Hymn to Agni Vaiśvānara
Rigveda X.88 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. Into Agni — ageless, guarding the oblation, finder of the sun, toucher of heaven — the offering was poured, and welcomed. For his support, for the world, for the law, the gods spread themselves wide by their own power.
2. The world lay swallowed, hidden in darkness; the sun became visible when Agni was born. The gods, and Earth and Heaven, and the waters, and the plants rejoiced in friendship with him.
3. Impelled now by the gods worthy of worship, I will praise Agni, ageless and vast, who with his radiance has stretched out the earth and this heaven — the two world-halves — and the space between.
4. He was the first to serve as Hotṛ-priest, beloved of the gods, whom they chose and anointed with butter. He, Agni Jātavedas, made the flying creatures and the standing world, all that moves, to thrive.
5. When you, Jātavedas, stood at the head of the world, O Agni, together with your radiance, we urged you on with thoughts, songs, and hymns of praise. You became worthy of worship, filling the two world-halves.
6. By night Agni becomes the head of the world; then the sun is born, rising at dawn. This is the wondrous working of the gods worthy of sacrifice — when the swift one moves along, knowing the way.
7. He who, fair to see, kindled in his greatness, shone forth — born of heaven, far-shining — into that Agni, with well-spoken hymns, all the gods, guardians of our bodies, poured their offering.
8. First the well-spoken hymn, then Agni, then the oblation — in that order the gods brought them forth. He became their sacrifice, guardian of the body. Him Heaven knows, him Earth, him the Waters.
9. Agni, whom the gods brought forth, into whom all beings poured their offerings — he, moving straight on his course, scorched earth and this heaven with the flame of his greatness.
10. With hymns of praise, by their powers, the gods engendered Agni in heaven, filler of the two world-halves. They made him threefold for the sake of every creature; he ripens the plants of every form.
11. When the gods worthy of worship set him in heaven as the Sun, son of Aditi, and when the wandering twin pair came to be, then all beings first beheld the way before them.
12. For the whole world the gods made Agni Vaiśvānara the beacon of days — he who has spread out the shining dawns, who strips away the darkness as he goes with his flame.
13. The poet-gods worthy of worship engendered Agni Vaiśvānara, unaging — the ancient star that moves and does not fail, mighty and vast, overseer of wonder.
14. With sacred words we address Agni Vaiśvānara, ever-shining, the seer, who by his greatness has encompassed the two wide worlds, both below and above.
15. I have heard of two paths of the ancestors — one of the gods, one of mortals. By these two all that moves in this world travels, all that lies between the Father and the Mother.
16. Two powers joined together bear the wanderer, born from the head, touched by mind. He stands facing all beings, never flagging, the swift crosser, shining bright.
17. Where the lower and the higher speak together, asking: "Of us two masters of the rite, which one truly knows?" — have the companions been able to reach the shared feast? May they attain the sacrifice — who will declare this?
18. How many fires are there? How many suns? How many dawns, and how many waters? I do not speak to you in mockery, O fathers; I ask you, O seers, that I may truly know.
19. As long as the fair-winged ones clothe themselves in the likeness of dawn, O Mātariśvan, so long the Brahmin priest, coming to the sacrifice, sitting near, below the Hotṛ, performs his part.
Translator's note: verse 18's "nopaspijam" (rendered here as "not in mockery") is a rare and disputed word; the rendering is conservative. Verse 19's "suparṇyaḥ" ("the fair-winged ones") is ambiguous — it may picture the flames, or the dawns themselves, as birds; the image is kept literal rather than resolved.
Colophon
Rigveda X.88 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.88
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.
haviṣ pāntam ajaraṁ svarvidi divispṛśy āhutaṁ juṣṭam agnau |
tasya bharmaṇe bhuvanāya devā dharmaṇe kaṁ svadhayā paprathanta || 1 ||
gīrṇam bhuvanaṁ tamasāpagūḻham āviḥ svar abhavaj jāte agnau |
tasya devāḥ pṛthivī dyaur utāpo 'raṇayann oṣadhīḥ sakhye asya || 2 ||
devebhir nv iṣito yajñiyebhir agniṁ stoṣāṇy ajaram bṛhantam |
yo bhānunā pṛthivīṁ dyām utemām ātatāna rodasī antarikṣam || 3 ||
yo hotāsīt prathamo devajuṣṭo yaṁ samāñjann ājyenā vṛṇānāḥ |
sa patatrītvaraṁ sthā jagad yac chvātram agnir akṛṇoj jātavedāḥ || 4 ||
yaj jātavedo bhuvanasya mūrdhann atiṣṭho agne saha rocanena |
taṁ tvāhema matibhir gīrbhir ukthaiḥ sa yajñiyo abhavo rodasiprāḥ || 5 ||
mūrdhā bhuvo bhavati naktam agnis tataḥ sūryo jāyate prātar udyan |
māyām ū tu yajñiyānām etām apo yat tūrṇiś carati prajānan || 6 ||
dṛśenyo yo mahinā samiddho 'rocata diviyonir vibhāvā |
tasminn agnau sūktavākena devā havir viśva ājuhavus tanūpāḥ || 7 ||
sūktavākam prathamam ād id agnim ād id dhavir ajanayanta devāḥ |
sa eṣāṁ yajño abhavat tanūpās taṁ dyaur veda tam pṛthivī tam āpaḥ || 8 ||
yaṁ devāso 'janayantāgniṁ yasminn ājuhavur bhuvanāni viśvā |
so arciṣā pṛthivīṁ dyām utemām ṛjūyamāno atapan mahitvā || 9 ||
stomena hi divi devāso agnim ajījanañ chaktibhī rodasiprām |
tam ū akṛṇvan tredhā bhuve kaṁ sa oṣadhīḥ pacati viśvarūpāḥ || 10 ||
yaded enam adadhur yajñiyāso divi devāḥ sūryam āditeyam |
yadā cariṣṇū mithunāv abhūtām ād it prāpaśyan bhuvanāni viśvā || 11 ||
viśvasmā agnim bhuvanāya devā vaiśvānaraṁ ketum ahnām akṛṇvan |
ā yas tatānoṣaso vibhātīr apo ūrṇoti tamo arciṣā yan || 12 ||
vaiśvānaraṁ kavayo yajñiyāso 'gniṁ devā ajanayann ajuryam |
nakṣatram pratnam aminac cariṣṇu yakṣasyādhyakṣaṁ taviṣam bṛhantam || 13 ||
vaiśvānaraṁ viśvahā dīdivāṁsam mantrair agniṁ kavim acchā vadāmaḥ |
yo mahimnā paribabhūvorvī utāvastād uta devaḥ parastāt || 14 ||
dve srutī aśṛṇavam pitṝṇām ahaṁ devānām uta martyānām |
tābhyām idaṁ viśvam ejat sam eti yad antarā pitaram mātaraṁ ca || 15 ||
dve samīcī bibhṛtaś carantaṁ śīrṣato jātam manasā vimṛṣṭam |
sa pratyaṅ viśvā bhuvanāni tasthāv aprayucchan taraṇir bhrājamānaḥ || 16 ||
yatrā vadete avaraḥ paraś ca yajñanyoḥ kataro nau vi veda |
ā śekur it sadhamādaṁ sakhāyo nakṣanta yajñaṁ ka idaṁ vi vocat || 17 ||
katy agnayaḥ kati sūryāsaḥ katy uṣāsaḥ katy u svid āpaḥ |
nopaspijaṁ vaḥ pitaro vadāmi pṛcchāmi vaḥ kavayo vidmane kam || 18 ||
yāvanmātram uṣaso na pratīkaṁ suparṇyo3 vasate mātariśvaḥ |
tāvad dadhāty upa yajñam āyan brāhmaṇo hotur avaro niṣīdan || 19 ||
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).