Mandala 10

The tenth mandala, or chapter, of the Rigveda contains 191 hymns. Together with Mandala 1, it forms the latest part of the Rigveda, containing material, including the Purusha Sukta (10.90) and the dialogue of Sarama with the Panis (10.108), and notably containing several dialogue hymns.

Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.

That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.

O Gangā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Shutudrī (Sutlej), Parushnī (Ravi), hear my praise!

Quotes

• He (Indra) boasts of “winning cows and horses” (10.48.4) with his weapon; won over from his enemies, they were initially not his.
  • quoted in Danino, M. (2019). Demilitarizing the Rigveda: a scrutiny of Vedic horses, chariots and warfare., STUDIES IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Journal of the Inter-University Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences VOL. XXVI, NUMBER 1, SUMMER 2019

• Just as revealing is the famous dialogue between the divine hound Saramå, Indra’s intransigent emissary, and the Panis, after she has discovered their faraway den, where they jealously hoard their “treasures”. Saramå boldly declares Indra’s intention to seize those treasures, but the Panis are unimpressed and threaten to fight back; they taunt her: “O Saramå, see the treasure deep in the mountain, it is replete with cows and horses and treasures (gobhir a‹vebhir vasubhir). The Panis guard it watchfully. You have come in vain to a rich dwelling” (1.108.7). Every verse makes it clear that all these treasures – “horses” included – belong to the Panis.
  • Rig-Veda X.108.2-11. as quoted/cited in Danino, M. (2019). Demilitarizing the Rigveda: a scrutiny of Vedic horses, chariots and warfare., STUDIES IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Journal of the Inter-University Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences VOL. XXVI, NUMBER 1, SUMMER 2019

• Thou leadest as a warrior king thine army's wings what time thou comest in the van of these swift streams."
  • m. 10, hymn LXXV
• When they divided Purusa how many portions did they make? What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?
  • m. 10, hymn XC
• He who nourishes neither God nor man, he who eats alone, gathers sin.
  • m.10, hymn CXVII (trans Doniger)

• Play not with dice, [but] cultivate your corn-land. Enjoy the gain, and deem that wealth sufficient.
  • X.34.13; translation by Ralph T.H. Griffith

• These very bounteous Gods made the Sun mount to heaven, and spread the righteous laws of Āryas o’er the land.
  • X.65.11

• Having gained access to Vāk by evil means, they spin out their thread in sheer ignorance’ (RV 10.71.9).

• In the earliest age of the gods, existence was born from non-existence.
  • Rig Veda 10.72.2

• His, through his might, are these snow-covered mountains, and men call sea and Rasā his possession: His arms are these, his are these heavenly regions. What God shall we adore with our oblation?
  • Rigveda 10.121.4

• “The gods are later than this world’s production.”
  • (10:129:6)

• Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati.
  • Rigveda X.75.5-6
  • Variant: O Gangā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Shutudrī (Sutlej), Parushnī (Ravi), hear my praise! Hear my call, O Asiknī (Chenab), Marudvridhā (Maruvardhvan), Vitastā (Jhelum) with Ārjīkiyā and Sushomā. First you flow united with Trishtāmā, with Susartu and Rasā, and with Svetyā, O Sindhu (Indus) with Kubhā (Kabul) to Gomati (Gumal or Gomal), with Mehatnū to Krumu (Kurram), with whom you proceed together.
  • Variant: O Gangå, Yamunå, Sarasvati, Sutudri (Sutlej) and Parusni (Ravi), O Marudvidhå with Asikni (Chenab), O Årjikœyå with Vitastå (Jhelum) and Susomå (Sohan), please listen to and accept this hymn of mine. // 5 // O Sindhu (Indus), flowing, you first meet the Tisåmå (and then) the Susartu, the Raså, and the ˙vetå (Swat), and thereafter the Kubhå (Kabul), the Gomatœ (Gomal), the Krumu (Kurram) with the Mehatnu; and (finally) you move on in the same chariot with them (i.e. carry their waters with you). // 6 // (in Lal, B. B. (2005). Can the Vedic people be identified archaeologically?–An approach. IT, 31, 173-194.)

• The Gods have not ordained hunger to be our death: even to the well-fed man comes death in varied shape,
  The riches of the liberal never waste away, while he who will not give finds none to comfort him,
  The man with food in store who, when the needy comes in miserable case begging for bread to eat,
  Hardens his heart against him, when of old finds not one to comfort him.
  
  Bounteous is he who gives unto the beggar who comes to him in want of food, and the feeble,
  Success attends him in the shout of battle. He makes a friend of him in future troubles,
  No friend is he who to his friend and comrade who comes imploring food, will offer nothing.
  
  Let the rich satisfy the poor implorer, and bend his eye upon a longer pathway,
  Riches come now to one, now to another, and like the wheels of cars are ever rolling,
  The foolish man wins food with fruitless labour: that food – I speak the truth – shall be his ruin,
  He feeds no trusty friend, no man to love him. All guilt is he who eats with no partaker.
  • Hymn 117, Ralph T. H. Griffith (Translator)

Creation Hymn

• Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
  What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
  Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
  That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
  Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos.
  All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
  Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.
  Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.
  Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it?
  There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
  Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
  The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
  He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
  Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
  • Mandala 10, Hymn 129 : Creation, as translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1896).

• There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep? There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing sign of night nor of day. That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond.
  • Mandala 10, hymn 129, verses 1-2, as translated by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, in The Rig Veda : An Anthology (1981).

• Whence this creation has arisen – perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not – the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows – or perhaps he does not know.
  • Mandala 10, hymn 129, verse 7, as translated by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, in The Rig Veda : An Anthology (1981).

About

• “On the whole ... the language of the first nine Mandalas must be regarded as homogeneous, inspite of traces of previous dialectal differences... With the tenth Mandala it is a different story. The language here has definitely changed.”
  • B.K. Ghosh in The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. I: The Vedic Age edited by R.C. Majumdar, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Publications, Mumbai, 6th edition 1996. Quoted in Talageri, S. (2000). The Rigveda: A historical analysis. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.