Agni Flees the Priestly Office
Rigveda X.51 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. Great was that caul, and thick it was, wrapped in which you entered the waters. One god alone saw all your many forms, O Agni Jātavedas — your bodies, many-fold.
2. Who saw me? Which god was it that looked all around at my many bodies? Where now, Mitra and Varuṇa, do all of Agni's kindling-sticks lie — those that lead the way to the gods?
3. We sought you in many places, O Jātavedas, Agni, you who had slipped into the waters, into the plants. You, of brilliant light, Yama perceived, blazing on beyond, shining further than ten.
4. Fearing the priestly office, O Varuṇa, I fled, lest the gods here yoke me to it. My bodies lay hidden in many places; I, Agni, did not understand this purpose.
5. Come forth! Manu, loving the gods and longing for the sacrifice, has made everything ready — yet you, Agni, linger in darkness. Make smooth the paths that go to the gods; carry the offerings, showing us your favor.
6. Agni's elder brothers pursued this task before me, again and again, like a charioteer following the road. In fear of that, O Varuṇa, I went far away — I sprang back like a wild bull from the thrower's bowstring.
7. We will make for you a life unaging, Agni, so that, yoked to this charge, Jātavedas, you come to no harm. Then, showing us your favor, you will carry the gods' share of the oblation, O well-born one.
8. Give me the fore-offerings and the after-offerings entire, and a nourishing share of the oblation — the ghee of the waters and the essence of the plants — and let there be a long life for Agni, O gods.
9. Yours alone be the fore-offerings and the after-offerings, the nourishing shares of the oblation. Yours, Agni, let this whole sacrifice be; let the four directions bow down to you.
Translator's note: verse 3's "daśāntaruṣyāt" (rendered here as "further than ten") and verse 8's "puruṣam ... oṣadhīnām" (rendered "the essence of the plants," literally closer to "the person/man of the plants") are compressed, obscure Vedic phrases with no settled plain-English equivalent; the renderings above are conservative and literal rather than interpretive.
Colophon
Rigveda X.51 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.51
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.
mahat tad ulbaṁ sthaviraṁ tad āsīd yenāviṣṭitaḥ praviveśithāpaḥ |
viśvā apaśyad bahudhā te agne jātavedas tanvo deva ekaḥ || 1 ||
ko mā dadarśa katamaḥ sa devo yo me tanvo bahudhā paryapaśyat |
kvāha mitrāvaruṇā kṣiyanty agner viśvāḥ samidho devayānīḥ || 2 ||
aicchāma tvā bahudhā jātavedaḥ praviṣṭam agne apsv oṣadhīṣu |
taṁ tvā yamo acikec citrabhāno daśāntaruṣyād atirocamānam || 3 ||
hotrād ahaṁ varuṇa bibhyad āyaṁ ned eva mā yunajann atra devāḥ |
tasya me tanvo bahudhā niviṣṭā etam arthaṁ na ciketāham agniḥ || 4 ||
ehi manur devayur yajñakāmo 'raṁkṛtyā tamasi kṣeṣy agne |
sugān pathaḥ kṛṇuhi devayānān vaha havyāni sumanasyamānaḥ || 5 ||
agneḥ pūrve bhrātaro artham etaṁ rathīvādhvānam anv āvarīvuḥ |
tasmād bhiyā varuṇa dūram āyaṁ gauro na kṣepnor avije jyāyāḥ || 6 ||
kurmas ta āyur ajaraṁ yad agne yathā yukto jātavedo na riṣyāḥ |
athā vahāsi sumanasyamāno bhāgaṁ devebhyo haviṣaḥ sujāta || 7 ||
prayājān me anuyājām̐ś ca kevalān ūrjasvantaṁ haviṣo datta bhāgam |
ghṛtaṁ cāpām puruṣaṁ cauṣadhīnām agneś ca dīrgham āyur astu devāḥ || 8 ||
tava prayājā anuyājāś ca kevala ūrjasvanto haviṣaḥ santu bhāgāḥ |
tavāgne yajño3 'yam astu sarvas tubhyaṁ namantām pradiśaś catasraḥ || 9 ||
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).