Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.5 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. There is one ocean, the foundation of riches; born in many forms, it looks out from our heart. It cleaves to the udder in the lap of the two hidden ones; the track of the bird lies hidden in the middle of the spring.
2. Clothing themselves in one shared lair, the bulls have come together with the mares. The seers guard the track of truth; they have hidden their highest names away in secret.
3. The truth-seeking one and the magic-working one have joined together; having measured it out, they gave birth to the child and made him grow — he who is the navel of all that moves and all that stands still. Even the poet's thread they spin out with the mind.
4. For the courses of truth attend the well-born one — ancient food-offerings, given for the sake of strength. The two world-halves, wrapping on their upper garment, grow strong on ghee, on foods, on things of honey.
5. Bellowing, the knowing one lifted the seven ruddy sisters up out of the honey, to be seen. Born before them, he held them fast within the midspace; seeking, he found the covering of Pūṣan.
6. The seers have carved out seven boundaries; to only one of them does the one in distress make his way. The pillar stands firm in the lair of the highest Āyu, standing among the supports at the sending-forth of the paths.
7. Both non-being and being are in the highest heaven, at the birth of power, in the lap of Aditi. Agni indeed is for us the firstborn of truth, in former times both a bull and a milk-cow.
Translator's note: several images in this hymn are deliberately riddling and their precise reference is debated among scholars. In verse 6, aṁhuraḥ ("the one in distress" or "the one hemmed in") is rendered conservatively; the identity of the "one" who reaches the single boundary is not specified in the Sanskrit. Pūṣan (v.5) and Āyu (v.6) are kept as proper names rather than translated.
Colophon
Rigveda X.5 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.5
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.
ekaḥ samudro dharuṇo rayīṇām asmad dhṛdo bhūrijanmā vi caṣṭe |
siṣakty ūdhar niṇyor upastha utsasya madhye nihitam padaṁ veḥ || 1 ||
samānaṁ nīḻaṁ vṛṣaṇo vasānāḥ saṁ jagmire mahiṣā arvatībhiḥ |
ṛtasya padaṁ kavayo ni pānti guhā nāmāni dadhire parāṇi || 2 ||
ṛtāyinī māyinī saṁ dadhāte mitvā śiśuṁ jajñatur vardhayantī |
viśvasya nābhiṁ carato dhruvasya kaveś cit tantum manasā viyantaḥ || 3 ||
ṛtasya hi vartanayaḥ sujātam iṣo vājāya pradivaḥ sacante |
adhīvāsaṁ rodasī vāvasāne ghṛtair annair vāvṛdhāte madhūnām || 4 ||
sapta svasṝr aruṣīr vāvaśāno vidvān madhva uj jabhārā dṛśe kam |
antar yeme antarikṣe purājā icchan vavrim avidat pūṣaṇasya || 5 ||
sapta maryādāḥ kavayas tatakṣus tāsām ekām id abhy aṁhuro gāt |
āyor ha skambha upamasya nīḻe pathāṁ visarge dharuṇeṣu tasthau || 6 ||
asac ca sac ca parame vyoman dakṣasya janmann aditer upasthe |
agnir ha naḥ prathamajā ṛtasya pūrva āyuni vṛṣabhaś ca dhenuḥ || 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).