Hymn to Agni Vaiśvānara
Rigveda I.59 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Agni, the divine fire, messenger between mortals and gods, the eternal priest of the sacred rite — here invoked specifically as Vaiśvānara, "belonging to all peoples." 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. Other fires, Agni, are indeed your branches; in you all the immortal gods take delight. Vaiśvānara, you are the navel of the settled peoples; like a post you have propped up and held the people together.
2. Agni is the head of heaven, the navel of earth; then he became the active herald of the two world-halves. The gods engendered you, that god, O Vaiśvānara, as light for the noble people.
3. As steadfast rays rest upon the sun, so treasures have been set in Agni Vaiśvānara. Whatever is in the mountains, in the plants, in the waters, whatever is among humans — of that you are king.
4. As the two vast world-halves are to a son, so I bring songs — like a skilled priest among men — many vigorous songs to him who holds heaven's light, of true power, to Vaiśvānara, most manly of all.
5. Your greatness, O Jātavedas, Vaiśvānara, surpasses even the vast heaven. You are king of the human peoples; by battle you have won open space for the gods.
6. Now let me proclaim the greatness of the bull, whom the Pūrus follow as the slayer of Vṛtra. Vaiśvānara Agni, having slain the Dasyu, shook the quarters of the earth and struck down Śambara.
7. Vaiśvānara, by his greatness known to all peoples, worshipful and radiant among the Bharadvājas — Agni, with his hundredfold bounties, for Śātavaneya, is praised, full of true generosity, for Puruṇītha.
Translator's note: verse 4 is syntactically compressed in the Sanskrit (no finite verb of offering is stated; "I bring" is supplied to complete the sense of the comparison). Verse 7 names two patrons, Śātavaneya and Puruṇītha, whose identities are known only from this and similar verses; "hundredfold bounties" renders "śatinībhiḥ" conservatively. "Dasyu" and "Śambara" in verse 6 are, respectively, a class of hostile beings and a named adversary defeated by Indra/Agni elsewhere in the Rigveda; both are left untranslated as proper terms.
Colophon
Rigveda I.59 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.59
vayā id agne agnayas te anye tve viśve amṛtā mādayante |
vaiśvānara nābhir asi kṣitīnāṁ sthūṇeva janām̐ upamid yayantha || 1 ||
mūrdhā divo nābhir agniḥ pṛthivyā athābhavad aratī rodasyoḥ |
taṁ tvā devāso 'janayanta devaṁ vaiśvānara jyotir id āryāya || 2 ||
ā sūrye na raśmayo dhruvāso vaiśvānare dadhire 'gnā vasūni |
yā parvateṣv oṣadhīṣv apsu yā mānuṣeṣv asi tasya rājā || 3 ||
bṛhatī iva sūnave rodasī giro hotā manuṣyo3 na dakṣaḥ |
svarvate satyaśuṣmāya pūrvīr vaiśvānarāya nṛtamāya yahvīḥ || 4 ||
divaś cit te bṛhato jātavedo vaiśvānara pra ririce mahitvam |
rājā kṛṣṭīnām asi mānuṣīṇāṁ yudhā devebhyo varivaś cakartha || 5 ||
pra nū mahitvaṁ vṛṣabhasya vocaṁ yam pūravo vṛtrahaṇaṁ sacante |
vaiśvānaro dasyum agnir jaghanvām̐ adhūnot kāṣṭhā ava śambaram bhet || 6 ||
vaiśvānaro mahimnā viśvakṛṣṭir bharadvājeṣu yajato vibhāvā |
śātavaneye śatinībhir agniḥ puruṇīthe jarate sūnṛtāvān || 7 ||
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).