Āprī Hymn — Agni and the Ritual Deities
Rigveda V.5 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 hymn belongs to the Āprī class: a fixed liturgical sequence recited during the animal offering, addressing in turn Agni, Narāśaṃsa, Indra, the strewn ritual grass, the sacrificial doors, Night and Dawn, the two divine priests, the goddesses Iḷā, Sarasvatī, and Mahī, Tvaṣṭṛ, the Lord of the Forest (the sacrificial post), and finally the gods collectively through the exclamation svāhā. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. To the well-kindled one, to the blazing flame, pour out strong ghee — to Agni, knower of all that is born.
2. Narāśaṃsa, who cannot be deceived, has made this sacrifice go well — for he is the poet, the sweet-handed one.
3. Agni, invoked, bring Indra here — brilliant, dear to us — with his easy-rolling chariots, for our help.
4. Soft as wool, spread yourself out wide; the songs have sounded out to you. Be here for us, bright one, for our gain.
5. Divine doors, swing open wide, easy to pass through, for our help; fill this sacrifice further and further.
6. Fair of face, nourishers of life, the two young mothers of order — Night and Dawn — we call on them.
7. On the path of the wind, invoked, the two divine priests of Manu — come to this sacrifice of ours.
8. Iḷā, Sarasvatī, and Mahī, three goddesses who bring joy and do not fail — let them sit on the strewn grass.
9. Kindly Tvaṣṭṛ, come here, mighty one, bringing abundance in your own person; help us onward at sacrifice after sacrifice.
10. Lord of the Forest, where you know the hidden names of the gods, there send our offerings.
11. Svāhā to Agni, to Varuṇa; svāhā to Indra, to the Maruts; svāhā — this offering to the gods.
Translator's note: verses 2 and 9 use the terms "sweet-handed" (madhuhastya, of Narāśaṃsa) and "in your own person" (uta tmanā, of Tvaṣṭṛ) as literal renderings of compact Vedic epithets whose precise ritual nuance is debated; the plain sense of each word is kept rather than any interpretive gloss.
Colophon
Rigveda V.5 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.5
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.
susamiddhāya śociṣe ghṛtaṁ tīvraṁ juhotana |
agnaye jātavedase || 1 ||
narāśaṁsaḥ suṣūdatīmaṁ yajñam adābhyaḥ |
kavir hi madhuhastyaḥ || 2 ||
īḻito agna ā vahendraṁ citram iha priyam |
sukhai rathebhir ūtaye || 3 ||
ūrṇamradā vi prathasvābhy a1rkā anūṣata |
bhavā naḥ śubhra sātaye || 4 ||
devīr dvāro vi śrayadhvaṁ suprāyaṇā na ūtaye |
pra-pra yajñam pṛṇītana || 5 ||
supratīke vayovṛdhā yahvī ṛtasya mātarā |
doṣām uṣāsam īmahe || 6 ||
vātasya patmann īḻitā daivyā hotārā manuṣaḥ |
imaṁ no yajñam ā gatam || 7 ||
iḻā sarasvatī mahī tisro devīr mayobhuvaḥ |
barhiḥ sīdantv asridhaḥ || 8 ||
śivas tvaṣṭar ihā gahi vibhuḥ poṣa uta tmanā |
yajñe-yajñe na ud ava || 9 ||
yatra vettha vanaspate devānāṁ guhyā nāmāni |
tatra havyāni gāmaya || 10 ||
svāhāgnaye varuṇāya svāhendrāya marudbhyaḥ |
svāhā devebhyo haviḥ || 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).