Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.65 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 thief creeping in hiding with stolen cattle — harnessing homage, carrying homage.
2. The wise, of one accord, followed after his footprints; all the worshipful ones sat down near you.
3. The gods followed the ordinances of ṛta, the cosmic order; there came to be a surrounding presence, as heaven is for the earth.
4. The waters make the well-formed child grow, wondrous, well-born in the womb, in the birthplace of ṛta.
5. Delightful like nourishment, a dwelling-place like the wide earth, a refuge like a mountain, beneficial like a flowing stream.
6. Like a racehorse on the course, launched into his running; like the flood of a river — who could hold him back?
7. Kin of the rivers, like a brother among sisters; like a king among the wealthy, he devours the woods.
8. When, driven by the wind, he spread out through the woods, Agni indeed shears the hair of the earth.
9. He hisses, like a swan settling on the waters; most perceptive in his purpose, the one who wakes the clans at dawn.
10. Like Soma, the ordainer, born of ṛta; like the young of an animal, far-reaching, wide-shining.
Translator's note: this hymn (Parāśara Śāktya's cycle, RV I.65–73) speaks of Agni entirely through riddling similes rather than direct address — a thief, a child, a racehorse, a river, a king, a swan — without ever naming him until verse 8. A few words resist certainty: "panvā" (4) is rendered conservatively as "wondrous"; "bhujma" (5) as "refuge," a place of shelter or enjoyment; "dāti" (8) as "shears," from the sense "to cut, to mow." These are honest best readings, not settled certainties.
Colophon
Rigveda I.65 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.65
paśvā na tāyuṁ guhā catantaṁ namo yujānaṁ namo vahantam || 1 ||
sajoṣā dhīrāḥ padair anu gmann upa tvā sīdan viśve yajatrāḥ || 2 ||
ṛtasya devā anu vratā gur bhuvat pariṣṭir dyaur na bhūma || 3 ||
vardhantīm āpaḥ panvā suśiśvim ṛtasya yonā garbhe sujātam || 4 ||
puṣṭir na raṇvā kṣitir na pṛthvī girir na bhujma kṣodo na śambhu || 5 ||
atyo nājman sargaprataktaḥ sindhur na kṣodaḥ ka īṁ varāte || 6 ||
jāmiḥ sindhūnām bhrāteva svasrām ibhyān na rājā vanāny atti || 7 ||
yad vātajūto vanā vy asthād agnir ha dāti romā pṛthivyāḥ || 8 ||
śvasity apsu haṁso na sīdan kratvā cetiṣṭho viśām uṣarbhut || 9 ||
somo na vedhā ṛtaprajātaḥ paśur na śiśvā vibhur dūrebhāḥ || 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).