Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.12 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 is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Heaven and Earth were the first to be proclaimed by truth's order, the two truth-speakers. When the god, making mortals ready for the rite, sat down as Hotar facing them, going to his own life-breath.
2. God who surrounds the gods with truth's order, carry our offering — you who were first to know, whose banner is smoke, who blazes bright with kindling wood, the joyous Hotar, ever the same, more fit for sacrifice by speech.
3. The immortal draught of the god, from the cow, self-turning — from it those born uphold the two wide worlds. All the gods followed that sacrificial word of yours, when the dappled one yields her heavenly ghee, her water.
4. I sing to you two, to make you strong, you who drip with ghee — Heaven and Earth, hear me, you two world-halves. When the days go toward the leading-away of life, may our two parents refine us here with honey.
5. What indeed has the king seized from us? What law of his have we transgressed? Who knows this clearly? Even Mitra, when he turns aside from the gods, is like the fame of those who race — there is a prize as well.
6. Hard to grasp is the name of the immortal one here, when she who bears the same mark becomes of a different form. Whoever rightly considers the name of Yama — guard him, O lofty Agni, without failing.
7. In that gathering where the gods rejoice, they uphold the two worlds at the seat of Vivasvant. They set light in the sun, the nights in the moon; the two of them circle the shining one without tiring.
8. The secret thought in which the gods move together — we do not know it. May Mitra and Aditi declare us blameless here; may the god Savitar speak this to Varuna.
9. Hear us, Agni, from your seat, from the gathering-place. Yoke the swift chariot of the immortal. Bring to us the two world-halves, whose sons are gods. May you never be absent from the gods here.
Translator's note: verse 3's "svāvṛk" (rendered "self-turning") and verse 6's contrast between "salakṣmā" (bearing the same mark) and "viṣurūpā" (of differing form) are compressed, riddle-like phrases in the Sanskrit; the sense is genuinely uncertain and the rendering here is conservative rather than confident.
Colophon
Rigveda X.12 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.12
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.
dyāvā ha kṣāmā prathame ṛtenābhiśrāve bhavataḥ satyavācā |
devo yan martān yajathāya kṛṇvan sīdad dhotā pratyaṅ svam asuṁ yan || 1 ||
devo devān paribhūr ṛtena vahā no havyam prathamaś cikitvān |
dhūmaketuḥ samidhā bhāṛjīko mandro hotā nityo vācā yajīyān || 2 ||
svāvṛg devasyāmṛtaṁ yadī gor ato jātāso dhārayanta urvī |
viśve devā anu tat te yajur gur duhe yad enī divyaṁ ghṛtaṁ vāḥ || 3 ||
arcāmi vāṁ vardhāyāpo ghṛtasnū dyāvābhūmī śṛṇutaṁ rodasī me |
ahā yad dyāvo 'sunītim ayan madhvā no atra pitarā śiśītām || 4 ||
kiṁ svin no rājā jagṛhe kad asyāti vrataṁ cakṛmā ko vi veda |
mitraś cid dhi ṣmā juhurāṇo devāñ chloko na yātām api vājo asti || 5 ||
durmantv atrāmṛtasya nāma salakṣmā yad viṣurūpā bhavāti |
yamasya yo manavate sumantv agne tam ṛṣva pāhy aprayucchan || 6 ||
yasmin devā vidathe mādayante vivasvataḥ sadane dhārayante |
sūrye jyotir adadhur māsy a1ktūn pari dyotaniṁ carato ajasrā || 7 ||
yasmin devā manmani saṁcaranty apīcye3 na vayam asya vidma |
mitro no atrāditir anāgān savitā devo varuṇāya vocat || 8 ||
śrudhī no agne sadane sadhasthe yukṣvā ratham amṛtasya dravitnum |
ā no vaha rodasī devaputre mākir devānām apa bhūr iha syāḥ || 9 ||
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).