Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.68 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. Blazing, he rose up toward heaven, the restless one; he threw open the nights of all that stands still and all that moves.
2. When he alone, among all these, became the god of gods, through his own greatness.
3. Then indeed all beings delighted in your power, O god, when you were born alive out of the dry wood.
4. All shared in the name of godhood, serving truth and order, by the paths of the immortal.
5. The impulse of truth, the thought of truth — all beings, full of life, carried out these works.
6. Whoever gives to you, or whoever seeks to serve you — to that one, knowing him well, grant wealth.
7. The offering-priest, seated among the offspring of Manu — he indeed is now the lord of these riches.
8. Desiring vigor for one another in their bodies, the undeceived ones came to know each other through their own skills.
9. Like sons delighting in a father's will, they delighted in his power — those swift ones who heeded his command.
10. He threw the doors wide open for wealth, he who abounds in food; the friend of the house adorned the vault of heaven with stars.
Translator's note: Verse 8 is compressed and its referent unclear from the verse alone — it may describe gods or priests coming into mutual accord through their ritual skill; rendered conservatively here. "damūnāḥ" (v. 10), translated "friend of the house," is a recurring epithet for Agni as guardian of the household hearth.
Colophon
Rigveda I.68 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.68
śrīṇann upa sthād divam bhuraṇyuḥ sthātuś caratham aktūn vy ūrṇot || 1 ||
pari yad eṣām eko viśveṣām bhuvad devo devānām mahitvā || 2 ||
ād it te viśve kratuṁ juṣanta śuṣkād yad deva jīvo janiṣṭhāḥ || 3 ||
bhajanta viśve devatvaṁ nāma ṛtaṁ sapanto amṛtam evaiḥ || 4 ||
ṛtasya preṣā ṛtasya dhītir viśvāyur viśve apāṁsi cakruḥ || 5 ||
yas tubhyaṁ dāśād yo vā te śikṣāt tasmai cikitvān rayiṁ dayasva || 6 ||
hotā niṣatto manor apatye sa cin nv āsām patī rayīṇām || 7 ||
icchanta reto mithas tanūṣu saṁ jānata svair dakṣair amūrāḥ || 8 ||
pitur na putrāḥ kratuṁ juṣanta śroṣan ye asya śāsaṁ turāsaḥ || 9 ||
vi rāya aurṇod duraḥ purukṣuḥ pipeśa nākaṁ stṛbhir damūnāḥ || 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).