Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.60 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. Mātariśvā carried the glorious carrier, banner of the sacrificial assembly, ever ready to help, a messenger of immediate purpose, the twice-born one, praised like wealth—carried him as a gift to Bhṛgu.
2. Both kinds follow his command: those who bear oblations, the eager priests, and those who are mortals. Older than heaven itself, the Hotṛ-priest was seated down, worthy to be consulted, lord of the clans, the ordainer among the people.
3. May our freshest praise, born from the heart, reach him, the honey-tongued one—whom the human priests in the sacred enclosure, offering their oblations, the sons of Āyu, have brought to birth again and again.
4. The eager, purifying, good one, excellent among men, has been set as Hotṛ-priest among the clans. As friend of the house, lord of the house, within the house, Agni has become lord of riches, of riches.
5. You, O Agni, lord of riches, we the Gotamas proclaim with our hymns, grooming you as one grooms a swift, prize-bringing horse. May he, rich in insight, come quickly at dawn.
Translator's note: "dvijanmānam" (v.1, "twice-born") refers to Agni's two births — from the fire-drill wood and from lightning in the sky — a standard epithet, not elaborated further in this hymn. "vājambharam" (v.5) literally "prize/strength-bringing" is rendered as part of the horse-grooming image, since Agni is compared to a swift horse being groomed for a race or journey.
Colophon
Rigveda I.60 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.60
vahniṁ yaśasaṁ vidathasya ketuṁ suprāvyaṁ dūtaṁ sadyoartham |
dvijanmānaṁ rayim iva praśastaṁ rātim bharad bhṛgave mātariśvā || 1 ||
asya śāsur ubhayāsaḥ sacante haviṣmanta uśijo ye ca martāḥ |
divaś cit pūrvo ny asādi hotāpṛcchyo viśpatir vikṣu vedhāḥ || 2 ||
taṁ navyasī hṛda ā jāyamānam asmat sukīrtir madhujihvam aśyāḥ |
yam ṛtvijo vṛjane mānuṣāsaḥ prayasvanta āyavo jījananta || 3 ||
uśik pāvako vasur mānuṣeṣu vareṇyo hotādhāyi vikṣu |
damūnā gṛhapatir dama ām̐ agnir bhuvad rayipatī rayīṇām || 4 ||
taṁ tvā vayam patim agne rayīṇām pra śaṁsāmo matibhir gotamāsaḥ |
āśuṁ na vājambharam marjayantaḥ prātar makṣū dhiyāvasur jagamyāt || 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).