Hymn to Agni, Savitar, and Varuṇa
Rigveda I.24 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) that moves through three deities in turn: it opens by asking whose immortal name should be invoked so the speaker may be restored to father and mother (verses 1–2, addressed to Agni), turns to Savitar as giver of a rightful share (verses 3–5), and then dwells at length on Varuṇa, sovereign of cosmic law, whose ordinances the stars, the moon, and the winds obey (verses 6–15). The hymn's closing verses invoke the legend of Śunaḥśepa, the youth bound at the sacrificial post who called on Varuṇa and was freed — a story told at length elsewhere in the Rigveda. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Whose now, which immortal's, pleasing name do we call to mind? Who will give us back to great Aditi, that I may see father and mother again?
2. We call to mind the pleasing name of Agni, first among the immortals; may he give us back to great Aditi, that I may see father and mother again.
3. To you, god Savitar, ruler of all desirable things, ever-giving, we come seeking our share.
4. For such indeed is your bounty: whoever labors thus, free of hatred, receives it in his two hands before any blame can fall.
5. May we obtain, by your help, our share allotted by that bounty — reaching for the very summit of wealth.
6. Neither your dominion, nor your might, nor your wrath can those far-flying birds attain, nor these waters that run unsleeping, nor those that curb the vastness of the wind.
7. In the bottomless depth, King Varuṇa, of pure power, holds erect the crown of a tree; its beams point downward, their root set above — may those rays be placed within us.
8. For King Varuṇa made the wide path for the sun to travel; he set footholds for feet where no place to stand had been, and he repels even the heart-piercing word of the one who speaks against us.
9. A hundred, a thousand are your healers, O king; wide and deep let your favor toward us be. Drive ruin far away; release us even from the sin we ourselves have committed.
10. Those stars, set on high, seen at night — where do they go by day? Unassailable are Varuṇa's ordinances; the moon moves through the night, shining forth.
11. This I ask of you, praising you with the sacred word; this the sacrificer requests with oblations. Free of anger, Varuṇa, take notice here; widely-praised one, do not steal away our lifespan.
12. That, by night, that by day, they tell me; that same intent looks out here from my heart. May King Varuṇa — whom Śunaḥśepa, once seized, called upon — release us.
13. For Śunaḥśepa, seized, bound to three wooden posts, called upon the son of Aditi. May King Varuṇa set him free; may the knowing, unassailable one loosen the bonds.
14. We turn aside your anger, Varuṇa, with homage; we turn it aside with sacrifices and oblations. Ruling over us, wise Asura, O king, loosen the sins we have committed.
15. Loosen from us the highest noose, Varuṇa, and the lowest, and untie the middle one as well. Then may we, son of Aditi, live under your ordinance, free of offense before Aditi.
Translator's note: verse 4 (bhagaḥ, "bounty/fortune") is compressed and grammatically ambiguous in the Sanskrit; it is rendered here conservatively as a statement about Savitar's gift being received by the one who labors without hostility. Verse 7's imagery of an inverted, rootless tree resists a fully certain rendering and is kept close to the literal Sanskrit rather than resolved into a smoother image. "Son of Aditi" in verses 13 and 15 translates ādityam / āditya, an epithet of Varuṇa.
Colophon
Rigveda I.24 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda I.24
kasya nūnaṁ katamasyāmṛtānām manāmahe cāru devasya nāma |
ko no mahyā aditaye punar dāt pitaraṁ ca dṛśeyam mātaraṁ ca || 1 ||
agner vayam prathamasyāmṛtānām manāmahe cāru devasya nāma |
sa no mahyā aditaye punar dāt pitaraṁ ca dṛśeyam mātaraṁ ca || 2 ||
abhi tvā deva savitar īśānaṁ vāryāṇām |
sadāvan bhāgam īmahe || 3 ||
yaś cid dhi ta itthā bhagaḥ śaśamānaḥ purā nidaḥ |
adveṣo hastayor dadhe || 4 ||
bhagabhaktasya te vayam ud aśema tavāvasā |
mūrdhānaṁ rāya ārabhe || 5 ||
nahi te kṣatraṁ na saho na manyuṁ vayaś canāmī patayanta āpuḥ |
nemā āpo animiṣaṁ carantīr na ye vātasya praminanty abhvam || 6 ||
abudhne rājā varuṇo vanasyordhvaṁ stūpaṁ dadate pūtadakṣaḥ |
nīcīnāḥ sthur upari budhna eṣām asme antar nihitāḥ ketavaḥ syuḥ || 7 ||
uruṁ hi rājā varuṇaś cakāra sūryāya panthām anvetavā u |
apade pādā pratidhātave 'kar utāpavaktā hṛdayāvidhaś cit || 8 ||
śataṁ te rājan bhiṣajaḥ sahasram urvī gabhīrā sumatiṣ ṭe astu |
bādhasva dūre nirṛtim parācaiḥ kṛtaṁ cid enaḥ pra mumugdhy asmat || 9 ||
amī ya ṛkṣā nihitāsa uccā naktaṁ dadṛśre kuha cid diveyuḥ |
adabdhāni varuṇasya vratāni vicākaśac candramā naktam eti || 10 ||
tat tvā yāmi brahmaṇā vandamānas tad ā śāste yajamāno havirbhiḥ |
aheḻamāno varuṇeha bodhy uruśaṁsa mā na āyuḥ pra moṣīḥ || 11 ||
tad in naktaṁ tad divā mahyam āhus tad ayaṁ keto hṛda ā vi caṣṭe |
śunaḥśepo yam ahvad gṛbhītaḥ so asmān rājā varuṇo mumoktu || 12 ||
śunaḥśepo hy ahvad gṛbhītas triṣv ādityaṁ drupadeṣu baddhaḥ |
avainaṁ rājā varuṇaḥ sasṛjyād vidvām̐ adabdho vi mumoktu pāśān || 13 ||
ava te heḻo varuṇa namobhir ava yajñebhir īmahe havirbhiḥ |
kṣayann asmabhyam asura pracetā rājann enāṁsi śiśrathaḥ kṛtāni || 14 ||
ud uttamaṁ varuṇa pāśam asmad avādhamaṁ vi madhyamaṁ śrathāya |
athā vayam āditya vrate tavānāgaso aditaye syāma || 15 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).