Hymn to Agni and the Gods
Rigveda III.20 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 3 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. At the breaking of dawn the priest, the carrier of the offering, calls with hymns to Agni, to Uṣas, to the Aśvins, to Dadhikrā. May the gods of bright light hear us, united in desire, longing together for the rite.
2. Agni, three are your powers, three your dwelling-places, three your ancient tongues, born of order. Three, too, are your bodies, dear to the gods — with these guard our songs of praise without fail.
3. Agni, knower of all beings, self-powerful god, many are the names of the immortal one. And the powers of the power-wielders, O all-pervading one — many of them, bound at the ridge, have been gathered together in you.
4. Agni is the leader of the settled peoples, like Bhaga; a god among the divine ones, guardian of the seasons, possessing order. He, the slayer of Vṛtra, ancient and all-knowing — may he carry the one who praises him across all dangers.
5. Dadhikrā, Agni, and the goddess Uṣas, Bṛhaspati and the god Savitṛ, the two Aśvins, Mitra and Varuṇa, and Bhaga, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Ādityas — here I call them.
Translator's note: "pṛṣṭabandho" in verse 3 (rendered "bound at the ridge") is an obscure compound epithet of Agni; its exact sense is uncertain and the rendering here is conservative. "vājinā" in verse 2 ("powers") can also carry the sense of "prizes" or "vigors"; either reading leaves the overall claim — Agni's threefold nature — unchanged.
Colophon
Rigveda III.20 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 III.20
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.
agnim uṣasam aśvinā dadhikrāṁ vyuṣṭiṣu havate vahnir ukthaiḥ |
sujyotiṣo naḥ śṛṇvantu devāḥ sajoṣaso adhvaraṁ vāvaśānāḥ || 1 ||
agne trī te vājinā trī ṣadhasthā tisras te jihvā ṛtajāta pūrvīḥ |
tisra u te tanvo devavātās tābhir naḥ pāhi giro aprayucchan || 2 ||
agne bhūrīṇi tava jātavedo deva svadhāvo 'mṛtasya nāma |
yāś ca māyā māyināṁ viśvaminva tve pūrvīḥ saṁdadhuḥ pṛṣṭabandho || 3 ||
agnir netā bhaga iva kṣitīnāṁ daivīnāṁ deva ṛtupā ṛtāvā |
sa vṛtrahā sanayo viśvavedāḥ parṣad viśvāti duritā gṛṇantam || 4 ||
dadhikrām agnim uṣasaṁ ca devīm bṛhaspatiṁ savitāraṁ ca devam |
aśvinā mitrāvaruṇā bhagaṁ ca vasūn rudrām̐ ādityām̐ iha huve || 5 ||
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).