Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.79 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. I have seen the greatness of this great one, the immortal among mortal tribes. His two jaws, held apart, come together again — insatiable, devouring, eating much.
2. His head is set apart in hiding, his eyes placed separately; insatiable, he eats the forests with his tongue. The people bring him food with their feet, hands stretched upward in reverence among the tribes.
3. Seeking further into his mother's hidden place, he crept like a child through the wide-spreading plants. He was found like ripe grain, blazing, licking, within the lap of the hidden one.
4. This truth I declare to you two, Heaven and Earth: being born, the child eats his two mothers. I, a mortal, do not perceive the god — but Agni himself is wise; he is the one who knows.
5. Whoever quickly sets food before him, who offers to him and feeds him with butter and ghee — that one he watches with a thousand eyes. Agni, you face every direction.
6. What offense against the gods have you committed, that it must be given up, Agni? I ask you this now, not knowing. Playing or not playing, the tawny one eats to feed himself; having eaten, he has cut it apart joint by joint, like a knife cutting a cow.
7. Born in the wood, he has yoked his horses, going every way, held fast by straight reins. Well-born, the friend has shone forth together with the Vasus; grown strong, he has prospered by his joints.
Translator's note: "ripa" in verse 3 (rendered "the hidden one") is an obscure term whose precise referent is uncertain; it is kept deliberately general rather than resolved into a specific identity. In verse 6, "harir attave" (literally "the tawny one, to eat/for eating") is rendered to preserve the ambiguity of the Sanskrit rather than supplying an unstated subject.
Colophon
Rigveda X.79 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.79
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.
apaśyam asya mahato mahitvam amartyasya martyāsu vikṣu |
nānā hanū vibhṛte sam bharete asinvatī bapsatī bhūry attaḥ || 1 ||
guhā śiro nihitam ṛdhag akṣī asinvann atti jihvayā vanāni |
atrāṇy asmai paḍbhiḥ sam bharanty uttānahastā namasādhi vikṣu || 2 ||
pra mātuḥ prataraṁ guhyam icchan kumāro na vīrudhaḥ sarpad urvīḥ |
sasaṁ na pakvam avidac chucantaṁ ririhvāṁsaṁ ripa upasthe antaḥ || 3 ||
tad vām ṛtaṁ rodasī pra bravīmi jāyamāno mātarā garbho atti |
nāhaṁ devasya martyaś ciketāgnir aṅga vicetāḥ sa pracetāḥ || 4 ||
yo asmā annaṁ tṛṣv ā3dadhāty ājyair ghṛtair juhoti puṣyati |
tasmai sahasram akṣabhir vi cakṣe 'gne viśvataḥ pratyaṅṅ asi tvam || 5 ||
kiṁ deveṣu tyaja enaś cakarthāgne pṛcchāmi nu tvām avidvān |
akrīḻan krīḻan harir attave 'dan vi parvaśaś cakarta gām ivāsiḥ || 6 ||
viṣūco aśvān yuyuje vanejā ṛjītibhī raśanābhir gṛbhītān |
cakṣade mitro vasubhiḥ sujātaḥ sam ānṛdhe parvabhir vāvṛdhānaḥ || 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).