Agni Against the Sorcerers
Rigveda X.87 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 anoint the demon-slaying, mighty one; I come to the widest-reaching friend for shelter. Agni, sharpened, kindled by our rites — let him guard us from harm by day, and by night as well.
2. Iron-fanged one, kindled, Jātavedas — reach the sorcerers with your flame. Seize the fools-who-worship-falsely with your tongue; tear the flesh-eating demons and set them in your mouth.
3. You who have both jaws — set your fangs, sharpened and destructive, the lower and the upper together. Range through the mid-air, O king; close your jaws upon the sorcerers.
4. Bending your arrows with sacred rites, Agni, smearing the barbs with spell-words and with thunderbolt-points — pierce the sorcerers in the heart with these; break the arms they raise against us.
5. Split the skin of the sorcerer, Agni; let your destructive bolt strike him down with force. Break his joints apart, Jātavedas; let the flesh-eater, ravenous for flesh, scatter what has been hewn.
6. Wherever you now see him, Jātavedas, standing or moving, Agni, or flying through the paths of the sky — pierce him, like an archer, with your sharpened shaft.
7. And win back, Jātavedas, what has been seized, from the grasping sorcerer, with your spears. Blazing, Agni, strike him down first; let the raw-flesh-eating dappled birds devour him.
8. Declare here, Agni, which one he is — the sorcerer who does this. Seize him with your kindling flame, youngest god; deliver him to the eye of the one who watches over men.
9. Guard the sacrifice with your sharp eye, Agni; lead it forward to the Vasus, foreseeing one. Blaze destructively against the demons; let not the sorcerers deceive you, watcher of men.
10. Man-watcher, look around among the peoples for the demon; break its three points. Break its ribs with your force, Agni; cut the sorcerer's root into three.
11. Three times let the sorcerer fall into your snare — he who strikes truth down with falsehood, Agni. Making him roar with your flame, Jātavedas, lay him low before the eyes of the one who sings your praise.
12. Set that eye upon the singer, Agni — the hoof-crushing eye by which you see the sorcerer. Like Atharvan, with your divine light, burn down the senseless one who does violence to truth.
13. When today, Agni, a pair hurl curses at each other, whatever sharp word the harsh-voiced ones utter — whatever shaft is born from an angry mind — with that pierce the sorcerers in the heart.
14. Shatter the sorcerers with your heat; shatter the demon with your force, Agni. Shatter the false-worshippers with your flame; blazing, shatter those who feed on life-breath.
15. Today let the gods shatter the crooked one; let the sharp curses turn back upon him. Let the arrows strike the thief-of-words in his vital point; let the sorcerer fall into everyone's snare.
16. Whoever anoints himself with human flesh, the sorcerer who anoints himself with horse-flesh, whoever steals the milk of the cow — cut off their heads, Agni, with your force.
17. Let not the sorcerer eat of the cow's year-long milk, watcher of men. Whoever, Agni, would gorge himself on the fresh milk — pierce him, facing him, in his vital point with your flame.
18. Let the sorcerers drink the poison of the cows; let the evildoers be cut down before Aditi. Let the god Savitar cast them out; let them forfeit their share of the healing plants.
19. From ancient times, Agni, you crush the sorcerers; the demons have never conquered you in battle. Burn down the flesh-eaters together with the fools; let none escape your divine weapon.
20. Guard us, Agni, from below and from above; guard us from behind and from in front. May your unaging, hottest flames blaze and burn the one who speaks evil.
21. From behind, from in front, from below, from above, protect us all around, seer, with your seer's wisdom, O king. Friend, guard your friend — unaging one, guard us toward old age; Agni, immortal one, guard us mortals.
22. We set you around us, Agni, like a fortress, inspired, mighty one — we hold you close. Bold-gleaming, day after day, slayer of the deceitful.
23. Burn the demons of the deceitful with poison, Agni, with your sharp flame, with fiery-tipped spears.
24. Burn back, Agni, the pair of them — the sorcerers, the kīmīdins. I sharpen you with my thoughts; awake, unassailable, inspired one.
25. Break their fury with your fury, Agni, on every side. Shatter the strength, the might, of the sorcerer-demon.
Translator's note: "kīmīdin" (v. 24) is left untranslated — it names a specific class of hostile demon, alongside yātudhāna and rakṣas, without a settled English equivalent. "Man-watcher" (nṛcakṣas) and "watcher of men" render the same epithet of Agni as an eye that oversees human conduct.
Colophon
Rigveda X.87 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.87
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.
rakṣohaṇaṁ vājinam ā jigharmi mitram prathiṣṭham upa yāmi śarma |
śiśāno agniḥ kratubhiḥ samiddhaḥ sa no divā sa riṣaḥ pātu naktam || 1 ||
ayodaṁṣṭro arciṣā yātudhānān upa spṛśa jātavedaḥ samiddhaḥ |
ā jihvayā mūradevān rabhasva kravyādo vṛktvy api dhatsvāsan || 2 ||
ubhobhayāvinn upa dhehi daṁṣṭrā hiṁsraḥ śiśāno 'varam paraṁ ca |
utāntarikṣe pari yāhi rājañ jambhaiḥ saṁ dhehy abhi yātudhānān || 3 ||
yajñair iṣūḥ saṁnamamāno agne vācā śalyām̐ aśanibhir dihānaḥ |
tābhir vidhya hṛdaye yātudhānān pratīco bāhūn prati bhaṅdhy eṣām || 4 ||
agne tvacaṁ yātudhānasya bhindhi hiṁsrāśanir harasā hantv enam |
pra parvāṇi jātavedaḥ śṛṇīhi kravyāt kraviṣṇur vi cinotu vṛkṇam || 5 ||
yatredānīm paśyasi jātavedas tiṣṭhantam agna uta vā carantam |
yad vāntarikṣe pathibhiḥ patantaṁ tam astā vidhya śarvā śiśānaḥ || 6 ||
utālabdhaṁ spṛṇuhi jātaveda ālebhānād ṛṣṭibhir yātudhānāt |
agne pūrvo ni jahi śośucāna āmādaḥ kṣviṅkās tam adantv enīḥ || 7 ||
iha pra brūhi yatamaḥ so agne yo yātudhāno ya idaṁ kṛṇoti |
tam ā rabhasva samidhā yaviṣṭha nṛcakṣasaś cakṣuṣe randhayainam || 8 ||
tīkṣṇenāgne cakṣuṣā rakṣa yajñam prāñcaṁ vasubhyaḥ pra ṇaya pracetaḥ |
hiṁsraṁ rakṣāṁsy abhi śośucānam mā tvā dabhan yātudhānā nṛcakṣaḥ || 9 ||
nṛcakṣā rakṣaḥ pari paśya vikṣu tasya trīṇi prati śṛṇīhy agrā |
tasyāgne pṛṣṭīr harasā śṛṇīhi tredhā mūlaṁ yātudhānasya vṛśca || 10 ||
trir yātudhānaḥ prasitiṁ ta etv ṛtaṁ yo agne anṛtena hanti |
tam arciṣā sphūrjayañ jātavedaḥ samakṣam enaṁ gṛṇate ni vṛṅdhi || 11 ||
tad agne cakṣuḥ prati dhehi rebhe śaphārujaṁ yena paśyasi yātudhānam |
atharvavaj jyotiṣā daivyena satyaṁ dhūrvantam acitaṁ ny oṣa || 12 ||
yad agne adya mithunā śapāto yad vācas tṛṣṭaṁ janayanta rebhāḥ |
manyor manasaḥ śaravyā3 jāyate yā tayā vidhya hṛdaye yātudhānān || 13 ||
parā śṛṇīhi tapasā yātudhānān parāgne rakṣo harasā śṛṇīhi |
parārciṣā mūradevāñ chṛṇīhi parāsutṛpo abhi śośucānaḥ || 14 ||
parādya devā vṛjinaṁ śṛṇantu pratyag enaṁ śapathā yantu tṛṣṭāḥ |
vācāstenaṁ śarava ṛcchantu marman viśvasyaitu prasitiṁ yātudhānaḥ || 15 ||
yaḥ pauruṣeyeṇa kraviṣā samaṅkte yo aśvyena paśunā yātudhānaḥ |
yo aghnyāyā bharati kṣīram agne teṣāṁ śīrṣāṇi harasāpi vṛśca || 16 ||
saṁvatsarīṇam paya usriyāyās tasya māśīd yātudhāno nṛcakṣaḥ |
pīyūṣam agne yatamas titṛpsāt tam pratyañcam arciṣā vidhya marman || 17 ||
viṣaṁ gavāṁ yātudhānāḥ pibantv ā vṛścyantām aditaye durevāḥ |
parainān devaḥ savitā dadātu parā bhāgam oṣadhīnāṁ jayantām || 18 ||
sanād agne mṛṇasi yātudhānān na tvā rakṣāṁsi pṛtanāsu jigyuḥ |
anu daha sahamūrān kravyādo mā te hetyā mukṣata daivyāyāḥ || 19 ||
tvaṁ no agne adharād udaktāt tvam paścād uta rakṣā purastāt |
prati te te ajarāsas tapiṣṭhā aghaśaṁsaṁ śośucato dahantu || 20 ||
paścāt purastād adharād udaktāt kaviḥ kāvyena pari pāhi rājan |
sakhe sakhāyam ajaro jarimṇe 'gne martām̐ amartyas tvaṁ naḥ || 21 ||
pari tvāgne puraṁ vayaṁ vipraṁ sahasya dhīmahi |
dhṛṣadvarṇaṁ dive-dive hantāram bhaṅgurāvatām || 22 ||
viṣeṇa bhaṅgurāvataḥ prati ṣma rakṣaso daha |
agne tigmena śociṣā tapuragrābhir ṛṣṭibhiḥ || 23 ||
praty agne mithunā daha yātudhānā kimīdinā |
saṁ tvā śiśāmi jāgṛhy adabdhaṁ vipra manmabhiḥ || 24 ||
praty agne harasā haraḥ śṛṇīhi viśvataḥ prati |
yātudhānasya rakṣaso balaṁ vi ruja vīryam || 25 ||
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).