Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.3 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. Mighty king, the kindled mover, fierce as Rudra, has appeared, well-kindled, for his strength. Perceiving, he shines forth with great light; driving off the dark one, he approaches the bright one.
2. When with his form he overcame the black, dark one, begetting the maiden, daughter of the great father, propping up the sun's light on high — the mover shines forth from heaven together with the Vasus.
3. The auspicious one, joined with his auspicious mate, has come; as her lover he follows behind his sister. Spreading himself through well-marked days, Agni, with his bright colors, has taken his stand facing the dark.
4. His courses, kindled, sound like the roars of the great one — of Agni, the gracious friend. In the course of the adorable, mighty bull, his own flames, his beams, have grown visible.
5. Like roaring sounds, his flames purify themselves — his, the shining, great, radiant one's. With his eldest, sharpest, playful, loftiest rays he reaches heaven.
6. His mighty blasts, seen clearly, unveiled, stretching forth, resound with his yoked teams. He, most divine, shines mightily and far-reaching with his ancient bright ones, amid resounding praise.
7. Bring here something great, and take your seat here, you who are the mover between Heaven and Earth, the two ever-youthful. May Agni, swift-rushing, with his swift and impetuous horses, impetuous himself, come here.
Translator's note: "aratiḥ" (vv. 1–2, 7) is an Agni epithet meaning something like "the moving one" or "driver," sometimes rendered "wheel" or "charioteer" of the cosmic axle between Heaven and Earth; it is kept here as "mover" throughout. "Aktavaḥ" (v. 4) can mean either "nights" or "rays/beams"; the flame-and-light context of the verse favors "beams," the choice made here. "Rāma" (v. 3) is rendered "the dark," its more common Vedic sense, though it can also mean "the pleasing" or "the dark one" as a byname for Night.
Colophon
Rigveda X.3 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.3
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.
ino rājann aratiḥ samiddho raudro dakṣāya suṣumām̐ adarśi |
cikid vi bhāti bhāsā bṛhatāsiknīm eti ruśatīm apājan || 1 ||
kṛṣṇāṁ yad enīm abhi varpasā bhūj janayan yoṣām bṛhataḥ pitur jām |
ūrdhvam bhānuṁ sūryasya stabhāyan divo vasubhir aratir vi bhāti || 2 ||
bhadro bhadrayā sacamāna āgāt svasāraṁ jāro abhy eti paścāt |
supraketair dyubhir agnir vitiṣṭhan ruśadbhir varṇair abhi rāmam asthāt || 3 ||
asya yāmāso bṛhato na vagnūn indhānā agneḥ sakhyuḥ śivasya |
īḍyasya vṛṣṇo bṛhataḥ svāso bhāmāso yāmann aktavaś cikitre || 4 ||
svanā na yasya bhāmāsaḥ pavante rocamānasya bṛhataḥ sudivaḥ |
jyeṣṭhebhir yas tejiṣṭhaiḥ krīḻumadbhir varṣiṣṭhebhir bhānubhir nakṣati dyām || 5 ||
asya śuṣmāso dadṛśānapaver jehamānasya svanayan niyudbhiḥ |
pratnebhir yo ruśadbhir devatamo vi rebhadbhir aratir bhāti vibhvā || 6 ||
sa ā vakṣi mahi na ā ca satsi divaspṛthivyor aratir yuvatyoḥ |
agniḥ sutukaḥ sutukebhir aśvai rabhasvadbhī rabhasvām̐ eha gamyāḥ || 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).