Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.189 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. Agni, lead us by a good path to prosperity — you who know all our ways, O god. Turn away from us crooked sin. May we offer you our fullest words of homage.
2. Agni, ever to be praised anew, carry us safely across every danger with your blessings. Be for us a broad, ample, sheltering ground, wide as the earth, for the health and peace of our children and our children's children.
3. Agni, drive sickness away from us — the tribes without your fire's protection have been overcome by it. Grant us the earth again for our well-being, O god worthy of worship, together with all the immortal ones.
4. Protect us, Agni, with your unfailing guardians, blazing in your beloved dwelling place. Let no fear of you seize your singer now, youngest one, nor ever hereafter, O mighty one.
5. Do not give us up, Agni, to evil, to the violent aggressor, to the deceiver, to misfortune. Do not hand us over to the fanged one that bites, to the devourer, to the one who would harm us, O powerful one.
6. One such as you, Agni born of truth, will surely extend protection over our persons when praised — from anyone who means to harm us or means to revile us, from all who would deceive us. For you, O god, are the overseer of all.
7. You, Agni, knowing both sides well, attend to man's approach, O worshipful one. At his approach you are to be praised by man, fit to be honored by the eager priests, and unharming toward us.
8. We, the son of Māna, have spoken these words to Agni the mighty. May we, together with the seers, win a thousandfold. May we find nourishment, strength, and swift-flowing bounty.
Translator's note: verse 7 is textually difficult — "ubhayān" ("both [parties/kinds]") and "nākraḥ" ("harmless" or "not injuring") do not admit a fully certain rendering in isolation from a larger commentarial tradition; the translation above stays close to the literal sense of each word rather than resolving the ambiguity. In verse 8, "mānasya sūnuḥ" ("son of Māna") is kept as the poet's self-designation rather than expanded, since the identity of Māna is not settled by the verse itself.
Colophon
Rigveda I.189 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.189
agne naya supathā rāye asmān viśvāni deva vayunāni vidvān |
yuyodhy a1smaj juhurāṇam eno bhūyiṣṭhāṁ te namaüktiṁ vidhema || 1 ||
agne tvam pārayā navyo asmān svastibhir ati durgāṇi viśvā |
pūś ca pṛthvī bahulā na urvī bhavā tokāya tanayāya śaṁ yoḥ || 2 ||
agne tvam asmad yuyodhy amīvā anagnitrā abhy amanta kṛṣṭīḥ |
punar asmabhyaṁ suvitāya deva kṣāṁ viśvebhir amṛtebhir yajatra || 3 ||
pāhi no agne pāyubhir ajasrair uta priye sadana ā śuśukvān |
mā te bhayaṁ jaritāraṁ yaviṣṭha nūnaṁ vidan māparaṁ sahasvaḥ || 4 ||
mā no agne 'va sṛjo aghāyāviṣyave ripave ducchunāyai |
mā datvate daśate mādate no mā rīṣate sahasāvan parā dāḥ || 5 ||
vi gha tvāvām̐ ṛtajāta yaṁsad gṛṇāno agne tanve3 varūtham |
viśvād ririkṣor uta vā ninitsor abhihrutām asi hi deva viṣpaṭ || 6 ||
tvaṁ tām̐ agna ubhayān vi vidvān veṣi prapitve manuṣo yajatra |
abhipitve manave śāsyo bhūr marmṛjenya uśigbhir nākraḥ || 7 ||
avocāma nivacanāny asmin mānasya sūnuḥ sahasāne agnau |
vayaṁ sahasram ṛṣibhiḥ sanema vidyāmeṣaṁ vṛjanaṁ jīradānum || 8 ||
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).