Agni Forsakes Varuna for Indra
Rigveda X.124 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. The hymn opens as an invitation to Agni, then shifts into Agni's own voice as he explains why he is leaving Varuna and the old Asuras to join Indra — the poem closes by turning to praise Indra himself.
1. Come to this sacrifice of ours, Agni — five-paced, threefold, seven-threaded. Be our bearer of offerings and our leader ahead; long enough now have you lain in the deep darkness.
2. A god, I go from the godless by a hidden way, in secret, looking forward to immortality. Though he is kindly, unkindly I leave him; from my own friendship I go toward a foreign kinship.
3. Seeing myself the guest of another line, I have measured out the many abodes of truth. I speak goodwill toward the father, the Asura, yet from the unworshipped I go to the worshipped share.
4. Many years I passed within him; now, choosing Indra, I leave the father behind. Agni, Soma, Varuna — these are shaken; the kingdom has turned, and I favor that turning as I come.
5. Those Asuras have become powerless, their magic spent — yet you, Varuna, still desire me. King, sifting the false from the true by truth itself: come now to the lordship of my kingdom.
6. This is the sunlight, this alone was the true treasure; this is the brightness, the wide atmosphere. Let us strike down Vṛtra together — come forth, Soma; you who are yourself an offering, we worship you with offering.
7. The poet, by his poet's power, set a form in the sky; without violence Varuna released the waters. Making their peace like young wives, the rivers, bright, carry his color in their course.
8. They follow his highest, Indra-given power; they dwell in him, rejoicing in their own nature. Like clans choosing a king, they turned away from Vṛtra in disgust.
9. Of those who turned from him in disgust, they call him the yoked wild goose, moving in fellowship with the waters of heaven. Wandering to the anuṣṭubh measure — the poets, by their insight, knew him to be Indra.
Translator's note: verse 5's "araṇīṁ nābhim" (a foreign/strange kinship) and verse 9's "haṁsa" (goose or wild swan, here a figure for Indra moving among the waters) are terse and somewhat obscure in the Sanskrit; they are rendered conservatively above rather than resolved into a fuller image.
Colophon
Rigveda X.124 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.124
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.
imaṁ no agna upa yajñam ehi pañcayāmaṁ trivṛtaṁ saptatantum |
aso havyavāḻ uta naḥ purogā jyog eva dīrghaṁ tama āśayiṣṭhāḥ || 1 ||
adevād devaḥ pracatā guhā yan prapaśyamāno amṛtatvam emi |
śivaṁ yat santam aśivo jahāmi svāt sakhyād araṇīṁ nābhim emi || 2 ||
paśyann anyasyā atithiṁ vayāyā ṛtasya dhāma vi mime purūṇi |
śaṁsāmi pitre asurāya śevam ayajñiyād yajñiyam bhāgam emi || 3 ||
bahvīḥ samā akaram antar asminn indraṁ vṛṇānaḥ pitaraṁ jahāmi |
agniḥ somo varuṇas te cyavante paryāvard rāṣṭraṁ tad avāmy āyan || 4 ||
nirmāyā u tye asurā abhūvan tvaṁ ca mā varuṇa kāmayāse |
ṛtena rājann anṛtaṁ viviñcan mama rāṣṭrasyādhipatyam ehi || 5 ||
idaṁ svar idam id āsa vāmam ayam prakāśa urv a1ntarikṣam |
hanāva vṛtraṁ nirehi soma haviṣ ṭvā santaṁ haviṣā yajāma || 6 ||
kaviḥ kavitvā divi rūpam āsajad aprabhūtī varuṇo nir apaḥ sṛjat |
kṣemaṁ kṛṇvānā janayo na sindhavas tā asya varṇaṁ śucayo bharibhrati || 7 ||
tā asya jyeṣṭham indriyaṁ sacante tā īm ā kṣeti svadhayā madantīḥ |
tā īṁ viśo na rājānaṁ vṛṇānā bībhatsuvo apa vṛtrād atiṣṭhan || 8 ||
bībhatsūnāṁ sayujaṁ haṁsam āhur apāṁ divyānāṁ sakhye carantam |
anuṣṭubham anu carcūryamāṇam indraṁ ni cikyuḥ kavayo manīṣā || 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).