Hymn to Agni Vaiśvānara
Rigveda X.170 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. May the vast, widely-shining one drink the sweet mead of Soma, granting an unfailing span of life to the lord of the sacrifice — driven by the wind, watching over and guarding by himself; he has nourished creatures, he reigns in many forms.
2. The vast, widely-shining one, well sustained, most winning of the prize, truly set within the foundation, within heaven's ordinance — slayer of foes, slayer of Vṛtra, greatest slayer of the Dasyus: the light was born, slayer of Asuras, slayer of rivals.
3. This is the finest light of lights, the highest; the vast one is called all-conquering, winner of wealth. The all-illumining great Sun has spread out wide to be seen, together with unshaken strength.
4. Shining with your light, you went to the vault of heaven, to the luminous realm of the sky — by which all these worlds are upheld, by the all-working one possessed of all the gods' power.
Translator's note: the hymn's syntax runs across long compound epithets rather than short clauses; "vibhrāḍ bṛhat," the "widely-shining, vast one," is treated throughout as the hymn's subject (Agni Vaiśvānara, identified here with the Sun). Verse 4 shifts to direct address ("you went"), rendered as such.
Colophon
Rigveda X.170 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.170
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.
vibhrāḍ bṛhat pibatu somyam madhv āyur dadhad yajñapatāv avihrutam |
vātajūto yo abhirakṣati tmanā prajāḥ pupoṣa purudhā vi rājati || 1 ||
vibhrāḍ bṛhat subhṛtaṁ vājasātamaṁ dharman divo dharuṇe satyam arpitam |
amitrahā vṛtrahā dasyuhaṁtamaṁ jyotir jajñe asurahā sapatnahā || 2 ||
idaṁ śreṣṭhaṁ jyotiṣāṁ jyotir uttamaṁ viśvajid dhanajid ucyate bṛhat |
viśvabhrāḍ bhrājo mahi sūryo dṛśa uru paprathe saha ojo acyutam || 3 ||
vibhrājañ jyotiṣā sva1r agaccho rocanaṁ divaḥ |
yenemā viśvā bhuvanāny ābhṛtā viśvakarmaṇā viśvadevyāvatā || 4 ||
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).