Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.2 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. Satisfy the eager gods, O youngest one; knowing the rites, O lord of rite, sacrifice here. With those divine priests, O Agni, you are the best sacrificer among the hotars.
2. You attend to the offices of hotar and potar of the people; you are the deviser of devotion, the giver of wealth, possessing truth. With the cry of svāhā let us make our oblations — let Agni, the god, the worthy one, sacrifice to the gods.
3. We have come onto the path of the gods, to carry it forward as far as we are able. Agni, who knows, shall sacrifice; he indeed is the hotar; he shall arrange the rites, he shall order the seasons.
4. Whatever of your ordinances we violate, O gods, being more ignorant than you who know — Agni, who knows, makes good all of that, arranging the gods by the proper rites.
5. When mortals, foolish in mind and feeble in skill, fail to understand the sacrifice — Agni the hotar, knowing the ritual, discerning this, as best sacrificer offers to the gods in due order.
6. For you are the face of all rites, the bright banner; the begetter begot you. So win by sacrifice, throughout the lands rich in men, the desirable, cattle-rich food that belongs to all people.
7. You whom Heaven and Earth, you whom the Waters, you whom Tvaṣṭar the good begetter brought forth — knowing well the path that leads to the fathers, shine brightly, O Agni, once you are kindled.
Translator's note: verse 6's "anīkam" (face/front/vanguard) and "ketum" (banner/bright sign) are kept close to their literal senses rather than smoothed into a single image; verse 4's "pramināma vratāni" (we diminish/transgress your ordinances) is rendered as "violate" for clarity.
Colophon
Rigveda X.2 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.2
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.
piprīhi devām̐ uśato yaviṣṭha vidvām̐ ṛtūm̐r ṛtupate yajeha |
ye daivyā ṛtvijas tebhir agne tvaṁ hotṝṇām asy āyajiṣṭhaḥ || 1 ||
veṣi hotram uta potraṁ janānām mandhātāsi draviṇodā ṛtāvā |
svāhā vayaṁ kṛṇavāmā havīṁṣi devo devān yajatv agnir arhan || 2 ||
ā devānām api panthām aganma yac chaknavāma tad anu pravoḻhum |
agnir vidvān sa yajāt sed u hotā so adhvarān sa ṛtūn kalpayāti || 3 ||
yad vo vayam pramināma vratāni viduṣāṁ devā aviduṣṭarāsaḥ |
agniṣ ṭad viśvam ā pṛṇāti vidvān yebhir devām̐ ṛtubhiḥ kalpayāti || 4 ||
yat pākatrā manasā dīnadakṣā na yajñasya manvate martyāsaḥ |
agniṣ ṭad dhotā kratuvid vijānan yajiṣṭho devām̐ ṛtuśo yajāti || 5 ||
viśveṣāṁ hy adhvarāṇām anīkaṁ citraṁ ketuṁ janitā tvā jajāna |
sa ā yajasva nṛvatīr anu kṣāḥ spārhā iṣaḥ kṣumatīr viśvajanyāḥ || 6 ||
yaṁ tvā dyāvāpṛthivī yaṁ tvāpas tvaṣṭā yaṁ tvā sujanimā jajāna |
panthām anu pravidvān pitṛyāṇaṁ dyumad agne samidhāno vi bhāhi || 7 ||
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).