To Agni, for the Oblation of Ghee and Fat
Rigveda III.21 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. Place this sacrifice of ours among the immortal gods; take pleasure, Jātavedas, in these offerings. Of the drops of fat, of ghee, O Hotar — sit down first and taste them.
2. Purifying one, your drops heavy with ghee and fat trickle down. By your own law, for the feast of the gods, grant us the best of what is to be wished for.
3. For you, true Agni, the ghee-dripping drops belong, for the inspired poet's sake. As the best sage you are kindled — be the one who carries the sacrifice forward.
4. For you they trickle down, unassailable and mighty one — the drops of fat, of ghee, Agni. Praised by the poets, you have come with your great light; take pleasure, wise one, in the offerings.
5. The strongest fat, drawn out from the middle, is yours — we offer it forth to you. Your drops, good one, trickle down onto the hide; receive them as befits a god.
Translator's note: verse 5's "hide" (tvac) likely refers to the sacrificial ground or the skin laid at the altar onto which the fat is poured; the phrase is kept literal rather than expanded.
Colophon
Rigveda III.21 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.21
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.
imaṁ no yajñam amṛteṣu dhehīmā havyā jātavedo juṣasva |
stokānām agne medaso ghṛtasya hotaḥ prāśāna prathamo niṣadya || 1 ||
ghṛtavantaḥ pāvaka te stokāḥ ścotanti medasaḥ |
svadharman devavītaye śreṣṭhaṁ no dhehi vāryam || 2 ||
tubhyaṁ stokā ghṛtaścuto 'gne viprāya santya |
ṛṣiḥ śreṣṭhaḥ sam idhyase yajñasya prāvitā bhava || 3 ||
tubhyaṁ ścotanty adhrigo śacīvaḥ stokāso agne medaso ghṛtasya |
kaviśasto bṛhatā bhānunāgā havyā juṣasva medhira || 4 ||
ojiṣṭhaṁ te madhyato meda udbhṛtam pra te vayaṁ dadāmahe |
ścotanti te vaso stokā adhi tvaci prati tān devaśo vihi || 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).