An Āprī Hymn to Agni and the Sacrificial Deities
Rigveda X.110 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This hymn belongs to the Āprī class: a fixed liturgical sequence used at animal sacrifice, addressing Agni in a series of forms and stations — as messenger, as Tanūnapāt, as Hotar — and then the sacred grass, the doors of the rite, Dawn and Night, the divine Hotars, the goddesses Iḍā, Bharatī, and Sarasvatī, the god Tvaṣṭar, and the Lord of the Forest, before returning to Agni. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Kindled today in Manu's dwelling, you, god among gods, make sacrifice to the gods, O Jātavedas. Being watchful, bring them here — you who are great through Mitra. You are the messenger, the poet who sees ahead.
2. Tanūnapāt, anointing with honey the paths on which order (ṛta) travels, sweeten them, you of the fair tongue. Prospering our thoughts through insight, and the sacrifice too, make our rite reach the gods.
3. Called on, to be praised and honored, come, Agni, in accord with the Vasus. You are the young Hotar of the gods; urged onward, sacrifice to them, best of sacrificers.
4. The sacred grass is laid out eastward, toward the region of the earth, at the break of this dawn, foremost among the days. It spreads out wider and wider — a comfortable seat for the gods, for Aditi.
5. Let the spacious doors open wide, like wives adorning themselves for their husbands. Divine doors, high, setting all things in motion — be easy for the gods to pass through.
6. Worthy of worship, drawing near together, let Dawn and Night take their seat in their place — two heavenly young women, lofty, finely adorned in gold, wearing beauty of bright ornament.
7. The two divine Hotars, first and well-spoken, measure out Manu's sacrifice so as to offer it, urging on the singers at the rites, directing the ancient light toward its quarter.
8. Let Bhāratī come quickly to our sacrifice, and Iḍā, perceiving here as she once did for Manu. Let the three goddesses, skilled workers — Bhāratī, Iḍā, and Sarasvatī — take their seat on this comfortable sacred grass.
9. He who shaped with their forms these two, Heaven and Earth, the parents, and all the worlds besides — to him today, O Hotar, urged on with the best offerings, sacrifice here, knowing the way, to the god Tvaṣṭar.
10. Send the offerings down, yourself anointing them, along the gods' path, in their season. Let the Lord of the Forest, the dresser of the offering, and the god Agni make the oblation savory with honey and ghee.
11. As soon as he was born, he measured out the sacrifice — Agni became the leader of the gods. At this Hotar's direction, in the voice of truth (ṛta), let the gods eat the oblation made ready with the cry svāhā.
Translator's note: verse 6 opens with the participle su-ṣvayantī, a rare and disputed form (perhaps related to "swelling" or "producing well"); it is rendered conservatively here as "worthy of worship" following the sense of the surrounding line rather than a confident gloss of the word itself. Verse 7's kārū ("the two singers/poets") and verse 10's śamitā ("the one who prepares/dresses the offering," traditionally the ritual butcher) are likewise terse technical terms of the sacrifice, translated plainly rather than expanded.
Colophon
Rigveda X.110 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.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.110
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
samiddho adya manuṣo duroṇe devo devān yajasi jātavedaḥ |
ā ca vaha mitramahaś cikitvān tvaṁ dūtaḥ kavir asi pracetāḥ || 1 ||
tanūnapāt patha ṛtasya yānān madhvā samañjan svadayā sujihva |
manmāni dhībhir uta yajñam ṛndhan devatrā ca kṛṇuhy adhvaraṁ naḥ || 2 ||
ājuhvāna īḍyo vandyaś cā yāhy agne vasubhiḥ sajoṣāḥ |
tvaṁ devānām asi yahva hotā sa enān yakṣīṣito yajīyān || 3 ||
prācīnam barhiḥ pradiśā pṛthivyā vastor asyā vṛjyate agre ahnām |
vy u prathate vitaraṁ varīyo devebhyo aditaye syonam || 4 ||
vyacasvatīr urviyā vi śrayantām patibhyo na janayaḥ śumbhamānāḥ |
devīr dvāro bṛhatīr viśvaminvā devebhyo bhavata suprāyaṇāḥ || 5 ||
ā suṣvayantī yajate upāke uṣāsānaktā sadatāṁ ni yonau |
divye yoṣaṇe bṛhatī surukme adhi śriyaṁ śukrapiśaṁ dadhāne || 6 ||
daivyā hotārā prathamā suvācā mimānā yajñam manuṣo yajadhyai |
pracodayantā vidatheṣu kārū prācīnaṁ jyotiḥ pradiśā diśantā || 7 ||
ā no yajñam bhāratī tūyam etv iḻā manuṣvad iha cetayantī |
tisro devīr barhir edaṁ syonaṁ sarasvatī svapasaḥ sadantu || 8 ||
ya ime dyāvāpṛthivī janitrī rūpair apiṁśad bhuvanāni viśvā |
tam adya hotar iṣito yajīyair devaṁ tvaṣṭāram iha yakṣi vidvān || 9 ||
upāvasṛja tmanyā samañjan devānām pātha ṛtuthā havīṁṣi |
vanaspatiḥ śamitā devo agniḥ svadantu havyam madhunā ghṛtena || 10 ||
sadyo jāto vy amimīta yajñam agnir devānām abhavat purogāḥ |
asya hotuḥ pradiśy ṛtasya vāci svāhākṛtaṁ havir adantu devāḥ || 11 ||
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).