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Hymns from the Rig Veda

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The Rig Veda, the core of the Hindu scriptural canon is the supreme monument of an early religion that has left no archeological remains, no church, no dogma, no founder, and virtually no history. A collection of over a thousand hymns, preserved by the Vedic schools through an elaborate oral tradition consciously designed to prevent any distortion, the Veda is said to embody the laws of the universe itself. It is, above all, a glorious song of praise to the gods, the cosmic powers at work in nature and in man. This work includes the translation of 12 Hymns of the Rig Veda from Sanskrit into English, French, German, and Spanish. Jean Le Mée prepared the English and French versions from the Sanskrit. Both English and French renderings are metrical, i.e. they very closely follow the syllabic meter of the original. Volker Stutzer prepared the German version based on the English version and Gerardo del Cerro did the same for the Spanish version.

The Introduction gives a birds-eye view of the development of Vedic thought touching on the comparison of traditional scholarship and the Western approach. The spiritual aspect of the tradition is emphasized. It discusses some of the principles on which the translation is based.

In presenting the twelve hymns in this book, the translators have made available a portion of one of the major scriptures of mankind in versions that reflect the quality, substance, and form of the original.

The choice of the Hymns was dictated partly by their relative importance to later developments of the speculative and philosophical thought of India—hence the predominance of the Hymns of the tenth Mandala—partly on the obligation to present some typical Hymns addressed to the most-often celebrated gods of the brahmanical pantheon—Agni, Soma and Indra—and partly on the desire to show the wide range of tone and the variety of style of the ancient poets.

Each Hymn is introduced by a short paragraph or two indicating something of the spiritual import of that particular Hymn.

In this selection the Hymns have been arranged in a natural sequence to make for connected reading, beginning with the Hymns of Creation and proceeding through the “nature” Hymns to the Dawn and the Sun to the Hymns related to the more abstract principles such as Knowledge and the Word, and concluding with the last Hymn of the Samhita, an invitation to peace and harmony.

There are twenty-seven full-page color illustrations, including the cover, all of them reproductions of recent paintings by the well-known Indian painter Prem Raval. These paintings were the subject of exhibitions in both India (Ahmedabad) and Germany (Munich) in 2001.

The use of appropriate illustrations such as these original paintings directly inspired by this translation and the format of one stanza per page contribute to the lectio divina mode of reading familiar to monastics. In other words, this book aims more at an opening of the heart and a quiet illumination of the spirit than either a dazzling of the mind or being a thesaurus of information.

This unique and richly-illustrated quadri-lingual presentation makes the Hymns accessible to readers virtually throughout the whole world.

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