Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.26 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. Clothe yourself, O one worthy of the offering, lord of strength — put on your garments; perform this rite of ours.
2. Sit down, our excellent priest, ever the youngest, moved by our thoughts — O Agni, with heavenly speech.
3. For indeed the father, as kinsman, sacrifices for his son; as friend for his friend — the excellent one is a friend for friendship's sake.
4. Let Varuṇa, Mitra, and Aryaman, destroyers of foes, sit down upon our sacred grass for us, as they did for Manu.
5. O ancient priest, delight in this friendship of ours; and truly listen well to these songs.
6. Even though, indeed, with constant succession we worship each and every god, it is in you that the oblation is poured.
7. Let the lord of the clan, the joyous, excellent priest, be dear to us; dear, and possessing good fire, may we be.
8. Possessing good fire, the gods have indeed bestowed a boon upon us; possessing good fire, we reflect upon it.
9. Then, O immortal one, let there be mutual praises between us both — of mortals and of you.
10. With all the fires, O Agni, take delight in this sacrifice, this speech, O child of strength.
Translator's note: Verse 2 has no expressed main verb in the Sanskrit ("ni... hotā vareṇyaḥ..."); "sit down" is supplied as the sense implied by the "ni" prefix, following the pattern of verse 4's "ā... sīdantu." Verse 9's "ubhayeṣām... martyānām" ("of both... of mortals") is read as shorthand for "of both mortals and immortals," since the vocative "amṛta" (O immortal) addresses Agni in the same breath.
Colophon
Rigveda I.26 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.26
vasiṣvā hi miyedhya vastrāṇy ūrjām pate |
semaṁ no adhvaraṁ yaja || 1 ||
ni no hotā vareṇyaḥ sadā yaviṣṭha manmabhiḥ |
agne divitmatā vacaḥ || 2 ||
ā hi ṣmā sūnave pitāpir yajaty āpaye |
sakhā sakhye vareṇyaḥ || 3 ||
ā no barhī riśādaso varuṇo mitro aryamā |
sīdantu manuṣo yathā || 4 ||
pūrvya hotar asya no mandasva sakhyasya ca |
imā u ṣu śrudhī giraḥ || 5 ||
yac cid dhi śaśvatā tanā devaṁ-devaṁ yajāmahe |
tve id dhūyate haviḥ || 6 ||
priyo no astu viśpatir hotā mandro vareṇyaḥ |
priyāḥ svagnayo vayam || 7 ||
svagnayo hi vāryaṁ devāso dadhire ca naḥ |
svagnayo manāmahe || 8 ||
athā na ubhayeṣām amṛta martyānām |
mithaḥ santu praśastayaḥ || 9 ||
viśvebhir agne agnibhir imaṁ yajñam idaṁ vacaḥ |
cano dhāḥ sahaso yaho || 10 ||
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).