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Mantra · Rigveda 10.121, ten verses asking which god receives the oblation

Hiranyagarbha Suktam

हिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेक आसीत् । स दाधार पृथिवीं द्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

Also known as Hiranyagarbhah Samavartatagre

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

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What the Hiranyagarbha Suktam is

The Hiranyagarbha Suktam is hymn 121 of the tenth mandala of the Rigveda, ten verses in trishtubh metre that look for the one maker behind earth, sky, waters and breath. The Vedic index of seers names its rishi Hiranyagarbha, son of Prajapati, and its deity Ka, the question word 'who' taken as a name. Verses 1 to 9 each draw one picture of that maker: the golden embryo who, once born, was sole lord of all that exists; the giver of life and strength whose shadow is both immortality and death; the greatness by which the snowy mountains stand and the vault of heaven is propped up. Each closes on the same line, kasmai devaya havisha vidhema, 'to which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?' Verse 10 breaks the pattern, names Prajapati and asks that the wish behind the offering be granted. The page prints the text without Vedic accent marks; chanting it with its svaras is learned from a teacher.

How the word 'who' became a name

The refrain of this hymn can be read two ways, and the tradition kept both. Read plainly, kasmai is the question word in the dative, 'to whom', and the poet is asking which god deserves the offering. Read as a name, Ka is the god, and the line turns into 'to Ka, the god, let us offer'. The Aitareya Brahmana (3.21) gives the story behind the second reading, and Sayana retells it in his commentary on the first verse. After Indra had slain Vritra and won every contest, he asked Prajapati for his greatness. Prajapati handed it over and then asked, 'Who, then, shall I be?' Indra replied that he should be exactly that, 'who', and so Prajapati came to be called Ka. Sayana adds two more readings of the syllable: ka as the one who desires to create, from the root kam, and ka as happiness itself. He explains Hiranyagarbha as Prajapati lying as the germ inside a golden egg, or as the cosmic self in whose belly that egg rests like a child in the womb. The picture has roots in an earlier hymn of the same book: the Vishvakarma hymn (Rigveda 10.82) speaks of a first embryo held by the waters and set on the navel of the unborn one.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiहिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेक आसीत् । स दाधार पृथिवीं द्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

Tamilஹிரண்யகர்பஃ ஸமவர்ததாக்ரே பூதஸ்ய ஜாதஃ பதிரேக ஆஸீத் । ஸ தாதார ப்ருதிவீம் த்யாமுதேமாம் கஸ்மை தேவாய ஹவிஷா விதேம ॥

Teluguహిరణ్యగర్భః సమవర్తతాగ్రే భూతస్య జాతః పతిరేక ఆసీత్ । స దాధార పృథివీం ద్యాముతేమాం కస్మై దేవాయ హవిషా విధేమ ॥

Kannadaಹಿರಣ್ಯಗರ್ಭಃ ಸಮವರ್ತತಾಗ್ರೇ ಭೂತಸ್ಯ ಜಾತಃ ಪತಿರೇಕ ಆಸೀತ್ । ಸ ದಾಧಾರ ಪೃಥಿವೀಂ ದ್ಯಾಮುತೇಮಾಂ ಕಸ್ಮೈ ದೇವಾಯ ಹವಿಷಾ ವಿಧೇಮ ॥

Malayalamഹിരണ്യഗര്ഭഃ സമവര്തതാഗ്രേ ഭൂതസ്യ ജാതഃ പതിരേക ആസീത് । സ ദാധാര പൃഥിവീം ദ്യാമുതേമാം കസ്മൈ ദേവായ ഹവിഷാ വിധേമ ॥

EnglishRoman transliterationhiraṇyagarbhaḥ samavartatāgre bhūtasya jātaḥ patireka āsīt | sa dādhāra pṛthivīṃ dyāmutemāṃ kasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema ||

“In the beginning the Golden Womb came into being; once born, he was the one lord of all that exists. He upheld the earth and this sky. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?”

हिरण्यगर्भः: hiraṇyagarbhaḥ — the golden embryo
समवर्तताग्रे: samavartatāgre — came into being in the beginning
भूतस्य: bhūtasya — of all that exists
जातः: jātaḥ — once born
पतिरेक: patireka — the one lord
आसीत्: āsīt — he was
स: sa — he
दाधार: dādhāra — upheld
पृथिवीं: pṛthivīṃ — the earth
द्यामुतेमां: dyāmutemāṃ — and this sky
कस्मै: kasmai — to which (or: to Ka)
देवाय: devāya — god
हविषा: haviṣā — with oblation
विधेम: vidhema — shall we offer worship

Hiranyagarbha Suktam lyrics in full

All ten verses of Rigveda 10.121, printed without the Vedic accent marks.

All 10 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Hiranyagarbha Suktam PDFAll 10 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

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Verse 1

हिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेक आसीत् ।
स दाधार पृथिवीं द्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

In the beginning the Golden Womb came into being; once born, he was the one lord of all that exists. He upheld the earth and this sky. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 2

य आत्मदा बलदा यस्य विश्व उपासते प्रशिषं यस्य देवाः ।
यस्य छायामृतं यस्य मृत्युः कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

He who gives life and gives strength, whose command all beings and all the gods obey, whose shadow is immortality and whose shadow is death. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 3

यः प्राणतो निमिषतो महित्वैक इद्राजा जगतो बभूव ।
य ईशे अस्य द्विपदश्चतुष्पदः कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

He who by his greatness became the one king of all that breathes and blinks, of the whole moving world, who rules over this world of two-footed and four-footed creatures. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 4

यस्येमे हिमवन्तो महित्वा यस्य समुद्रं रसया सहाहुः ।
यस्येमाः प्रदिशो यस्य बाहू कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

By whose greatness these snowy mountains stand, whose, they say, is the ocean with the far river, whose are these directions of space, which are his two arms. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 5

येन द्यौरुग्रा पृथिवी च दृळ्हा येन स्वः स्तभितं येन नाकः ।
यो अन्तरिक्षे रजसो विमानः कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

By whom the mighty heaven and the earth were made firm, by whom the light of the sun and the vault of heaven were propped up, who measures out the space of the mid-air. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 6

यं क्रन्दसी अवसा तस्तभाने अभ्यैक्षेतां मनसा रेजमाने ।
यत्राधि सूर उदितो विभाति कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

To whom the two opposing hosts, held firm by his help and trembling in mind, looked up, and over whom the risen sun shines. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 7

आपो ह यद्बृहतीर्विश्वमायन्गर्भं दधाना जनयन्तीरग्निम् ।
ततो देवानां समवर्ततासुरेकः कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

When the great waters came, holding all as an embryo and bringing forth fire, from that arose the one life-breath of the gods. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 8

यश्चिदापो महिना पर्यपश्यद्दक्षं दधाना जनयन्तीर्यज्ञम् ।
यो देवेष्वधि देव एक आसीत्कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

He who by his might looked over the waters, which held creative power and brought forth the sacrifice, he who was the one god above the gods. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 9

मा नो हिंसीज्जनिता यः पृथिव्या यो वा दिवं सत्यधर्मा जजान ।
यश्चापश्चन्द्रा बृहतीर्जजान कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥

May he not harm us, he who fathered the earth, who, true in his laws, fathered the heaven, and who fathered the bright and mighty waters. To which god shall we offer worship with our oblation?

Verse 10

प्रजापते न त्वदेतान्यन्यो विश्वा जातानि परि ता बभूव ।
यत्कामास्ते जुहुमस्तन्नो अस्तु वयं स्याम पतयो रयीणाम् ॥

O Prajapati, none other than you encompasses all these created things. May the wish for which we offer to you be fulfilled for us; may we become lords of riches.

The syllable people get wrong

In verse 5 the text prints dṛḷhā (दृळ्हा), 'made firm', with the old Rigvedic ḷh where later Sanskrit writes dṛḍhā. Say it with the tongue curled back as for ḍ but let the sound slip out at the sides like an l with a breath after it, not as a plain 'dridha'.

Questions

Word by word it is 'to which (kasmai) god (devaya) with oblation (havisha) shall we offer worship (vidhema)'. In verses 1 to 9 it reads as a real question: each verse describes the creator's work and then asks which god that is. Sayana also reads kasmai as the dative of Ka, a name of Prajapati, which makes the line a statement: 'to Ka, the god, we offer'. Verse 10 drops the refrain and answers it by addressing Prajapati directly.

The hymn itself names the golden embryo as Prajapati, the lord of creatures, and calls him the one god above the gods in verse 8. Later texts identify that figure with Brahma, the four-faced creator, and the Brahma Gayatri on our /mantra/brahma-mantra/ page meditates on him under the name Hiranyagarbha. In Vedanta, Hiranyagarbha also became a name for the cosmic self.

Both stand close together in the tenth mandala, 10.121 and 10.129, and both deal with origins, but they move in opposite directions. The Hiranyagarbha hymn begins with a creator already born, lists what he holds up and rules, and turns to how he is to be worshipped. The Nasadiya hymn begins before being and non-being and ends by doubting whether even the overseer knows. Our /mantra/nasadiya-suktam/ page carries that hymn.

Sayana lists several uses. Its verses serve as invitatory and offering verses at the animal offering to Prajapati, and the first verse is the offering verse for the oblation to Ka in the Varunapraghasa, one of the seasonal rites. Verse 10, 'Prajapate na tvadetanyanyo', has a separate life: it is used in the Iladadha offering, when a spoiled offering is cast into water, and in the Homam at a child's tonsure rite.

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