Rig Veda or ‘Rigveda’ means praise/verse of knowledge. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas. The others are Yajur Veda or Yahurveda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. The Rig Veda is the oldest of them. It consists of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books. Here the books are translated into English and collected in one PDF-file. We have a lot of other Hindu scriptures here on the site, do a search. Here is the first hymn from the Rig Veda:
HYMN I Agni
1 I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice,
The hotar, lavishest of wealth.
2 Worthy is Agni to be praised by living as by ancient seers.
He shall bring. hitherward the Gods.
3 Through Agni man obtaineth wealth, yea, plenty waxing day by day,
Most rich in heroes, glorious.
4 Agni, the perfect sacrifice which thou encompassest about
Verily goeth to the Gods.
5 May Agni, sapient-minded Priest, truthful, most gloriously great,
The God, come hither with the Gods.
6 Whatever blessing, Agni, thou wilt grant unto thy worshipper,
That, Angiras, is indeed thy truth.
7 To thee, dispeller of the night, O Agni, day by day with prayer
Bringing thee reverence, we come
8 Ruler of sacrifices, guard of Law eternal, radiant One,
Increasing in thine own abode.
9 Be to us easy of approach, even as a father to his son:
Agni, be with us for our weal.
RIG VEDA – Download the free English PDF ebook of the complete Rig Veda here – 749 pages (PDF 3.81 MB) here:
