Hymn to Agni, with a Blessing for Somaka Sāhadevya
Rigveda IV.15 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 4 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. Agni is our hotar-priest at the rite; strong as a racehorse, he is led around the fire — a god, worthy of worship among the gods.
2. Agni goes around the rite in his threefold course, like a charioteer, setting out refreshment among the gods.
3. Agni, lord of the prize, the seer, has moved among the oblations, bestowing treasures on the one who gives.
4. This is the one who is kindled before Sṛñjaya, in the house of Daivavāta — shining, the confounder of enemies.
5. What mortal could claim mastery over this hero Agni, so mighty — sharp of tooth, the bountiful one?
6. They groom him day after day like a winning racehorse, like the ruddy child of heaven.
7. When the youth, son of Sahadeva, calls me with his two tawny horses, let him take notice — I have risen up as though summoned to him.
8. And at once I have received from the youth, son of Sahadeva, those two worshipful tawny horses, held out to me.
9. This youth, son of Sahadeva — Somaka — O you two gods, Aśvins: may he live long.
10. That youth, son of Sahadeva — you two, O gods, Aśvins: make him long-lived.
Translator's note: verses 7–8 shift into the first person (most likely Agni speaking of the horses offered to him by the youth Somaka Sāhadevya); verses 9–10 turn to address the Aśvins directly, asking long life for that same youth. "Triviṣṭi" in verse 2 (Agni's "threefold course") is a compressed technical term with no single clean modern equivalent; it is rendered conservatively.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.15 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 IV.15
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.
agnir hotā no adhvare vājī san pari ṇīyate |
devo deveṣu yajñiyaḥ || 1 ||
pari triviṣṭy adhvaraṁ yāty agnī rathīr iva |
ā deveṣu prayo dadhat || 2 ||
pari vājapatiḥ kavir agnir havyāny akramīt |
dadhad ratnāni dāśuṣe || 3 ||
ayaṁ yaḥ sṛñjaye puro daivavāte samidhyate |
dyumām̐ amitradambhanaḥ || 4 ||
asya ghā vīra īvato 'gner īśīta martyaḥ |
tigmajambhasya mīḻhuṣaḥ || 5 ||
tam arvantaṁ na sānasim aruṣaṁ na divaḥ śiśum |
marmṛjyante dive-dive || 6 ||
bodhad yan mā haribhyāṁ kumāraḥ sāhadevyaḥ |
acchā na hūta ud aram || 7 ||
uta tyā yajatā harī kumārāt sāhadevyāt |
prayatā sadya ā dade || 8 ||
eṣa vāṁ devāv aśvinā kumāraḥ sāhadevyaḥ |
dīrghāyur astu somakaḥ || 9 ||
taṁ yuvaṁ devāv aśvinā kumāraṁ sāhadevyam |
dīrghāyuṣaṁ kṛṇotana || 10 ||
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).