Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.27 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. Like a horse with a fine tail, I would praise you with homage, Agni — sovereign ruler of the sacred rites.
2. May that son of ours, wide-striding in his might, most gracious, be a generous giver to us.
3. Protect us always — from the mortal wishing us harm, whether far off or near — you who live through every age.
4. Proclaim well, indeed, this gift of ours, this newest gāyatra song, Agni, among the gods.
5. Grant us a share in the highest contests and in the middling ones; strive to give us the wealth that lies nearest.
6. You are the apportioner, O brilliant one — you flow at once to the one who offers, near like a wave of the river.
7. The mortal whom you help in battles, Agni, whom you speed on in the contests — he becomes master of unfailing store.
8. No one at all, O overpowering one, can get around him; his strength is one worthy of fame.
9. May he, seen by all peoples, be the winner of the prize with our steeds; may he be the gainer of it with our inspired singers.
10. O you who wake at the call of praise, attend to this — for every clan, worthy of worship — the resplendent hymn, for Rudra.
11. May he, the great one, unmeasured, smoke-bannered, richly shining, urge us on toward insight and toward strength.
12. May he, like a wealthy lord of the clan, the divine beacon, hear us through our hymns — Agni of vast radiance.
13. Homage to the great ones, homage to the small ones, homage to the young, homage to the seated elders! Let us worship the gods, if we are able. May we not, O gods, cut away the praise owed to the greater ones.
Translator's note: verse 10 calls Agni by the epithet "Rudra" (the fierce/howling one), a name elsewhere given to a distinct deity; here it functions as a descriptor of Agni's fierce aspect, not a shift of addressee. The closing clause of verse 13 (mā jyāyasaḥ śaṁsam ā vṛkṣi devāḥ) is rendered conservatively as a plea not to slight the greater gods' due praise while honoring the lesser; the exact force of ā vṛkṣi is debated.
Colophon
Rigveda I.27 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.27
aśvaṁ na tvā vāravantaṁ vandadhyā agniṁ namobhiḥ |
samrājantam adhvarāṇām || 1 ||
sa ghā naḥ sūnuḥ śavasā pṛthupragāmā suśevaḥ |
mīḍhvām̐ asmākam babhūyāt || 2 ||
sa no dūrāc cāsāc ca ni martyād aghāyoḥ |
pāhi sadam id viśvāyuḥ || 3 ||
imam ū ṣu tvam asmākaṁ saniṁ gāyatraṁ navyāṁsam |
agne deveṣu pra vocaḥ || 4 ||
ā no bhaja parameṣv ā vājeṣu madhyameṣu |
śikṣā vasvo antamasya || 5 ||
vibhaktāsi citrabhāno sindhor ūrmā upāka ā |
sadyo dāśuṣe kṣarasi || 6 ||
yam agne pṛtsu martyam avā vājeṣu yaṁ junāḥ |
sa yantā śaśvatīr iṣaḥ || 7 ||
nakir asya sahantya paryetā kayasya cit |
vājo asti śravāyyaḥ || 8 ||
sa vājaṁ viśvacarṣaṇir arvadbhir astu tarutā |
viprebhir astu sanitā || 9 ||
jarābodha tad viviḍḍhi viśe-viśe yajñiyāya |
stomaṁ rudrāya dṛśīkam || 10 ||
sa no mahām̐ animāno dhūmaketuḥ puruścandraḥ |
dhiye vājāya hinvatu || 11 ||
sa revām̐ iva viśpatir daivyaḥ ketuḥ śṛṇotu naḥ |
ukthair agnir bṛhadbhānuḥ || 12 ||
namo mahadbhyo namo arbhakebhyo namo yuvabhyo nama āśinebhyaḥ |
yajāma devān yadi śaknavāma mā jyāyasaḥ śaṁsam ā vṛkṣi devāḥ || 13 ||
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).