Text
The Sanskrit text is Ṛgveda 10.90 in the Śākala recension, given in Devanāgarī (as continuous recitation, saṃhitā) and in IAST roman transliteration with the words separated. Versions chanted from the Yajurveda differ in places and add verses; this edition follows the Ṛgveda’s sixteen. The English translation, word-by-word meanings, reflections and background pages were prepared for this edition, for readers new to the Veda. For deeper study, read the hymn with the traditional commentaries listed below.
Audio
- Sanskrit chant: synthesised with Vāgdhenu, a Sanskrit chant text-to-speech system by Prof. Prathosh A. P., Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. It produces classical śloka chant, not Vedic svara recitation, so it does not follow the hymn’s traditional pitch accents. Verses 1–15 are chanted in anuṣṭubh; verse 16, in triṣṭubh, uses the closest classical eleven-syllable metre, upajāti.
- English narration: ElevenLabs text-to-speech.
- Background music: a veena, bansuri and tanpura bed made with ElevenLabs Music, tuned to the chant’s tonic.
Word highlighting
Each word’s timing was found automatically by forced alignment (a speech model that matches known text to audio). It is accurate to a fraction of a second for most words, but it can drift, especially on long held vowels in the chant.
Further reading
- Sāyaṇa, Ṛgveda-saṃhitā-bhāṣya, commentary on 10.90. The classical commentary on the whole Ṛgveda, written in fourteenth-century Vijayanagara.
- Ādi Śaṅkara, commentaries on the Śvetāśvatara (3.12–15), Bṛhadāraṇyaka (1.4) and Aitareya (1.1–2) Upaniṣads, where the cosmic Puruṣa becomes the Self within.
- Ādi Śaṅkara, commentary on the Bhagavad Gītā, especially chapters 3 (yajña), 4.13 (the four orders), 11 (the universal form) and 15 (puruṣottama).
- Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 13.6, on the puruṣamedha and Nārāyaṇa.
- Swami Dayānanda Sarasvatī, Ṛgvedādibhāṣyabhūmikā (1878), which reads the varṇas by quality and action rather than birth.
- Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda (Sri Aurobindo Ashram), on reading the Veda as inner experience.
- B. R. Ambedkar, Who Were the Shudras? (1946), a close study of verse 12 and its later use.