Hymn to Vanaspati, the Sacrificial Post
Rigveda III.8 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. The god-seeking ones anoint you, O lord of the wood, with divine honey, in the rite. When you stand upright, place wealth here; or when your dwelling is in the lap of this mother.
2. Leaning forward before the kindled fire, winning unaging, good-heroed prayer, driving folly far from us — rise up, for great good fortune.
3. Rise up, O lord of the wood, upon the height of the earth; measured out with good measure, bestow splendor on the one who carries the sacrifice.
4. Young, well-clothed, wrapped around, he has come; being born, he becomes more excellent. The wise seers, well-intentioned, seeking the gods with their mind, lift him up.
5. Born, he is born on a fair day, growing in the contest, in the sacred gathering. The wise, working ones purify him with insight; the god-seeking inspired poet lifts up his voice.
6. O lord of the wood, those of you whom the god-seeking men have set in place, or whom the axe has hewn — those divine posts, standing firm, may they grant us treasure along with offspring.
7. Those which, having been felled, are set down upon the ground, with the sacrificial ladles held out — may they, prospering the field, grant us the desired boon toward the gods.
8. The Ādityas, the Rudras, the Vasus, the good guides, Heaven-and-Earth, Earth, the mid-air — may the gods, joined in accord, favor the sacrifice; may they raise up the banner of the rite.
9. Like geese drawn up in rows, clothed in bright raiment, the posts have come to us; led up by the seers in front, the divine ones go upon the path of the gods.
10. Like the horns of horned beasts, the posts, crowned with the caṣāla-ring, appear together upon the earth; hearkening to the priests in the calling-forth, may they favor us in our contests.
11. O lord of the wood, sprout forth with a hundred shoots; may we grow forth with a thousand shoots. You, whom this sharpened axe has led forth, for great good fortune.
Translator's note: the hymn addresses Vanaspati ("lord of the wood/forest"), here the felled tree made into the yūpa, the sacrificial post to which the offering is bound — not Agni. Verse 10's "caṣāla" is the ring-shaped cap fitted to the top of the post; it is left transliterated as a specific ritual object with no exact modern equivalent. Verse 5's "sudinatve ahnām" (literally "in the good-day-ness of days") is rendered "on a fair day."
Colophon
Rigveda III.8 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.8
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.
añjanti tvām adhvare devayanto vanaspate madhunā daivyena |
yad ūrdhvas tiṣṭhā draviṇeha dhattād yad vā kṣayo mātur asyā upasthe || 1 ||
samiddhasya śrayamāṇaḥ purastād brahma vanvāno ajaraṁ suvīram |
āre asmad amatim bādhamāna uc chrayasva mahate saubhagāya || 2 ||
uc chrayasva vanaspate varṣman pṛthivyā adhi |
sumitī mīyamāno varco dhā yajñavāhase || 3 ||
yuvā suvāsāḥ parivīta āgāt sa u śreyān bhavati jāyamānaḥ |
taṁ dhīrāsaḥ kavaya un nayanti svādhyo3 manasā devayantaḥ || 4 ||
jāto jāyate sudinatve ahnāṁ samarya ā vidathe vardhamānaḥ |
punanti dhīrā apaso manīṣā devayā vipra ud iyarti vācam || 5 ||
yān vo naro devayanto nimimyur vanaspate svadhitir vā tatakṣa |
te devāsaḥ svaravas tasthivāṁsaḥ prajāvad asme didhiṣantu ratnam || 6 ||
ye vṛkṇāso adhi kṣami nimitāso yatasrucaḥ |
te no vyantu vāryaṁ devatrā kṣetrasādhasaḥ || 7 ||
ādityā rudrā vasavaḥ sunīthā dyāvākṣāmā pṛthivī antarikṣam |
sajoṣaso yajñam avantu devā ūrdhvaṁ kṛṇvantv adhvarasya ketum || 8 ||
haṁsā iva śreṇiśo yatānāḥ śukrā vasānāḥ svaravo na āguḥ |
unnīyamānāḥ kavibhiḥ purastād devā devānām api yanti pāthaḥ || 9 ||
śṛṅgāṇīvec chṛṅgiṇāṁ saṁ dadṛśre caṣālavantaḥ svaravaḥ pṛthivyām |
vāghadbhir vā vihave śroṣamāṇā asmām̐ avantu pṛtanājyeṣu || 10 ||
vanaspate śatavalśo vi roha sahasravalśā vi vayaṁ ruhema |
yaṁ tvām ayaṁ svadhitis tejamānaḥ praṇināya mahate saubhagāya || 11 ||
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).