Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.187 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. Send forth speech to Agni, the bull of the settled lands — may he carry us safely past our enemies.
2. He who shines out from the farthest distance, across the desert waste — may he carry us safely past our enemies.
3. He who burns down the demons, the bull with his bright flame — may he carry us safely past our enemies.
4. He who looks out over all the worlds and sees them together as one — may he carry us safely past our enemies.
5. He who was born as bright Agni on the far shore of this atmosphere — may he carry us safely past our enemies.
Translator's note: "dviṣaḥ" (verse-closing refrain) literally means "haters" or "those who hate," rendered here as "enemies." "Kṣitīnām" (verse 1) can mean either "of the lands" or "of the peoples/tribes who dwell there"; the translation keeps the more concrete "lands."
Colophon
Rigveda X.187 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.187
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.
prāgnaye vācam īraya vṛṣabhāya kṣitīnām |
sa naḥ parṣad ati dviṣaḥ || 1 ||
yaḥ parasyāḥ parāvatas tiro dhanvātirocate |
sa naḥ parṣad ati dviṣaḥ || 2 ||
yo rakṣāṁsi nijūrvati vṛṣā śukreṇa śociṣā |
sa naḥ parṣad ati dviṣaḥ || 3 ||
yo viśvābhi vipaśyati bhuvanā saṁ ca paśyati |
sa naḥ parṣad ati dviṣaḥ || 4 ||
yo asya pāre rajasaḥ śukro agnir ajāyata |
sa naḥ parṣad ati dviṣaḥ || 5 ||
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).