Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.149 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Agni, the divine fire, messenger between mortals and gods, the eternal priest of the sacred rite. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. He, the lord, presses eagerly toward great wealth, giving of the mighty one's goods to his place. The pressing-stones honored him as he came on swiftly.
2. He who is a bull among men, of the two world-halves, whose life-giving flow is drunk for his fame — he who streams forth has taken his place in the source.
3. He who set the stronghold of Nārmiṇī ablaze, a courser, a seer of the sky, like a racing steed — shining like the sun, of a hundred forms.
4. The twice-born one has taken his stand, blazing, over the three luminous realms and all the regions — the priest most worthy of sacrifice, in the gathering-place of the waters.
5. This is the priest, the twice-born one, who holds all desirable boons for glory — for the mortal who has given him worship.
Translator's note: "Nārmiṇī" (verse 3) is a proper name, likely of a stronghold or demon overcome by Agni's fire; its meaning beyond the name is not recoverable with confidence. The compound rendered "life-giving flow... drunk" (verse 2, jīvapītasarga) and the word rendered "worship" (verse 5, sutuka, more literally something like "swift offering" or "devoted one") are both genuinely difficult and are translated conservatively.
Colophon
Rigveda I.149 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 I.149
mahaḥ sa rāya eṣate patir dann ina inasya vasunaḥ pada ā |
upa dhrajantam adrayo vidhann it || 1 ||
sa yo vṛṣā narāṁ na rodasyoḥ śravobhir asti jīvapītasargaḥ |
pra yaḥ sasrāṇaḥ śiśrīta yonau || 2 ||
ā yaḥ puraṁ nārmiṇīm adīded atyaḥ kavir nabhanyo3 nārvā |
sūro na rurukvāñ chatātmā || 3 ||
abhi dvijanmā trī rocanāni viśvā rajāṁsi śuśucāno asthāt |
hotā yajiṣṭho apāṁ sadhasthe || 4 ||
ayaṁ sa hotā yo dvijanmā viśvā dadhe vāryāṇi śravasyā |
marto yo asmai sutuko dadāśa || 5 ||
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).