Hymn to Agni, Invoking the Gods for Bounty
Rigveda X.141 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. Agni, speak to us here, turn your face toward us, be well disposed toward us. Grant to us, lord of the people — you are the giver of wealth to us.
2. May Aryaman grant to us, may Bhaga, may Brihaspati grant; may the gods, and the goddess Sunrita, give us riches.
3. We call for aid upon King Soma, and upon Agni with our songs; upon the Adityas, upon Vishnu, upon Surya, and upon Brihaspati, shaper of sacred speech.
4. We call here upon Indra and Vayu, easy to invoke; upon Brihaspati too — so that every person may be well disposed toward us at the gathering.
5. Urge on Aryaman, Brihaspati, and Indra to giving; and Vata, Vishnu, Sarasvati, and Savitar rich in strength.
6. You, Agni, with your fires, increase our sacred word and our sacrifice; you, for our communion with the gods, urge on the giving of wealth.
Translator's note: "sūnṛtā devī" (v.2) is rendered as "the goddess Sunrita," a name for a goddess of genial bounty/generosity sometimes treated as an epithet rather than a distinct figure; "brahmāṇam" (v.3) and "viśas pate" (v.1) are rendered by their plainest sense — "shaper of sacred speech" and "lord of the people" — as the exact nuance of each epithet is debated.
Colophon
Rigveda X.141 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.141
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.
agne acchā vadeha naḥ pratyaṅ naḥ sumanā bhava |
pra no yaccha viśas pate dhanadā asi nas tvam || 1 ||
pra no yacchatv aryamā pra bhagaḥ pra bṛhaspatiḥ |
pra devāḥ prota sūnṛtā rāyo devī dadātu naḥ || 2 ||
somaṁ rājānam avase 'gniṁ gīrbhir havāmahe |
ādityān viṣṇuṁ sūryam brahmāṇaṁ ca bṛhaspatim || 3 ||
indravāyū bṛhaspatiṁ suhaveha havāmahe |
yathā naḥ sarva ij janaḥ saṁgatyāṁ sumanā asat || 4 ||
aryamaṇam bṛhaspatim indraṁ dānāya codaya |
vātaṁ viṣṇuṁ sarasvatīṁ savitāraṁ ca vājinam || 5 ||
tvaṁ no agne agnibhir brahma yajñaṁ ca vardhaya |
tvaṁ no devatātaye rāyo dānāya codaya || 6 ||
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).