katz, Jared Klein, Sasha Lubotsky, Jesse Lundquist, Craig Melchert, Chris Minkowski, Marianne Oort, Asko Parpola, Ted Proferes, Hanns-Peter Schmidt, Gregory Schopen, Martha Selby, Hartmut Scharfe, Oktor Skjaervø, Rupert Snell, George Thompson, Elizabeth Tucker, Brent Vine, and Jarrod Whitaker. We wish to acknowledge also the financial and institutional support that we have received. The National Endowment for the Humanities supported this project through a Collaborative Grant in 2005 that allowed us to work more frequently together during a critical period in our work. Also, we wish to thank both the University of Missouri, which provided Joel a leave to begin this project (during the academic year 1999–2000), and the University of Texas at Austin, which gave him time to continue it (in the fall 2004).