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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 1010 of 1027

Mandala 10: HYMN CLXXIII. The King.

1.BE with us; I have chosen thee: stand stedfast and immovable. Let all the people wish for thee let not thy kingship fall away.

2.Be even here; fall not away be like a mountain unremoved. Stand stedfast here like Indra’s self, and hold the kingship in the grasp.

3.This man hath Indra stablished, made secure by strong oblation’s power. May Soma speak a benison, and Brahmaṇaspati, on him.

4.Firm is the sky and firm the earth, and stedfast also are these hills. Stedfast is all this living world, and stedfast is this King of men.

5.Stedfast, may Varuṇa the King, stedfast, the God Bṛhaspati, Stedfast, may Indra, stedfast too, may Agni keep thy stedfast reign.

6.On constant Soma let us think with constant sacrificial gift And then may Indra make the clans bring tribute unto thee alone.

Asked of Guide

Why does the hymn keep asking the king to be 'stedfast' like gods and mountains?

The poem uses ‘stedfast’ as a concrete way to transfer cosmic stability to the human ruler: mountains, sky, earth, Indra, Varuṇa, Bṛhaspati and Agni are all invoked so the king’s rule will mirror their firmness. Repetition—“Stand stedfast and immovable,” “Stedfast is the sky and firm the earth”—turns a ritual wish into a behavioral demand for unshakable authority.

The ritual frame explains how this works: sacrifices and Soma “benison” tie divine favor to political order, so the king’s steadiness becomes a social guarantee of tribute and cohesion. This matches the Rig Veda’s larger picture in other hymns where ritual and gods secure kingship, as in earlier Mandalas that link sacrifice, Soma, and royal power.

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