APOKRYPHA the pattern archive
← The reading room
Shelf entry · Vedic

Rigveda 1.32 (tr. Griffith)

Standing
traditionVedic
cited by 1 connection
public domain yes
passages digitized: 1
From the source register

Indra slays Vritra/Ahi, the dragon who 'with his greatness had encompassed' the torrents; the waters 'stayed like kine held by the robber' until the cave of floods is opened and they descend 'like lowing kine' to the ocean.

Digitized passages

The lines the citing connections rest on, digitized from the public-domain edition named under each passage. Wording is the edition's own.

  1. I will declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he achieved, the Thunder-wielder.
  2. He slew the Dragon, then disclosed the waters, and cleft the channels of the mountain torrents.
  3. He slew the Dragon lying on the mountain: his heavenly bolt of thunder Tvashtar fashioned.
  4. Like lowing kine in rapid flow descending the waters glided downward to the ocean.
  5. There as he lies like a bank-bursting river, the waters taking courage flow above him.
  6. The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vritra with his greatness had encompassed.
  7. Guarded by Ahi stood the thralls of Dasas, the waters stayed like kine held by the robber.
  8. But he, when he had smitten Vritra, opened the cave wherein the floods had been imprisoned.
  9. A horse’s tail wast thou when he, O Indra, smote on thy bolt; thou, God without a second,
  10. Thou hast won back the kine, hast won the Soma; thou hast let loose to flow the Seven Rivers.
Rigveda 1.32, vv. 1–2, 8, 11 · tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1896 Verses 1, 2, 8, 11 and 12, in the hymn’s order. Diacritics of the printed transliteration are simplified.
Citations

Real editions and scans. Every link leaves this site.

Connections resting on this work
serpent · serpent-2

The serpent as impounder of water: in both, the serpent takes the waters into its own keeping (encompassed under Vritra's bulk / swallowed into the Bakhu serpent's body), the world's motion stalls (the rivers penned like cattle / the solar barque standing still), and an armed god compels restitution · the waters are given back in full and flow resumes. Neither serpent consumes what it holds; the Egyptian text even makes the seizure begin with a lowered gaze at Ra · an inspection that becomes an impoundment.

'The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vritra with his greatness had encompassed... Guarded by Ahi... the waters stayed like kine held by the robber' · until Indra's bolt 'opened the cave wherein the floods had been imprisoned' and they run 'like lowing kine' to the ocean (vv. 2, 8, 11).

set against Book of the Dead ch. CVIII

The reading room shelves citations and short passages digitized from public-domain editions. Full texts enter through the digitization queue.