Agni and the Rice-Cake Offering
Rigveda III.28 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. O Agni, accept our offering, the rice-cake, O Jātavedas — at the morning pressing, O you whose wealth is devotion.
2. O Agni, the rice-cake is being cooked; it is prepared for you. Accept it, O youngest one.
3. O Agni, receive the offered rice-cake, made the day before. You are the son of strength, set in place at the rite.
4. At the midday pressing, O Jātavedas, accept here the rice-cake, O poet-seer. O Agni, mighty one — the wise do not diminish your portion at the sacrificial gatherings.
5. O Agni, at the third pressing you take delight in the rice-cake offered to the son of strength. So then, wakeful among the immortals, set the rite among the gods with wondrous praise, rich in treasure.
6. O Agni, growing through the offering, O Jātavedas — accept the rice-cake made the day before.
Translator's note: verse 5 (agne tṛtīye savane...) is syntactically compressed; "dhā" (place/bestow) is read as an imperative governing "adhvaram" (the rite), with "vipanyayā" ("through wondrous praise/wonder") and "ratnavantam... jāgṛvim" describing the rite or Agni himself. The line is rendered conservatively rather than resolved with certainty.
Colophon
Rigveda III.28 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.28
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.
agne juṣasva no haviḥ puroḻāśaṁ jātavedaḥ |
prātaḥsāve dhiyāvaso || 1 ||
puroḻā agne pacatas tubhyaṁ vā ghā pariṣkṛtaḥ |
taṁ juṣasva yaviṣṭhya || 2 ||
agne vīhi puroḻāśam āhutaṁ tiroahnyam |
sahasaḥ sūnur asy adhvare hitaḥ || 3 ||
mādhyaṁdine savane jātavedaḥ puroḻāśam iha kave juṣasva |
agne yahvasya tava bhāgadheyaṁ na pra minanti vidatheṣu dhīrāḥ || 4 ||
agne tṛtīye savane hi kāniṣaḥ puroḻāśaṁ sahasaḥ sūnav āhutam |
athā deveṣv adhvaraṁ vipanyayā dhā ratnavantam amṛteṣu jāgṛvim || 5 ||
agne vṛdhāna āhutim puroḻāśaṁ jātavedaḥ |
juṣasva tiroahnyam || 6 ||
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).