Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.27 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 5 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 good lord has richly given me cattle unyoked to carts — brightest and mightiest among the bounteous patrons. O Agni Vaiśvānara, son of Trivṛṣan, Tryaruṇa has become renowned through ten thousand gifts.
2. He who gives me a hundred and twenty cows, and two bay horses yoked with a good pole — O Vaiśvānara, well-praised and growing in strength, O Agni, grant shelter to Tryaruṇa.
3. Thus desiring your favor, O Agni, Trasadasyu offers his newest gift to the newest of singers; Tryaruṇa, with his yoked team, loudly proclaims my many hymns of power.
4. He who speaks thus of me to Aśvamedha the patron — giving, through this hymn, a reward to the seeker, giving insight to the one who upholds truth.
5. Whose hundred dappled bulls delight me — the gifts of Aśvamedha, like soma mixed with milk and curd and grain.
6. O Indra and Agni, for Aśvamedha the hundredfold giver, uphold heroic strength and vast dominion, ageless as the sun in heaven.
Translator's note: this is a dānastuti, a "gift-praise" verse type in which the poet thanks named patrons for specific donations, and its syntax is often compressed and elliptical. Verses 3 and 4 are especially terse in the Sanskrit; the rendering above follows the most literal reading of the grammatical case relationships but some connective sense is supplied conservatively. "Aśvamedha" is read here as a patron's proper name (parallel to Tryaruṇa and Trasadasyu), consistent with its repetition across verses 4–6, rather than as the ritual "horse sacrifice." "Paruṣāḥ" (verse 5) is rendered "dappled," its most common sense, though "spotted" or "brindled" would also fit.
Colophon
Rigveda V.27 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 V.27
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.
anasvantā satpatir māmahe me gāvā cetiṣṭho asuro maghonaḥ |
traivṛṣṇo agne daśabhiḥ sahasrair vaiśvānara tryaruṇaś ciketa || 1 ||
yo me śatā ca viṁśatiṁ ca gonāṁ harī ca yuktā sudhurā dadāti |
vaiśvānara suṣṭuto vāvṛdhāno 'gne yaccha tryaruṇāya śarma || 2 ||
evā te agne sumatiṁ cakāno naviṣṭhāya navamaṁ trasadasyuḥ |
yo me giras tuvijātasya pūrvīr yuktenābhi tryaruṇo gṛṇāti || 3 ||
yo ma iti pravocaty aśvamedhāya sūraye |
dadad ṛcā saniṁ yate dadan medhām ṛtāyate || 4 ||
yasya mā paruṣāḥ śatam uddharṣayanty ukṣaṇaḥ |
aśvamedhasya dānāḥ somā iva tryāśiraḥ || 5 ||
indrāgnī śatadāvny aśvamedhe suvīryam |
kṣatraṁ dhārayatam bṛhad divi sūryam ivājaram || 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).